Le Tour du Monde en Quatre-Vingts Jours

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Jules verne, one of the most popular among contempo rary French writers, was born in Nantes, 1828. He began his literary career by writing plays and operatic librettos, but in the year 186 3 appeared his Cinq semaines en ballon, a de scription of life and scenery in Africa, as viewed from a balloon in a fancied tour across that continent. This romance, which drew heavily on the discoveries of modern sciences, opened up an entirely new vein of fiction, which Verne has success fully worked ever since. His inventive imagination, his live narrative style, and his pleasing expatiations within the attractive field of popular science, all combine to sustain wonderfully well the interest of his books. He is less dis tinguished by elegance of style or psychological analysis his characters often being, in fact, mere automatons — and while he popularizes scientific notions, yet he often exagger ates the possibilities of present — day science.