Works by
Jules Verne
(Writer)

 

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• Five Weeks In a Balloon (Cinq Semaines en ballon) (1863)
  The doctor's voice could scarcely be heard by his companions; but they could see his countenance calm as ever even amid the flashing of the lightnings; he was watching the phenomena of phosphorescence produced by the fires of St. Elmo, that were now skipping to and fro along the network of the balloon.

• Paris in the 20th Century (Paris Au Xxe Siecle) (1863)

• Journey to the Center of the Earth (Voyage Au Centre De La Terre ) (1864)
  This high-tension odyssey follows three men in an awesome search for the mysterious center of the earth-as they risk their chances of ever returning to the surface alive.

• From The Earth To The Moon (De la terre à la lune) (1865)
  During the War of the Rebellion, a new and influential club was established in the city of Baltimore in the State of Maryland. It is well known with what energy the taste for military matters became developed among that nation of ship-owners, shopkeepers, and mechanics. Simple tradesmen jumped their counters to become extemporized captains, colonels, and generals, without having ever passed the School of Instruction at West Point; nevertheless; they quickly rivaled their compeers of the old continent, and, like them, carried off victories by dint of lavish expenditure in ammunition, money, and men.

• Journeys and Adventures of Captain Hatteras (Voyages et Aventures du Capitaine Hatteras) (1866)

• In Search Of The Castaways Or The Children Of Captain Grant's Children or Captain Grant's Children (Les Enfants du capitaine Grant) (1867-1868)
  ALL that could be discovered, however, on these pieces of paper was a few words here and there, the remainder of the lines being almost completely obliterated by the action of the water. Lord Glenarvan examined them attentively for a few minutes, turning them over on all sides, holding them up to the light, and trying to decipher the least scrap of writing, while the others looked on with anxious eyes.

• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Vingt Mille Lieues Sous Les Mers) (1870)

• Around the Moon (Autour de la lune, a sequel to From The Earth To The Moon (1870)

• A Floating City (Une ville flottante) (1871)
  A Floating City, published in 1871, enjoyed a popularity almost equal to that of Round the World in Eighty Days. The "Floating City" was the direct result of the trip which the author actually made to America in 1867, on the largest iron ship ever built. He gives us a faithful picture of the natural and usual incidents of an ocean voyage of those days, enlivening these by introducing a romance aboard ship. The pictures of the "Great Eastern," are of course exaggerated, not so much in words themselves as in the impressions they convey. But the pictures of New York and of Niagara are the genuine imprint made upon the great writer by his visit.

• Dr. Ox's Experiment: Drama in the Air (Une Fantaisie Du Docteur Ox) (1872)

• The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Afrida (Aventures de trois Russes et de trois Anglais) (1872)

• The Fur Country: Seventy Degrees North (Le Pays des Fourrures) (1873)
  On the evening of the 17th March 1859, Captain Craventy gave a fête at Fort Reliance. Our readers must not at once imagine a grand entertainment, such as a court ball, or a musical soirée with a fine orchestra. Captain Craventy’s reception was a very simple affair, yet he had spared no pains to give it éclat.

• Around the World in Eighty Days (Le tour du monde en quatre-vingt jours) (1873)
  On the evening of the 17th March 1859, Captain Craventy gave a fête at Fort Reliance. Our readers must not at once imagine a grand entertainment, such as a court ball, or a musical soirée with a fine orchestra. Captain Craventy’s reception was a very simple affair, yet he had spared no pains to give it éclat.

• The Survivors of the Chancellor (Le Chancellor) (1875)
  Mr. Kazallon thought that booking passage on a cargo ship from Charleston to Liverpool would be a charming way to return to his English homeland. If only he knew!
  
  A crazed sea captain, a disaster in the hold, storms, oppressive heat, sharks and starvation are just some of the many travails that will beset both passengers and crew. Will any of them survive the wreck of the Chancellor?

• The Mysterious Island (L'île mystérieuse) (1875)
  The night passed in the midst of dangers that would have proved fatal to souls less courageous; and with the coming of day the hurricane showed signs of abatement.

