Jules Verne - Later Years

Later Years

On March 9, 1886, as Verne was coming home, his twenty-five-year-old nephew, Gaston, shot at him twice with a pistol. The first bullet missed, but the second one entered Verne's left leg, giving him a permanent limp that could not be overcome. This incident was hushed up in the media, but Gaston spent the rest of his life in a mental asylum.

After the deaths of Hetzel and his beloved mother Sophie Allotte de la Fruÿe in 1887, Jules began writing darker works. This may partly be due to changes in his personality, but an important factor is the fact that Hetzel's son, who took over his father's business, was not as rigorous in his corrections as Hetzel had been. In 1888, Jules Verne entered politics and was elected town councilor of Amiens, where he championed several improvements and served for fifteen years. In 1905, while ill with diabetes, Verne died at his home, 44 Boulevard Longueville (now Boulevard Jules-Verne). Michel oversaw publication of his novels Invasion of the Sea and The Lighthouse at the End of the World. The "Voyages extraordinaires" series continued for several years afterwards in the same rhythm of two volumes a year. It has later been discovered that Michel Verne had made extensive changes in these stories, and the original versions were published at the end of the 20th century by Jules Verne Society (Société Jules Verne). The original novels published in french by Jules Verne Society are:

• Le secret de Wilhelm Storitz (The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz) - 1985
• La Chasse au météore (The Meteor Hunt) - 1986. See The Chase of the Golden Meteor
• En Magellanie. (In Maggelania) - 1987. See The Survivors of the "Jonathan" (Les Naufragés du « Jonathan », 1909)
• Le beau Danube jaune (The beautiful yellow Danube) - 1988. See The Danube Pilot (Le Pilote du Danube, 1908)
• Le volcan d’or (The Golden Volcano) - 1989.

In 1863, Jules Verne wrote a novel called Paris in the Twentieth Century about a young man who lives in a world of glass skyscrapers, high-speed trains, gas-powered automobiles, calculators, and a worldwide communications network, yet cannot find happiness and comes to a tragic end. Hetzel thought the novel's pessimism would damage Verne's then-booming career, and suggested he wait 20 years to publish it. Verne put the manuscript in a safe, where it was discovered by his great-grandson in 1989. It was published in 1994, and around the same time many other Verne novels and short stories were also published for the first time, and these too are gradually appearing in English translation.