Jules Gabriel Verne (1828–1905) was a French author who is
regarded as the father of science fiction. He wrote about air, sea and
space travels and inventions that were way ahead of his times. His
imaginary lands, wondrous machines and strange creatures provided
the blueprint for all modern science fiction that was to follow. He is
best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
(1870), A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), and Around
the World in Eighty Days (1873). He is the second-most translated
author in the world and his books have been made into big ticket
feature films, comic books and animations. He has written all of 55
novels which are a part of the grand Extraordinary Voyages collection
which aimed ‘to outline all the geographical, geological, physical,
and astronomical knowledge amassed by modern science and to
recount, in an entertaining and picturesque format ... the history of
the universe.’