• The Blockade Runners (1876)
  However, the best informed, at least those who pretended to be so, agreed in saying that the steamer was going to take part in the terrible war which was then ravaging the United States of America, but more than this they did not know, and whether the Dolphin was a privateer, a transport ship, or an addition to the Federal marine was what no one could tell.

• Michael Strogoff: A Courier of the Czar (Michel Strogoff) (1876)
  In this 1876 "Mission Impossible" tale of intrigue set in Russia, a traitor has inspired the fierce Feofar Khan to invade Siberia and foment a rebellion. A sinister plot to assassinate the Czar's brother, the Grand Duke, is discovered but all telegraph lines have been cut.
  
  Only one of the Czar's courier's is qualified to handle the dangerous and arduous mission to warn the Siberian Governor General of the impending invasion... Michael Strogoff.

• Off On A Comet Or Hector Servadac (1877)
  Composed of mud and loose stones, and covered with a thatch of turf and straw, known to the natives by the name of "driss," the gourbi, though a grade better than the tents of the nomad Arabs, was yet far inferior to any habitation built of brick or stone. It adjoined an old stone hostelry, previously occupied by a detachment of engineers.

• The Child of the Cavern (Les Indes noires) (1877)
  Also known as Black Diamonds, The Black Indies, The Child of the Cavery, or The Underground City
  A dark tale about a fantastic city of people living 1,500 feet below the surface of Scotland in the tunnels of a coal mine. But an evil force could threaten this underground world and the people that inhabit it.

• Dick Sands: A Captain At Fifteen (Un Capitaine de quinze ans) (1878)
  In 1878 appeared Dick Sands, the epic of the slave trade. This picture of the wilds of Africa, its adventures and its dangers, the savage hunting both of beasts and men, has always been a favorite among Verne’s readers. It contains no marvels, no inventions, but merely, amid stirring scenes and actions seeks to convey two truthful impressions. One is the traveler’s teaching the geographical information, the picture of Africa as explorers, botanists, and zoologists have found it. The other is the moral lesson of the awful curse of slavery, its brutalizing, horrible influence upon all who come in touch with it, and the absolutely devastating effect it has had upon Africa itself.

• The Begum's Millions (Les Cinq Cents Millions De La Bégum ) (1879)
  When two European scientists unexpectedly inherit an Indian rajah's fortune, each builds an experimental city of his dreams in the wilds of the American Northwest. France-Ville is a harmonious urban community devoted to health and hygiene, the specialty of its French founder, Dr. Francois Sarrasin. Stahlstadt, or City of Steel, is a fortress-like factory town devoted to the manufacture of high-tech weapons of war. Its German creator, the fanatically pro-Aryan Herr Schultze, is Verne's first truly evil scientist. In his quest for world domination and racial supremacy, Schultze decides to showcase his deadly wares by destroying France-Ville and all its inhabitants. Both prescient and cautionary, The Begum's Millions is a masterpiece of scientific and political speculation and constitutes one of the earliest technological utopia/dystopias in Western literature. This Wesleyan edition features notes, appendices, and a critical introduction as well as all the illustrations from the original French edition.

• The Steam House (La Maison à vapeur) (1879)
  Part One (Demon of Cawnpore),  Part Two (Tigers and Traitors)

• The Tribulations of a Chinaman in China (Les tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine) (1879)
  Kin-Fo, a well to do Chinese man living in Shang-Hai, is accused by his good friend Wang of not having had any discomforts in his life that would make him appreciate true happiness. When Kin-Fo, receives news that his fortune is lost, he arranges for an insurance policy to be taken out on his life that would cover his death, even by suicide; which he is planning on committing. When Kin-Fo can't bring himself to end his own life, he contracts Wang to do it, by even giving him a letter that will exonerate him of the deed. Then Wang disappears and then Kin-Fo feels much discomfort, especially when he is informed that his fortunes are not lost. He travels around China, hoping to avoid being murdered before the contract expires. His discomfort increases when a note from Wang arrives saying that he regrets not being able to fulfill the contract, so he has turned it over to his old friend Lao-Shen, a notorious character.

• Eight Hundred Leagues On The Amazon (La Jangada) (1881)
  "Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon" (sometimes split into two volumes, "The Giant Raft" and "The Cryptogram") tells of a blackmail victim forced on trip down the Amazon to clear his good name. Filled with detailed descriptions of strange lands, animals, plants, and people, it remains a rare volume of Verne's adventure stories.

