Vercingetorix surrenders to Julius Cesar.

The Romans conquered “Aquitania” after a bitter fight against the Celts led by Vercingetorix, a local hero. The ensuing Pax Romana allowed the creation, and growth, of centers of commerce such as Burdigala (which became Bordeaux), Versunna (Perigueux), and Aginum (Agen).

The collapse of the Roman Empire unleashed new tribes upon the rich region, eventually allowing them to take control: first the Vandals, then the Visigoths and finally the Franks, led by Clovis.

As with most of France, the region was then kept under a succession of feudal regimes, but was the last of the great feudal duchies be assimilated into the Kingdom of France. By the mid-XIth century, the duchy of Aquitaine became the property of local dukes who were vassals to the King of France. When Eleonor d’Aquitaine married Louis VII, she added her vast assets to the French throne.

However, fate was to play a particular game with Eleonor, Aquitaine, France and Britain. After her marriage to the French King Louis VI was annuled on grounds of consanguinity, Eleonor was quick to marry again.2 weeks after her marriage, her second husband, Henry Plantagenet became King of England and was crowned as Henry II. Aquitaine became wedded to England, its commercial strength closely tied to the health of the English economy. It was only in 1451 that Charles VII finally succeeded in ousting the English presence, and annexing Aquitaine to the French crown.

The region was central to the following Hundred Years War, which ended in a battle won by the France in Castillon (now known as Castillon-La-Battaille), and was further rocked, as all of France, by the wars of Religion, which lasted until Henri of Navarre acceded to the throne of France as Henri IV. By coming to the throne, Henri IV brought to the Kingdom the territory now known as the Pays Basque.

By the eighteenth century, the jurisdiction of the Parlement of Bordeaux extended along the Garonne Basin and into the southern Massif Central, making it one of the biggest and richest provinces of France.

Bordeaux’s main involvment in the Revolution was through a moderate group of intellectuals, the Girondins. In much of the region, the early Revolution was relatively calm, with little of the bitter infighting which marked the relations between royalists and patriots elsewhere. Local leaders showed restraint in the face of requisitions and provocations from Paris. And except in a few specific areas – the Pays Basque, parts of the Landes and Dordogne, and Bordeaux itself – the guillotine was used fairly sparingly.

Economic expansion was slowed down by the revolution. The Napoleonic wars had a particularly disastrous effect on Bordeaux, which suffered greatly from the British blockades of French ports.

Aquitaine was slow to participate in the industrial revolution because the south west had become under-populated and had no coal. Empress Eugenie and the court of Napoleon III made Biarritz a favorite tourist spot, launching an era of tourism that lasts to this day.

The British and the Dutch who began to purchase secondary homes have contributed greatly to the revival of foreign tourism. today the Aquitaine is a bustling, modern region only 3 hours from Paris on the TGV

<!–^~^441|left|Napoleon III^~^–> Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (April 20, 1808 – January 9, 1873) was the son of King Louis Bonaparte and Queen Hortense de Beauharnais; both monarchs of the Kingdom of Holland.

He was elected President (1848-1852) of the Second Republic of France and subsequently Emperor (1852-1870), reigning as Napoleon III (Second French Empire). In a situation that resembles the case of Louis XVIII of France, the numbering of Napoleon’s reign assumes the existence of a legitimate Napoleon II of France who never actually ruled.

Imprisoned after the second of two abortive coup attempts (October 1836 and August 1840), he escaped to the United Kingdom in May 1846, returning after the revolution of February 1848 to win the presidential election December 2 that year on a platform of strong government, social consolidation and national greatness. President Bonaparte then on December 2, 1851 violently overthrew the Second Republic and seized dictatorial powers. He became Emperor exactly one year later and established the Second French Empire. That same year, he began shipping political prisoners and criminals to penal colonies such as Devil’s Island or (in milder cases) New Caledonia. On April, 28th, 1855 he survived an attempted assassination.

