The Meteor Hunt marks the first English translation from Jules Verne s own text of his delightfully satirical and visionary novel. While other, questionable versions of the novel have appeared mainly, a significantly altered text by Verne s son Michel and translations of it this edition showcases the original work as Verne wrote it.The Meteor Hunt is the story of a meteor of pure gold careening toward the earth and generating competitive greed among amateur astronomers and chaos among nations obsessed with the trajectory of the great golden object. Set primarily in the...

Jules Verne (1828-1905) was born in the Breton river town of Nantes, and had a lifelong passion for the sea. First as a Paris stockbroker, later as a celebrated author and yachtsman, he went on frequent voyages-to Britain, America, the Mediterranean. But the specific stimulus for the novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas" was an 1865 fan letter from a fellow writer, Madame George Sand. She praised Verne's two early novels "Five Weeks in a Balloon" (1863) and "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" (1864), then added: "Soon I hope you'll take us into the ocean depths, your characters...

"One of the best storytellers who ever lived."--Arthur C. Clarke

In one dazzling decade, French novelist Jules Verne took readers places they'd never gone before. . .the age of dinosaurs. . .the undersea realm of Atlantis. . .the craters and crevices of the moon. . .and a whirlwind aerial tour of the planet earth

Though he penned his unforgettable yarns in French, Verne plunked big parts of them down in America. And he himself possessed an American sassiness, nerve, and sense of humor, so Americans have returned the compliment: we've released dozens of Hollywood films based on his...