[JULES VERNE]
The romantic old French town of Nantes, near the estuary of the Loire, and only thirty-five miles away from the sea, has the honour of having been the birthplace of Jules Verne, the author of bewitching stories that have now fascinated three generations of girls and boys.
Jules Verne was many years before he found where his strength lay. He was educated at Nantes, and then he went to Paris to study law. Next he began to write plays and comedies, some of which reached the stage; and it was not until the year 1863, when he was thirty-five years of age, that he went to a publisher in Paris, with a story entitled, Five Weeks in a Balloon, and so began that very long list of books by which he has become famous.
Jules Verne delighted to live in Le Saint Michel, a small yacht of eight or ten tons, in which was a large chest that contained the boat's library. On board this yacht Jules Verne thought out some of his wonderful romances. Usually his trips were from Crotoy to Harve; but at times he took in more provisions and fared forth to the coasts of Normandy, Brittany, and even of England.
Each reader will decide for himself which of Jules Verne's captivating stories he likes best; but the critics mention Dropped from the Clouds and Around the World in Eighty Days as the books which stand apart from the others. Some of our most attractive stories are about islands: Robinson Crusoe and Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, and Verne's The Mysterious Island is fit to rank with these. Under this one title we have a group of three separate volumes. First comes Dropped from the Clouds, then Abandoned, and the whole narrative is completed by The Secret of the Island. The boy who embarks upon the reading of these three books has a long period of excitement and delight stretching in front of him. The very numerous pictures, too, in these three memorable volumes are very arresting.
Jules Verne died on March 24, 1905, at Amiens when he was seventy-seven years of age, and he left a long list of books.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Golden is a term of approval or endearment.