Napoleon’s challenge to Russia’s claims to influence in the Ottoman Empire led to France’s successful participation in the Crimean War (March 1854-March 1856). He approved the launching of a naval expedition in 1858 to punish the Vietnamese and force the court to accept a French presence in the country. On January 14, 1858 Napoleon escaped another assassination attempt. In May-July 1859 French intervention secured the defeat of Austria in Italy. But intervention in Mexico (January 1862-March 1867) ended in defeat and the execution of the French-backed Emperor Maximilian, and France saw her influence further eroded by Prussia’s crushing victory over Austria in June-August 1866.

An important change during his reign was the rebuilding of Paris. This was done to reduce the ability of future revolutionaries to challenge the government. Large sections of the city were razed and the old convoluted streets were replaced with many broad avenues, with the intent of allowing cannon to be used easily within the city. The rebuilding of Paris was directed by Baron Haussmann (1809-1891; Prefect of the Seine 1853-1870).

He also directed the building of the French railway network. The design was very inefficient, however, as all routes lead to Paris. There was a Paris to Lyon lines, and a Paris to Caen, and a Paris to Marseilles, but no lines connecting the other cities to each other. Thus to travel from Marseilles to Bordeaux one needed to go via Paris, a great inefficiency. This was economically inefficient, and also militarily made the French far slower to organize than the more rationally organized Prussians.

Hoping to achieve military glory to match his uncle Louis and forced by the diplomacy of the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Napoleon began the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. This war proved disastrous, and was instrumental in giving birth to the German Empire. In battle against Prussia in July 1870 the Emperor was captured at the Battle of Sedan (September 2) and was deposed by the forces of the Third Republic in Paris two days later. He died in exile in England on January 9, 1873.

Married to Empress Eugenie, a Spanish noble of Scottish and Spanish descent, Napoleon III had one son, Eugene Bonaparte.

He is buried in the Imperial Crypt at Saint Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough, Hampshire, England.

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[img]274|left|Vaux-le-Vicomte[/img]Once a small castle located between the royal residences of Vincennes and Fontainebleau in France, the estate of Vaux-le-Vicomte was purchased by a 26 year-old parliamentarian, Nicolas Fouquet in 1641.

Fifteen years later, construction began on what was then the finest chateau and garden in France. This achievement was brought about through the collaboration of three men of genius whom Fouquet had chosen for the task: the architect Le Vau, the painter-decorator Le Brun and the landscape gardener Le NÙtre. The ch‚teau and its patron became for a short time a great center of fine feasts, literature and arts. The poet La Fontaine and the playwright MoliËre were among the artists close to Fouquet.

The ch‚teau was lavish, refined, and dazzling to behold, but rich in hidden drama. Indeed, King Louis XIV had Fouquet arrested shortly after a famous fÍte that took place on August 17, 1661. The celebration had been too impressive and the man’s home too luxurious for the King to accept. Later Voltaire was to sum up the famous fÍte thus: "On 17 August, at six in the evening Fouquet was the King of France: at two in the morning he was nobody."

[img]9|right|vaux le vicomte[/img]After Nicolas Fouquet was arrested and imprisoned for life, and his wife exiled, Vaux-le-Vicomte was placed under sequestration. The King seized, confiscated, and occasionally purchased, 120 tapestries, the statues, and all the orange trees. Madame Fouquet recovered her property 10 years later and retired there with her eldest son. After her husband’s death in 1680, her son died too. In 1705 she decided to put Vaux-le-Vicomte up for sale.

The MarÈchal de Villars became the new owner although he had never even set eyes on the place. In 1764 the MarÈchal’s son sold the estate to the Duke of Praslin, whose descendants were to maintain the property for over a century, until, after a thirty-year period of neglect, they put it up for sale.

