Around the World in Eighty Days

Jules Verne (1828-1905) was a French novelist from the Victorian era best known for his genre fiction. He attended university in France, where he obtained a degree in law while reading and writing prolifically for the theatre and magazines. Around the World in Eighty Days, published in 1872, is the best-known and final installment in a series of best-selling adventure books known as the Voyages Extraordinaires, or Extraordinary Voyages, series, which also includes Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870).

Verne was also a well-known poet and playwright during his lifetime. Around the World in Eighty Days was adapted for stage and became very successful. To Verne’s dismay and disappointment, however, his popular success in the theater and the adaptation of his works into abridged collections for children gradually diminished his literary reception. He received a critical reception in France and most of Europe, building a reputation as an avant-garde and surrealist author. Outside of those areas, though, he was more often considered a popular children’s fiction author.

Vern frequented literary salons in France during the 1850s, writing several plays while also obtaining a law degree. He was heavily influenced by the grotesque