Feb 08 2009
Jules Verne: The King Of Science Fiction
Every once in a while you’ll hear the expression “Fact is Stranger than Fiction”. Perhaps these days it would be more apropos to say that fact has caught up with fiction. Jules Verne, who was born in 1828 on this day, was the master of science fiction in the 19th Century. You might say he invented the genre.
Verne wrote about traveling around the world in eighty days at a time when it took settlers in Conestoga wagons 5-6 months to span half of North America. He wrote about navigating the bottom of the sea during an era when it was considered remarkable that a Confederate submersible was able to sneak up on and sink a Union sloop-of-war anchored 5 miles away from its launch point.
Of course, now his writings seem more like predictions than fiction. May be he was psychic.
Speaking of which, NASA provided Verne a fine birthday remembrance on February 8, 1974 when three astronauts manning the Skylab 3 space mission safely returned to earth after spending 84 days in orbit.
Oh how I love Verne.
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea was the first big book I read when I was 11. I loved it, and to this day it still holds a certain fondness. As soon as I finished that one, I read Around The World in 80 days, and was just as enamored with it. Oddly enough though, Journey To The Center Of The Earth never impressed me as much. But Rick Wakeman’s rock opera based on the book is amazing! 
remarkable.
Thanks Erica and mrschadt for stopping by and commenting.
My favorites were Journey to the Center of the Earth and Mysterious Island. The movies hooked me and then I got into his books.