[img]305|right|Vaux-le-Vicomte[/img]In 1875, Monsieur Alfred Sommier acquired Vaux-le-Vicomte at a public auction. The ch‚teau was empty, some of the outbuildings had fallen into ruin, and the famous gardens were totally overgrown. The huge task of restoration and refurbishment began. When Alfred Sommier died in 1908, the ch‚teau and the gardens had recovered their original appearance. His son, Edme Sommier, and his daughter-in-law completed the task. Today, his direct descendants continue to work on the preservation of Vaux-le-Vicomte.

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Gallia (in English Gaul) is the Roman name for the region of western Europe occupied by present-day France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. In English the word Gaul also means one of the inhabitants of that region in ancient times.

The Gauls sacked Rome circa 390 BC, destroying all Roman historical records to that point.

Roman rule in Gaul was established by Julius Caesar, who defeated the Celtic tribes in Gaul 58-51 BC and described his experiences in De Bello Gallico, which means Of the Gallic War. The war cost the lives of more than a million Gauls, and a million further were enslaved.

The area was subsequently governed as a number of provinces, the principal ones being Gallia Narbonensis, Gallia Lugdunensis, Gallia Aquitania and Gallia Belgica. The capital of the Gauls was Lyon (Lugdunum).

On December 31, 406 the Vandals, Alans and Suebians crossed the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia.

After coming under increasing pressure from the tribes of Germany from the middle of the 3rd century AD, Roman rule in Gaul ended with the defeat of the Roman governor Syagrius by the Franks in AD 486.

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Nicolas Anelka would be welcomed back into the international fold by French Football Federation president Claude Simonet.

The Manchester City striker has revealed he would be keen on an immediate return to the France squad.

With Euro 2004 on the horizon and France needing solid support for Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet, Anelka revealed he would attempt to resolve his differences with France coach Jacques Santini.

Anelka said: "I want to be a French international again. When you get older, you change, and you grow up.

"I never closed the door to the French team."

Anelka’s announcement was well received by Simonet who hinted that he would be happy for Santini to call up Anelka for the friendly against Belgium on February 18.

Before falling out with Santini, 24-year-old Anelka had won 28 France caps and scored six goals."

784|left|Exterior of the Palais Garnier.|The Palais Garnier is a grand landmark at the northern end of the Avenue de l’Opera in Paris, France. It is regarded as one of the architectural masterpieces of its time. Built in the Neo-Baroque style, it is the thirteenth theatre to house the Paris Opera since it was founded by Louis XIV in 1669. It was often also called the Paris Opera, but since the building of the Opera Bastille in 1989, it is referred to as the Opera Garnier.

It was built on the orders of Napoleon III as part of the great Parisian reconstruction project carried out by Baron Haussmann. The project was put out to competition and was won by Charles Garnier (1825-1898), a then unknown 35-year-old architect. He would go on to also build the Opera Garnier de Monte-Carlo in Monaco.

Building work, which began in 1857 and finished in 1874, was interrupted by numerous incidents, including the Franco-Prussian War, the fall of the Empire and the Paris Commune. Another problem was the discovery of an underground lake beneath the site. This required the construction of an underground reservoir below the building. This lake later inspired The Phantom of the Opera’s lair. The Palais Garnier was formally inaugurated on January 15, 1875.[img]785|right|’le couloir de l’opÈra’ painted by jean bÈraud (1849-1936)|[/img]

The large building has a total area of 11,000 square meters (118,404 square feet) and a huge stage with room to accommodate up to 450 artists. An ornate building, the style is monumental, opulently decorated with elaborate multicolored marble friezes, columns, and lavish statuary. The interior too is rich with velvet, gold leaf, and cherubs and nymphs. The auditorium’s central chandelier weighs over six tons, and its ceiling was painted in 1964 by Marc Chagall.

Legend has it that the Empress EugÈnie asked Garnier whether the building was to be in Greek or Roman style to which he replied: It is in the NapolÈon III style Madame!

