A Voyage in a Balloon

By Jules Verne

Pioneering science-fiction writer Jules Verne is the second most translated author of all time (after Agatha Christie.) This translation of his short story A Voyage in a Balloon first appeared in Sartain's Union Magazine of Literature and Art in a May 1852 edition, making it the first of the French writer's stories to be published in English. As Verne writes in this story , "May this terrific recital, while it instructs those who read it, not discourage the explorers of the routes of air."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sheba Blake Publishing
• Release date: Apr 26, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312027183

Jules Verne

Jules Gabriel Verne was born in the seaport of Nantes, France, in 1828 and was destined to follow his father into the legal profession. In Paris to train for the bar, he took more readily to literary life, befriending Alexander Dumas and Victor Hugo, and living by theatre managing and libretto-writing. His first science-based novel, Five Weeks in a Balloon, was issued by the influential publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel in 1862, and made him famous. Verne and Hetzel collaborated to write dozens more such adventures, including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 1869 and Around the World in 80 Days in 1872. In later life Verne entered local politics at Amiens, where had had a home. He also kept a house in Paris, in the street now named Boulevard Jules Verne, and a beloved yacht, the Saint Michel, named after his son. He died in 1905.