20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Born on February 8, 1828, Jules Verne had spent most of his child hood in the small, seafaring town of Nantes, France. He was the son of a wealthy provincial lawyer, Pierre Verne and Sophie Allote de la Fuÿe, a local woman from generations with maritime history and Scottish ancestry. In 1829, the Verne family relocated to Quai Jean-Bart. In the same year, Verne's brother Paul was born. Following his brother would be three more sisters, Anna, Mathilde, and Maria in 1836, 1839, and 1842, chronologically.

Through most of his childhood, Verne had repeatedly dreamed on endeavoring on great adventures on the high seas. His early life was marked with one unfortunate occasion, he had climbed out of his window of his house and ran down to the harbor to switch places with a less-eager cabin boy on the ship Corallie which would voyage out to sea for a three-year expedition. The witty young boy was caught by his father moments before the ship had left. The embarrassment of his daring escapade results in Verne promising to travel only in his imagination. This was a momentous event that had marked the beginning of his literary career(“Evans”).

As the son of a lawyer, Verne was expected to follow in his father’s profession and study law in Paris. Verne received his education in 1847 when he was sent to Lycée Georges Clemceau, a secondary school to study law. He later received his degree to practice law in 1850, he did not plan to continue because he was secretly planning a literary career. Later in the year, Verne had produced his first play, Broken Straws, with fair success. Following his first production, in 1852 to 1855, the aspiring writer held an ill-paid position as a secretary of the Théâtre Lyrique, in Paris. As he worked, he g...

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Shmoop Editorial Team. "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Themes." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. .

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Shmoop Editorial Team. "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 10 Apr. 2014

“Jules Verne” Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2nd ed. Vol. 15. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 467-469. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 8 Jan. 2014.

"Verne, Jules." UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Apr. 2014 .