It is currently used for ballet performances. Paris’s primary opera house is now the Opera Bastille.

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[img]312|left|Mona Lisa[/img]Mona Lisa (also known as the Monna Lisa; Italian La Gioconda; French La Joconde), is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci showing a woman with an introspective expression-perhaps smiling would be the wrong word. It is the most famous painting in the world, going so far as to be iconic of painting, art, and even visual images in general. No other work of art is so romanticized, celebrated, or reproduced. It was accomplished between 1503 and 1506. Today it hangs in the Louvre in Paris and is the museum’s star attraction.

The Painting

It is an oil painting on poplar wood measuring 77 x 53 cm.

Although it is difficult to view the painting critically and ignore all the mythology behind it, it does display a technical mastery that seats it amongst Leonardo’s masterworks (although some count The Last Supper as a greater work).

The compelling nature of the image has been the subject of reams of discussion. In general, it can be stated that the vividness and ambiguity of the facial expression is due to Leonardo’s use of sfumato, blurring the most expressive portions of the face (the corners of the eyes and mouth) to give the picture greater mystery. The enigmatic ‘smile’ is the picture’s most famous feature (giving us the expression, "a Mona Lisa smile").

Sigmund Freud interpreted the ‘smile’ as signifying Leonardo’s erotic attraction to his dear mother. Others have described it as both innocent and inviting.

The identity of the lady in the painting is not known for certain. The most probable suspect is the wealthy Florentine Madonna Lisa del Giocondo, giving rise to the painting’s name in Italian and French. However it is also possible that Leonardo did not portrait a specific person.

The painting was one of the first portraits to depict the sitter before an imaginary landscape. One interesting feature of the landscape is that it is uneven. The landscape to the left of the figure is noticably lower than that to the right of her. This has led some critics to suggest that it was added later.

The painting has been restored numerous times; x-ray examinations have shown that there are three versions of the Mona Lisa hidden under the present one.

Because of the painting’s overwhelming stature, Dadaists and Surrealists often produced modifications and carricatures, for instance by drawing a moustache in the woman’s face. The painting was reproduced as posters by Andy Warhol.

The Guinness Book of Records counts the painting as the most valuable object ever insured.

History
The painting was brought from Italy to France by Leonardo in 1516 when King Francois I invited the great painter to work at the Clos LucÈ near the king’s chateau in Amboise. The king then bought the painting.

The painting first resided in Fontainebleau, later in Versailles. After the French Revolution, it was moved to the Louvre. Napoleon Bonaparte had it moved to his bedroom; later it was returned to the Louvre. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, it was moved from the Louvre to a hiding place elsewhere in France.

On August 22, 1911, the theft of the Mona Lisa was discovered. French poet Guillaume Apollinaire was arrested and put in jail on suspicion of theft on September 7 and Pablo Picasso was brought in for questioning, but both were later released. At the time, the painting was believed lost forever. It turned out that Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia, believing that the painting belonged to Italy and shouldn’t be kept in France, stole it by simply walking out the door with it hidden under his coat. However, greed got the better of him and the Mona Lisa was recovered when he attempted to sell it to a Florence art dealer; it was exhibited all over Italy and returned to the Louvre in 1913.

During World War I and World War II the painting was again removed from the Louvre and stored at a safe place.

In 1956, the lower part of the painting was severely damaged after an acid attack. Several months later someone threw a stone at it. It is now being kept under security glass.

In 1962, the painting was loaned to the United States and shown in New York City and Washington D.C.. In 1974 it went on a tour and was exhibited in Tokyo and Moscow.

