The Exploration of the World

In this chief of his works, Jules Verne has set himself to tell the story of all the most stirring adventures of which we have any written record - to give the history, 'from the time of Hanno and Herodotus down to that of Livingstone and Stanley, ' of those voyages of exploration and discovery which are among the most thrilling episodes in the history of human enterprise. In short, Jules Verne has chosen for his most important book the only subject which he could make surpass his own vivid and realistic stories in absorbing interest; to the treatment of such material he brings all the dash and vivid picturesqueness of his own creations, and it may be imagined that he makes a book worth reading.The plan of the work is so valuable that it is a matter for surprise, that such a history has never been undertaken before. To trace connectedly the progress of discovery as Jules Verne does, from the time when the world was a very small circle indeed, surrounded by the densest of outer darkness, and when the Carthagenian navigators ventured timidly out of the Mediterranean - is to gain an altogether new idea of the daring and skill that has been expended in this one direction. It is a worthy subject for the most ambitious work of such a writer. Verne obtained all information for the book from the original documents.Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who helped pioneer the science-fiction genre. He is best known for novels such as A Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Verne is often referred to as the "Father of science fiction" as he wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before navigable aircraft and practical submarines were invented, and before any means of space travel had been devised.In 1857 he met Pierre-Jules Hetzel, one of the most important French publishers of the 19th century. Hetzel's advice improved Verne's writings, which until then had been rejected by other publishers. Hetzel read a draft of Verne's story about the balloon exploration of Africa, which had previously been rejected on the grounds that it was "too scientific". With Hetzel's help, he rewrote the story and in 1863 it was published in book form as Five Weeks in a Balloon (Cinq semaines en ballon). Acting on Hetzel's advice, Verne added comical accents to his novels, changed sad endings into happy ones, and toned down various political messages.From that point on, and for nearly a quarter of a century, scarcely a year passed in which Hetzel did not publish one or more of his stories. In 1888, he entered politics and was elected town councillor of Amiens where he championed several improvements and served for 15 years. In 1905, while ill with diabetes, Verne died at his home