Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

An early science fiction novel written by the second most translated author, French writer Jules Verne, the classic tale depicts an incredible sea expedition on board a state-of-the-art submarine. First published in 1870 and a part of the Voyages Extraordinaires series, the novel is regarded as one of the most thrilling adventure stories and one of Verne’s greatest pieces of work. Immersed in themes of exploration, avant-garde technology, and man’s insatiable desire for knowledge and scientific progression, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea has been an influence for many writers as well as an inspiration for numerous film adaptations.

The novel kicks off when rumor...

Around the World in Eighty Days
Jules Verne is the master of classic adventure tales. Around the World in Eighty Days is just more proof that his excellent writing skills put the readers right in the book with Phileas Fogg and Passepartout. Because of a bet by his friends, Phileas sets out to get all the way around the world in eighty days.

Phileas is a rich man, but also very precise about his life. He wants everything done the way he likes and will get rid of anyone who does not do that. The wager starts when he is at a local club and begins an argument about whether a person could get all the way around the world in such a short period of time. He believes he can because a new railroad has been opened in I...

The Mysterious Island
The Mysterious Island is another exquisite novel written by the master of adventure writing, Jules Verne. The novel has been seen as the sequel to two other famous novels written by the same author: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and In Search of the Castaway.

The story revolves around five Americans who live in a dark and harsh environment as prisoners of the American Civil War. Depleted by famine and death all around them, the five war prisoners take a big risk and escape by hijacking a hot air balloon. The five fugitives, an engineer, a servant, a former slave, a sailor and a journalist have to face an ugly and destroying storm, crashing on a mysteriou...

A Journey to the Interior of the Earth

A historical manuscript penned by a medieval Norse poet. A mysterious code. Three intrepid explorers. A subterranean world filled with prehistoric creatures and proto-humans. These are some of the brilliant ideas that are superbly blended in A Journey to the Interior of the Earth by Jules Verne.

Jules Verne, the French writer who created several works of science fiction, adventure stories and very popular novels, wrote A Journey to the Interior of the Earth in 1864. Some of his other books explore different aspects of geography, space and time travel. Known as the “Father of Science Fiction” Verne's books have retained their freshness and appeal though many of t...

Round the Moon: A Sequel to From the Earth to the Moon

Part of the Voyages Extraordinaires series by French novelist Jules Verne, and also a sequel to his classic science fiction novel From the Earth to the Moon, Round the Moon presents the continuation of the gripping tale which ended with a cliffhanger and left readers to ponder over endless possibilities. Published in 1870, the novel presents an unprecedented journey into space, while focusing on space navigation, scientific calculations, unforeseen circumstances and dangerous encounters, which in turn mark the novel as prophetic of its time.

The novel launches with the reappearance of the distinct trio and first space travelers, Barbicane, Nicholl and Ardan, who...

From the Earth to the Moon

One of the earliest examples of literature written in the science fiction genre, From the Earth to the Moon is a part of the Voyages Extraordinaires series by French novelist Jules Verne. Written more than a century before the Apollo mission, Verne’s classic is somewhat a prophetic novel of man’s travel to the moon with its thorough and descriptive detail. A remarkable blend of action, humor, science, and audacious schemes, the timeless classic is sure to fascinate with its unique vision of lunar exploration.

The story unfolds at the Baltimore Gun Club, a society of American Civil War veterans and weapon enthusiasts, who are in the midst of adjusting to a post-war envi...

An Antarctic Mystery or The Sphinx of the Ice Fields

A wonderful coming together of two writers who wrote their books more than half a century apart. Neither of them had ever visited the remote islands they were writing about yet they provided inspiration for a couple of exciting adventure tales.

In 1838, Edgar Allan Poe published The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. It was the only complete novel published by the American author. It was the story of a young boy who stows away on board a whaling ship and it goes on to relate the events that follow. The novel ends a trifle abruptly, with the hero and his friend Dirk Peters deciding to journey to the South Pole.

In 1897, the French writer Jules Verne,...

The Fur Country

The Hudson's Bay Company is one of the earliest corporations in the world and the oldest commercial organization in North America. It began as a fur trading company in 1670 and today owns a variety of retail corporations selling a diverse range of goods.

In The Fur Country by Jules Verne, the plot describes how a team of Hudson's Bay Company members travel through the Northwest Territory of Canada with the aim of establishing a mission on the Arctic Circle. The members are a mixed bunch. One of the ladies, Paulina Barnett, seeks adventure, while a meteorologist Thomas Black hopes to view a spectacular solar eclipse scheduled to occur during their travel. Set in 1859, t...

In Search of the Castaways

The book tells the story of the quest for Captain Grant of the Britannia. After finding a bottle cast into the ocean by the captain himself after the Britannia is shipwrecked, Lord and Lady Glenarvan of Scotland decide to launch a rescue expedition. The main difficulty is that the coordinates of the wreckage are mostly erased, and only the latitude (37 degrees) is known.
Lord Glenarvan makes it his quest to find Grant; together with his wife, Grant’s children and the crew of his yacht the Duncan they set off for South America. An unexpected passenger in the form of French geographer Jacques Paganel joins the search. They explore Patagonia, Tristan da Cunha Island, Amsterdam Island...

The Master of the World

Published in 1904, The Master of the World is the penultimate novel in the Voyages Extraordinaires series, by renowned French novelist and pioneer of science fiction, Jules Verne. The novel acts as a sequel to Verne’s novel Robur the Conqueror, and consequently brings back some of its most notable characters, including the brilliant, yet villainous inventor Robur.

Set in the summer of 1903, the adventure kicks off when a string of enigmatic events have been reported in the western part of North Carolina, leaving residents in fear of a possible volcanic eruption, even though the Blue Ridge Mountains are known to be non-volcanic . This fear is instigated after re...