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Catharism was a Gnostic heretical movement that originated around the middle of the 12th century AD. It existed throughout much of Western Europe, but its home was in Languedoc, in southern France. The name Cathars probably originated from catharos, the pure ones, maybe also from cattus cat which they were supposed to sexually abuse during their ceremonies, and one of the first recorded uses is Eckbert von Schˆnau who wrote on heretics from Cologne in 1181: Hos nostra germania catharos appellat The Cathars are also called Albigensians, this name originates from the end of the 12th century, and was used in 1181 by the chronicler Geoffroy de Vigeois. The name refers to the southern town of Albi (the ancient Albiga.) The designation is hardly exact, for the heretical centre was at Toulouse and in the neighbouring districts.

The heresy, which had entered these regions by following the trade routes, came originally from eastern Europe. The name of Bulgarians (Bougres) was also applied to the Albigenses, and they maintained an association with the Bogomils of Thrace. Their doctrines have numerous resemblances to those of the Bogomils, and still more to those of the Paulicians, with whom they are sometimes connected. It is difficult to form any precise idea of the Albigensian doctrines, as all the existing knowledge of them is derived from their opponents, and the few texts from the Albigenses (the Rituel cathare de Lyon and the Nouveau Testament en provencal) contain very little information concerning their beliefs and moral practices. What is certain is that they formed an anti-sacerdotal party in opposition to the Roman church, and raised a continued protest against the corruption of the clergy. The Albigensian theologians, called Cathari or perfecti (in France bons hommes or bons chretiens) were few in number; the mass of believers (credentes) were not initiated into the doctrine at all – they were freed from all moral prohibition and all religious obligation, on condition that they promised by an act called convenenza to become “hereticized” by receiving the consolamentum, the baptism of the Spirit, before their death.

The first Catharist heretics appeared in Limousin between 1012 and 1020. Several were discovered and put to death at Toulouse in 1022. The synods of Charroux (Vienne) in 1028 and Toulouse in 1056, condemned the growing sect. Preachers were summoned to the districts of the Agenais and the Toulousain to combat the heretical propaganda in the 1100s. But, protected by William, duke of Aquitaine, and by a significant proportion of the southern nobility, the heretics gained ground in the south. The people were impressed by the bons hommes, and the anti-sacerdotal preaching of Peter of Bruys and Henry of Lausanne in Perigord.

Catharism was based on the idea that the world was evil. This was a distinct feature of Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, Manicheanism and the theology of the Bogomils. It may possibly also have been influenced by older Gnostic lines of thought. According to the Cathars, the world had been created by an evil deity, known by the Gnostics as the Demiurge, which the Cathars identified with the being called Satan by Christians. Earlier Gnostics did not identify the Demiurge with Satan, which may depend on the fact that Satan was not “in fashion” during the first hundred years A.D., while he was increasingly popular in these medieval times. They also believed that souls would be reborn until they managed to escape the material world for the immaterial heaven. The way to escape was to live the life of an ascetic and not be corrupted by the world. Those that did live this life were called Perfects, and had the ability to wipe a person clean of their sins and connections to the world, so when they died, they would go to heaven. The Perfects themselves lived lives of unimpeachable frugality, a stark contrast to the corrupt and opulent church of the time. Commonly, the wiping away of sin, called the consulamentum, was performed on someone about to die. After receiving this, the believer would sometimes stop eating, so that they could die faster, and with less taint from the world. The consulamentum was the only sacrament of the Cathar faith; they did not even perform any kind of marriage, procreation (bringing more souls into the world) being frowned upon.

The Cathars also held many beliefs that were odious to the rest of medieval society. First off, they believed that Christ had been an apparition, a ghost, that showed the way to God. They refused to believe that the good God could or would come in material form, since all physical objects were tainted by sin. This specific belief is called docetism. They further believed that the God of the Old Testament was the Devil, since he had created the world. Also, they did not believe in any sacrament except the consulamentum, which was another major heresy.

Women were treated as equals, because their physical form was irrelevant and their soul could have been a man before and might again. One of their most heretical ideas to feudal Europe was their belief that oaths were a sin. To a society based on oaths, to call them a sin because they attached you to the world was very dangerous.

