​VERNE, JULES, a French novelist; born in Nantes, France, Feb. 8, 1828. He studied law for some time, but afterward began writing short pieces for the stage. In 1863 he published “Five Weeks in a Balloon,” and the vein of the marvelous, tinged with a quasi-scientific truthfulness, was worked by him with great success. His more popular works are: “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” “From the Earth to the Moon,” “Across Africa in a Balloon,” “Michel Strogoff,” “To the Center of the Earth," “Round the World in Eighty Days,” “The Mysterious Island,” etc. Most of his works have been translated. He died at Amiens, March 23, 1905.