Jules Verne – Quiz

During their journey, Phileas Fogg and Passpartout never used a hot air balloon. Many first time readers are surprised to learn this fact, especially since several editions of "Around the World in Eighty Days" show a large balloon on the front cover.

Jules Verne owned a total of three yachts during his life time. He bought his first one in 1868, when he was forty years old, and named it Saint Michael after his only son. The next two yachts were called Saint Michael II and Saint Michael III.

True. In 1884, Jules Verne traveled to Italy and Pope Leo XIII personally blessed his work.

In 1867, Jules Verne traveled to New York with his younger brother, Paul, aboard British steamship The Great Eastern. According to Verne's friend Adrien Marx, Jules Verne "accomplished his voyage in ninety-six days. On reaching New York, he did not saunter about Broadway, looking in shop-windows, but took the railway and went six hundred leagues to see Niagara Falls, of which he cannot yet [ten years later] speak without emotion."

Jules Verne suffered from facial paralysis due to inflammation of the middle ear, had a limp after being shot in the leg by his favorite but mentally deranged nephew, and died of complications from diabetes. There are no records of him having fractured any bones during boating accidents.

Although he was studying in Paris for his law degree, Jules Verne wanted to become a writer and, early in his career, briefly collaborated with Alexandre Dumas (both the father and the son) and Michel Carre. He never worked with H.G.Wells.

False. Jules Verne believed the inventions in his books were possible based on the laws of physics and the technology known at the time. When asked about H.G.Wells's stories, Verne called their inventions either impossible, either belonging to a future far removed from his present. In his own eyes, Jules Verne was a writer of science-possible whereas H.G.Wells was a writer of science-fiction.

Jules Verne studied to become an attorney (at his father's request), wrote poems and plays early in his career, and even worked as a stockbroker to support himself and his wife. He never worked at the Louvre.

Captain Nemo. That line was part of his answer to Professor Aronnax on why Nautilus had stranded. In Captain's Nemo words, the accident resulted "from a caprice of nature, not from the ignorance of man." He went on, saying, "Not a mistake has been made in the working, but we cannot prevent equilibrium from producing its effects. We may brave human laws but we cannot resist natural ones."

False. Jules Verne is the second most translated author in the world, behind Agatha Christie and ahead of William Shakespeare.