In 1147, Pope Eugene III sent a legate to the affected district. The few isolated successes of the abbot of Clairvaux could not obscure the poor results of this mission, and well shows the power of the sect in the south of France at that period. The missions of Cardinal Peter (of St Chrysogonus) to Toulouse and the Toulousain in 1178, and of Henry, cardinal-bishop of Albano, in 1180-1181, obtained merely momentary successes. Even when Henry of Albano led an armed expedition and took the stronghold of heretics at Lavaur, this in no way arrested the progress of the heresy.

The persistent decisions of the councils against the heretics at this period – in particular, those of the council of Tours (1163) and of the Third Council of the Lateran (1179) – had scarcely more effect. But when he came to power in 1198 Pope Innocent III resolved to suppress the Albigenses. At first he tried pacific conversion, and sent into the affected regions a number of legates. They had to contend not only with the heretics, the nobles who protected them, and the people who venerated them, but also with the bishops of the district, who rejected the extraordinary authority which the pope had conferred upon his legates. In 1204 Innocent III suspended the authority of the bishops of the south of France. Peter of Castelnau retaliated by excommunicating the count of Toulouse, as an abettor of heresy (1207). As soon as he heard of the murder of Peter of Castelnau, the Pope ordered his legates to preach the crusade against the Albigenses.

This implacable war threw the whole of the nobility of the north of France against that of the south, and involved as well the king of Aragon who owned fiefdoms and had vassalls in the area. Peter II of Aragon died in the crussade. This ended in the treaty of Paris (1229), by which the king of France dispossessed the house of Toulouse of the greater part of its fiefs, and that of Beziers of the whole of its fiefs. The independence of the princes of the south was at an end, but, so far as the heresy was concerned, Albigensianism was not extinguished, in spite of the wholesale massacres of heretics during the war.

The Inquisition, however, operating unremittingly in the south at Toulouse, Albi, Carcassonne and other towns during the whole of the 13th century and a great part of the 14th, succeeded in crushing the heresy. The repressive measures were terrible, in 1245, the royal officers assisting the Inquisition seized the heretical citadel of MontsÈgur, and 200 Cathari were burned in one day. Moreover, the church decreed severe chastisement against all laymen suspected of sympathy with the heretics (council of Narbonne, 1235; Bull Ad extirpanda, 1252).

Hunted down by the Inquisition and abandoned by the nobles of the district, the Albigenses became more and more scattered,
hiding in the forests and mountains, and only meeting surreptitiously. The people made some attempts to throw off the yoke of the Inquisition and the French, and insurrections broke out under the leadership of Bernard of Foix, Aimerv of Narbonne, and Bernard DÈlicieux at the beginning of the 14th century. But at this point vast inquests were set on foot by the Inquisition, which terrorized the district. Precise indications of these are found in the registers of the Inquisitors, Bernard of Caux, Jean de St Pierre, Geoffroy d’Ablis, and others. The sect was exhausted and could find no more adepts and after 1330 the records of the Inquisition contain few proceedings against Catharists.

Catharism was destroyed by the Albigensian Crusade, and the following Inquisition in Languedoc. The last Cathar Perfect died in the beginning of the 14th century. Sympathizers with the Cathars went underground and hid their faith for obvious reasons.

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Gustave Eiffel (December 15, 1832 – December 27, 1923), French architect.

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[img]304|left|Gustave Eiffel[/img]Born Alexandre Gustave Eiffel in Dijon, CÙte-d’Or, France, he is most famous for building the Eiffel Tower, built from 1887-1889 for the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition in Paris, France, as well as the armature for the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, USA. He also designed ironwork for bridges.

Gustave Eiffel also designed La Ruche in Paris, that would, like the Eiffel Tower, become a city landmark. A three-storey circular structure that looked more like a large beehive, it was created as a temporary structure for use as a wine rotunda at the Great Exposition of 1900.

