Jules Verne, born at Nantes, France, in 1828, of legal and seafaring stock, was the author of innumerable adventure stories that combined a vivid imagination with a gift for popularizing science. Although he studied law at Paris, he devoted his life entirely to writing. His most popular stories, besides "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1870), include: "Five Weeks in a Balloon" (1863), "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1864), "A Trip to the Moon" (1865), "Around the World in Eighty Days" (1872), and "Michael Strogoff" (1876). In addition, he was the author of a number of successful plays, as...