• The Green Ray (Le Rayon Vert) (1882)
  When the Morning Post writes about the legendary Green Ray's elevating effects on the mind and soul, Helena Campbell vows to experience it for herself, postponing the wedding being forced upon her against her will. Together with her uncles, Sam and Sib Melville, she sets off on what becomes a near-epic quest. Joining them in the search are two would-be suitors for Helena, one an artist, the other an amateur scientist. Together, they will voyage to a distant shore--and beyond--braving hurricanes, testing their patience and resolve, and ultimately finding their own true selves.

• The Headstrong Turk (1883)

• The Vanished Diamond (L’Étoile du sud) (1884)
  Victor Cyprien, a French engineer currently living in the "Diamond Fields" of Griqualand, South Africa desires to marry the beautiful daughter of Mr. Watkins, a man who holds claims to the land that are the "Diamond Fields." Watkins has other plans for his daughter, which includes her staying in South Africa and marrying one of the wealthier diamond miners. To put himself in a better position to win the hand of Alice, Victor buys a share and begins working his own claim. However, Alice convinces him to return to chemistry and pursue his theory that he can synthesize a diamond. The experiment appears to work as a 243-carat diamond is created and named "The Star of the South," which he gives to Alice. When the diamond is stolen, Cyprien and three other potential suitors for the hand of Alice, travel across South Africa in pursuit of the suspected culprit.

• The Archipelago on Fire (L’Archipel en feu) (1884)

• Mathias Sandorf (1885)

• Robur the Conqueror or Clipper of the Clouds (Robur le Conquerant) (1886)
  Strange events are occurring around the world, involving lights, sounds and flags that are hung in seemingly impossible to get to locations. At the meeting of the Weldon Club in Philadelphia, Uncle Prudent (President) and Phil Evans (Secretary) and the membership debate about whether their balloon the Go-Ahead, should have its directional screw located in the front or the back. A man called Robur interrupts and takes over their meeting; he insists that to master the skies, a flying vehicle must be heavier than air. His remarks infuriate the balloonists and after their meeting, Uncle Prudent and Phil are kidnapped and taken on an around the world trip in the Albatross, Robur's heavier than air "Clipper of the Clouds".

• Ticket No. "9672" (Un Billet de loterie) (1886)

• North against South: A Tale of the American Civil War (Nord contre Sud) (1887)
  Abolitionist James Burbank's farm is ransacked by an angry mob led by Texar, a former slaver, and a man who always has an airtight alibi whenever he is accused of crimes.

• Flight to France (Le Chemin de France) (1887)

• A Family Without a Name (mille sans nom) (1888)
  Two sons of an infamous French Canadian traitor, fight for the revolution during the 1837-38 Revolt of the "Patriots" in an effort to make up for their father's crime. Sometimes unfaithful to historical facts in this major historical novel, Verne, a liberal ideologist, considers with favor the major national uprisings of the 19th century, although he also dreams of a Québec freely associated with the great American Republic.
  
  There is a fundamental mistake in dividing Verne's works into science fiction vs. non-science fiction --in Verne's work there is an all-encompassing vision of science, progress, society and political struggles, which it is not convenient to compartmentalize. 

• A Two Years' Vacation (Deux ans de vacances) (1888)

• Topsy Turvy (1890)

• The Castle of the Carpathians (Le château des Carpathes) (1892)
  The descriptions of the quaint villagers of Werst, their costumes, manner of living, and belief in the supernatural world would in themselves prove an interesting narrative, but when coupled with the exciting adventures of Nic Deck, the two Counts, the cowardly Doctor, and the beautiful La Stilla, the story is undoubtedly one of the most enchanting ever offered.
  
  This mysterious tale takes place in the area which in just a few years would become known as Dracula's homeland. Jules Verne has the knack of it. He knows how to make the scientifically romantic story. You might not know what a "nyctalop" was, but if you saw one flapping his wings around the dark fortress in the Carpathians, you would run for it, as did Nic Deck.. Orfanik is head conjurer, and in his trial he explains how he brought into play for a wicked purpose a variety of ingenious inventions.

