Born in the seaport town of Nantes, France, Jules Verne reached his thirties before settling into the life of a science fiction writer, the occupation of his choice. He had begun writing in his teens, creating unremarkable plays, articles, and stories. His father groomed him to become a lawyer but regularly read the latest science news to his five children. Meanwhile, his mother showed her fast-paced imagination, which Verne later compared to his own. In his early teens, he ran away and worked for a day on a sailing vessel before his father fetched him home. The fact that young Verne took refuge at sea reflected his deep love for the watery depths, and his interest in the ocean later resurfaced in Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, a remarkably prophetic novel. Added to this love was a passionate feeling about current events that would greatly affect the development of character and action in the novel.
Polish-Russian strife. In 1863 the Polish people rose up against the Russian czar who had become their dictator. Poland had experienced a long and troubled relationship with the Russian nation on its borders, and the situation came to a violent head shortly before Verne wrote Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea.
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