Verne initially studied law in Paris, but gave this up for a career in writing. He published his first play in 1850, The Broken Straws (Les Pailles rompues) and for the years 1852 to 1854, he was the secretary of the Theatre Lyrique in Paris. His first major novel, Five Weeks in a Balloon, appeared in 1863 and achieved immediate success. Known as his Voyages Extraordinaire, he published A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), From the Earth to the Moon (1865), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and The Mysterious Island (1874). His most successful and popular work was Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). Verne, through the use of popular science mixed with adventure, foresaw many developments in his work including the submarine, television, space travel, sonar and the aqualung. Verne was made a member of the Legion d'Honneur in 1892. |
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