Jules Gabriel Verne was born in Nantes in 1828, the son of a successful lawyer. He always had a love of the unknown and, as a child, he ran away from home hoping to become a cabin boy. This adventure didn’t succeed and Jules was returned to his parents. He was then sent to law school but instead he wanted to become a writer.
His first novel, Five Weeks in a Balloon, was published in 1863 and he went on to write many more adventure stories including Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Mysterious Island and Around the World in Eighty Days. He died in 1905 at the age of 77 and has become one of the greatest influences on later works of science fiction.
Have you read Jules Verne's science fiction and adventure novels? Test your knowledge of his life and works in this quiz.