In his later years Eiffel began to study aerodynamics.

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel died on December 27, 1923 in his mansion on Rue Rabelais in Paris and was interred in the Cimetiere de Levallois-Perret, in Paris.

In the 1980s an old restaurant and its supporting iron scaffolding midway up the tower was dismantled; this was purchased and reconstructed in New Orleans, Louisiana, originally as the Tour Eiffel Restaurant, more recently known as the Red Room.

In the year 2000, flashing lights and several high power searchlights were installed on the tower. Since then the light show has become a nightly event. The searchlights on top of the tower make it a beacon in Paris’ night sky.

At 19:20 on July 22, 2003, a fire occurred at the top of the tower in the broadcasting equipment room. The entire tower was evacuated; the fire was extinguished after forty minutes, and there were no reports of injuries.

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(February 8, 1828óMarch 24, 1905) was a French author and a pioneer of the science fiction genre. Verne was noted for writing about space, air, and underwater travel long before they were possible.

Early years

[img]786|left|Jules Verne by FÈlix Nadar (1820-1910)|[/img]Verne was born in Nantes to Pierre Verne, an attorney, and his wife Sophie. The oldest of the family’s five children, he spent his early years at home with his parents, on a nearby island in the Loire River. This isolated setting helped to strengthen both his imagination and the bond between him and his younger brother Paul. At the age of nine, the pair were sent to boarding school at the Nantes lycÈe.

There Jules studied Latin, which was used later in his short story Le Mariage de Monsieur Anselme des Tilleuls (mid-1850s). The following legend was created by his second French biographer, Marguerite Allotte de la Fuye: Verne’s fascination with adventure asserted itself at an early age, inspiring him at one point to stow away on a ship bound for Asia. His voyage was cut short, however, as he found his father waiting for him at the next port.

Literary debut

After completing his studies at the lycÈe, Verne went to Paris to study for the bar. About 1848, in conjunction with Michel Carre, he began writing librettos for operettas. For some years his attentions were divided between the theatre and work, but some travellers’ stories which he wrote for the MusÈe des Familles seem to have revealed to him the true direction of his talent: the telling of delightfully extravagant voyages and adventures to which cleverly prepared scientific and geographical details lent an air of verisimilitude.

When Verne’s father discovered that his son was writing rather than studying the law, he promptly withdrew his financial support. Consequently, he was forced to support himself as a stockbroker, which he hated, although he was a successful at it. During this period, he met the authors Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo, who offered him some advice on his writing.

[img]790|right|Early illustration of Verne’s manned projectile from the book From the Earth to the Moon.|[/img]It was during this period he met Honorine de Viane Morel, a widow with two daughters. They married on January 10, 1857. With her encouragement, he continued to write and actively try to find a publisher. On August 4, 1861, their son, Michel Jean Pierre Verne, was born. A classic enfant terrible, he married an actress over Verne’s objections, and had two children by his underage mistress.

Verne’s situation improved when he met Pierre-Jules Hetzel, one of the most important French publishers of the 19th century, who published also Victor Hugo, George Sand, and Erckmann-Chatrian, among others. Hetzel read a draft of Verne’s story about the balloon exploration of Africa, which had been rejected by other publishers on the ground that it was "too scientific". With Hetzel’s help, Verne rewrote the story and in 1863 it was published in book form as Cinq semaines en ballon (Five Weeks in a Balloon).

Verne became wealthy and famous. From that point on, and for nearly a quarter of a century, scarcely a year passed in which Hetzel did not publish one or more of his stories. The most successful of these include: Voyage au centre de la terre (Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1864); De la terre ‡ la lune (From the Earth to the Moon, 1865); Vingt Mille Lieues sous les mers (20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, 1869); and Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (Around the World in Eighty Days), which first appeared in Le Temps in 1872. After his first novel, most of his stories were first serialised in the Magazine d’…ducation et de RÈcrÈation, a Hetzel biweekly publication, before being published in the form of books. His brother, Paul Verne, contributed to the 40th French climbing of the Mont-Blanc, added to his brother’s collection of short stories Doctor Ox in 1874. He remains the most translated novelist in the world, in 148 languages, according to the UNESCO statistics.

