Gilles Verne | Origin of Street Names

Gilles Verne (1828 - 1905) was a French writer, author of arguably the most significant adventure novels in the history of world literature and undoubtedly one of the favorite writers of the younger generation worldwide.

He was born in Nantes, into a wealthy family of lawyers and ship owners. Spending his childhood at the family's weekend cottage on the Loire River, observing the great river and ships, and listening to his grandfather's numerous adventures as a former sailor, Jules Verne was acquainted with the concept of adventure from an early age, which would later become the central theme of his novels.

Having completed primary and secondary education at a local Catholic boarding school, in line with the family tradition, he was sent to Paris to study law. However, after meeting the famous Alexandre Dumas in Paris and developing a close friendship with his son, who would also become a writer, Jules Verne spontaneously ventured into literary circles and began writing, neglecting law, which, truth be told, he never had a particularly great interest in.

Jules Verne's early writings included plays that did not achieve significant success. Likewise, numerous dramas, essays, poems, and short stories emerged from his pen until Verne finally found his calling in the genre of adventure novels based on a combination of scientific discoveries and childhood imagination, which marked the beginning of his international fame.

"Five Weeks in a Balloon," "Journey to the Center of the Earth," "From the Earth to the Moon," "The Children of Captain Grant," the iconic "Around the World in Eighty Days," and "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" are just some of the novels that brought Jules Verne worldwide acclaim and earned him the status of the second best-selling and most translated author in history, second only to Agatha Christie.

Most of Verne's novels are classified as classics of world literature, and the author himself is considered one of the fathers of science fiction in literature.

Verne's "prophetic" novel from 1863, "Paris in the 20th Century," had a particularly interesting fate. In the novel, the author tells the story of Michel, a young man alienated and disoriented in a world of high technology, fast trains, glass buildings, ruthless commerce, and social stratification. Considering it too dark for its time, publishers postponed the printing of this novel, and Verne subsequently locked it away in his safe. It was discovered many years after Jules Verne's death and first published posthumously in 1994.

As a successful writer, Jules Verne also built a successful political career, serving as the president of the Amiens City Council for a full 15 years.

The renowned author died at the age of 78, blind due to diabetes.

"Around the World in Eighty Days" and "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" have been an essential part of school curricula worldwide for over a hundred years, leaving an immortal mark of Jules Verne.

The name of the famous French writer is now carried by a street in Sremčica, Belgrade.