Family

In May 1856, Verne traveled to Amiens to be the best man at the wedding of a Nantes friend, Auguste Lelarge, to an Amiens woman named Aimée du Fraysse de Viane. Verne, invited to stay with the bride's family, took to them warmly, befriending the entire household and finding himself increasingly attracted to the bride's sister, Honorine de Viane Morel, a widow aged 26 with two young children. Hoping to find a secure source of income, as well as a chance to court Morel in earnest, he jumped at her brother's offer to go into business with a brokerage.

Literary debut

Thanks to his visits to salons, Verne came into contact in 1849 with Alexandre Dumas through the mutual acquaintance of a celebrated chirologist of the time, the Chevalier d'Arpentigny. Verne became close friends with Dumas' son, Alexandre Dumas, fils, and showed him a manuscript for a stage comedy, Les Pailles rompues (The Broken Straws). The two young men revised the play together, and Dumas, through arrangements with his father, had it produced by the Opéra-National at the Théâtre Historique in Paris, opening on 12 June 1850.

Cover of an 1854–55 issue of Musée des familles

In 1851, Verne met with a fellow writer from Nantes, Pierre-Michel-François Chevalier (known as "Pitre-Chevalier"), the editor-in-chief of the magazine Musée des familles (The Family Museum).

Studies in Paris

In July 1848, Verne left Nantes again for Paris, where his father intended him to finish law studies and take up law as a profession.
He obtained permission from his father to rent a furnished apartment at 24 Rue de l'Ancienne-Comédie, which he shared with
Édouard Bonamy, another student of Nantes origin.

Filmography

2014 Les Naufragés du Fol Espoir (novel)

2014 Lolita from Interstellar Space (TV Movie) (based on the classic tale by)

2013 Jûgo shônen hyôryûki: Kaizokujima DE! daibôken (novel)

2013 Apo ti Gi sti Selini (novel "Le voyage dans la Lune")

2012 Путешествие 2: Таинственный остров (novel)

A Writing Career Begins

While he tended to his studies, Jules Verne found himself attracted to literature and the theater. He began frequenting Paris' famed literary salons, and befriended a group of artists and writers that included Alexandre Dumas and his son.

Later Years, Death and Posthumous Works

Although he was enjoying immense professional success by the 1870s, Jules Verne began experiencing more strife in his personal life. He sent his rebellious son to a reformatory in 1876, and a few years later Michel caused more trouble through his relations with a minor. In 1886, Verne was shot in the leg by his nephew Gaston, leaving him with a limp for the rest of his life. His longtime publisher and collaborator Hetzel died a week later, and the following year his mother passed away as well.

Verne Hits His Stride

In 1864, Hetzel published The Adventures of Captain Hatteras (Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras) and Journey to the Center of the Earth (Voyage au centre de la Terre). That same year, Paris in the Twentieth Century (Paris au XXe siècle) was rejected for publication, but in 1865 Verne was back in print with From the Earth to the Moon (De la Terre à la Lune) and In Search of the Castaways (Les Enfants du capitaine Grant).

Early life

Jules Gabriel Verne was born on 8 February 1828, on Île Feydeau, a small artificial island on the Loire River within the town of Nantes, in No. 4 Rue de Clisson, the house of his maternal grandmother Dame Sophie Allotte de la Fuÿe. His parents were Pierre Verne, an attorney originally from Provins, and Sophie Allote de la Fuÿe, a Nantes woman from a local family of navigators and shipowners, of distant Scottish descent.