• Propeller Island (L’Île à hélice) (1895)

• The Purchase of the North Pole (Sans dessus dessous) (1895)
  Little known sequel to the "From the Earth to the Moon" and "Round the Moon" series. It was published in 1889. Here is Verne's super science at its height. Man attempts to melt the poles, cool the tropics and make a paradise on earth. "

• Facing The Flag (Face au Drapeau) (1896)
  Super-weapon, imaginary warfare, submarines and sub-ocean hideaway -one of the best of Jules Verne's later novels. The great pirate Ker Karraje kidnaps Thomas Roch, a great French inventor. It is Karraje's plan that Roch build for him the ultimate weapon "The Roch Fulgurator" -a diabolical engine of war that in its explosive effects surpasses anything in this direction conceived by mortal man. Guided missiles and atomic style bombs fall into the pirate's possession -based in Bermuda- threatening Atlantic shipping and the U. S.'s eastern seaboard.

• An Antarctic Mystery Or, the Sphinx of the Ice Fields (Le Sphinx des Glaces) (1897)
  During his twilight years, the French author Jules Verne (1828-1905) wrote two original sequels to books that had fired his own youthful imagination but which he felt to be incomplete: Johann Wyss's Swiss Family Robinson and Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Arthur Gordon Pym (1845) was only one of many Poe stories which Verne admired; no other single author had more impact on his writing. Verne acknowledged this debt in his only major piece of literary criticism, a detailed 1864 article entitled "Edgard [sic] Poe and His Work." Poe (1809-1849) was just emerging on the French literary scene in translation as Verne was writing his first plays and short stories. Verne was familiar with a broad range of Poe's works, the well-remembered stories as well as many that are obscure today. What is to be admired in Poe, Verne wrote, "are the novelties of his situations, the discussion of little-known facts, the observations of the unhealthy faculties of Mankind, the choice of subject-matter, the ever-strange personality of his characters, their nervous, sickly temperaments, their ways of expressing themselves by bizarre interjections. And yet, among all these improbabilities, exists at times a verisimilitude that grips the credulity of the reader."

• The Mighty Orinoco (Le Superbe Orénoque) (1898)
  The Mighty Orinoco, Jules Verne's novel of scientific adventure along Venezuela's Orinoco River, appears in its first English translation, along with an introduction and notes by Walter James Miller. Translated by Stanford L. Luce and edited by Arthur B. Evans, the text includes all the illustrations from the original French edition.

• Village in the Treetops (Le Village aérien) (1901)

• The Master Of The World (Maître du Monde) (1904)
  Sequel to Robur the Conqueror

• Invasion of the Sea (L’Invasion de la mer) (1904)
  Instead of linking two seas, as existing canals (the Suez and the Panama) did, Verne proposed a canal that would create a sea in the heart of the Sahara Desert. The story raises a host of concerns -- environmental, cultural, and political. The proposed sea threatens the nomadic way of life of those Islamic tribes living on the site, and they declare war. The ensuing struggle is finally resolved only by a cataclysmic natural event. This Wesleyan edition features notes, appendices and an introduction by Verne scholar Arthur B. Evans, as well as reproductions of the illustrations from the original French edition.

• Drama in Livonia (Un Drame en Livonie) (1904)

• The Lighthouse at the End of the World (Le Phare du Bout du Monde ) (1905)
  In “The Lighthouse at the End of the World,” Jules Verne is seen at his simplest and best. No antecedent improbability here has to be made good. The remoteness of the scene where the drama is laid supplies an element of dread of which advantage is skillfully taken, and the shortness of the period over which the story is extended adds excitement to the race against time which the villains of the piece are compelled to make in their attempt to escape justice. The rest is pure action, courage and resourcefulness pitted against ferocity and power of numbers, with no merely invented complications to retard the issue. As a simple adventure story “The lighthouse at the End of the World” must be declared a little masterpiece.

• The Chase of the Golden Meteor (La Chasse au météore) (1908)

• The Danube Pilot (Le Pilote du Danube) (1908)

• The Survivors of the 'Jonathan' (Le Naufrages du Jonathan) (1909)
  See Unwilling Dictator