Reputation in the English-speaking countries

[img]789|left|The attack of the octopus upon the Nautilus in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.|[/img]In France he is renowned for writing good French that boys will be interested in reading. In those countries for which his works were accurately translated as well, his scientific and political abilities are also noted. Not so in the English-speaking countries.

The British Empire was often criticized by him, and it happened that his first translator was the Reverend Lewis Page Mercier, writing under a pseudonym, who cut out such passages, for example the political action of Captain Nemo. Mercier and subsequent British translators especially had trouble with the metric system that Verne used – sometimes they converted the units to Imperial, sometimes they dropped significant figures, sometimes they just kept the metric number and changed the unit to an Imperial one. This made Verne’s calculations, exact for his age, into gibberish. Artistic passages and whole chapters were cut in the need to fit the work in the space for publication, regardless of what it meant to the plot.

Hence Verne’s work acquired a reputation in English-speaking countries of not being an adult work in any regard. Because he was not considered a littÈrateur, it was not seen fit to have his works re-translated. So the translations of Mercier and others were reprinted decade after decade. Finally, in 1965, the first translations into English since the nineteenth century were published. But still Verne is not fully rehabilitated in the English-speaking countries.

The last years

On March 9, 1886, as Verne was coming home, his nephew, Gaston, charged at him with a gun. As the two wrestled for it, it went off. The second bullet entered Verne’s left shin. He never fully recovered. Gaston spent the rest of his life in an asylum.

[img]788|left|Portrait of Jules Verne circa 1895|[/img]After the deaths of Hetzel and his beloved mother in 1887, Jules began writing works that were darker, such as a story of a lord of a castle infatuated with an opera singer who turns out to be just a hologram and a recording, and others concerned with death. In 1888, he entered politics and was elected town councillor of Amiens where he championed several improvements and served for 15 years. Ill with diabetes, Verne died at his home, 44 Boulevard Longueville, (now Boulevard Jules-Verne). Michel oversaw publication of his last novels Invasion of the Sea and The Lighthouse at the End of the World.

In 1863, he wrote a novel called Paris in the 20th Century about a young man who lives in a world of glass skyscrapers, high-speed trains, gas-powered automobiles, calculators, and a worldwide communications network, yet cannot find happiness, and comes to a tragic end. Hetzel thought the novel’s pessimism would damage Verne’s then booming career, and suggested he wait 20 years to publish it. Verne put the manuscript in a safe, where it was discovered by his great-grandson in 1989. It was published in 1994.

Partial list of works

• Cinq semaines en ballon (Five Weeks in a Balloon, 1863)
• Paris au XXe siËcle (Paris in the 20th Century 1863, not published until 1994)
• Voyage au centre de la Terre (Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1864)
• De la Terre ‡ la Lune (From the Earth to the Moon, 1865)
• Les enfants du Capitaine Grant (In Search of the Castaways, 1867-1868)
• Vingt Mille Lieues sous les mers (20
  ,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1870)
• Le tour du monde en quatre-vingt jours (Around the World in Eighty Days, 1872)
• L’Óle mystÈrieuse (Mysterious Island, 1874)
• Michel Strogoff (Michael Strogoff, 1876)
• Les Indes noires (1877)
• Les tribulations d’un chinois en Chine (1879)
• Le rayon vert (1882)
• Mathias Sandorf (1885)
• Robur le conquÈrant (Robur the Conqueror or The Clipper of the Clouds, 1886)
• Deux ans de vacances (1888)
• L’Óle ‡ hÈlice (1895)
• Le beau Danube jaune (1901)
• Le village aÈrien (1901)

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