The Crimean War begins, pitting Russia against France, England, and the Ottoman Turks.

1854French poet Charles Baudelaire’s translation of the works of Edgar Allan Poe captivates Verne and initiates his lifelong admiration of the American author.
1857Verne marries the widow Honorine de Viane Morel, whom he had met the previous year. Quitting his position at the Theatre lyrique, he embarks on a career as a stockbroker at Eggly and Company, although he continues to devote his mornings to writing. Charles Baudelaire’s volume of poems Les fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil) and Gustave Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary are published.
1859Verne spends hours in the library gaining the scientific knowledge that will inform his fiction. He travels to England and Scotland. English naturalist Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection is published. Work begins on the Suez Canal.
1861Verne travels to Norway and Denmark. His son and only child, Michel, is born. He meets the legendary photographer Nadar.
1862Verne’s manuscript Cinq semaines en ballon (Five Weeks in a Balloon) is accepted by Hetzel for publication. Until his death, Verne will publish an average of two books a year with Hetzel, forming the cumulative series known as Voyages ex- traordinaires (Extraordinary Voyages). Hugo’s Les Misérables appears.
1863Five Weeks in a Balloon is published to great success.
1864Voyage au centre de la Terre (Voyage to the Center of the Earth) is published. Verne writes an article on Poe for Musée des familles.
1865De la Terre à la Lune (From the Earth to the Moon) appears. English writer Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is published.
1866Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras (The Adventures of Captain Hatteras) is published.
1867Verne travels with his brother Paul to New York aboard the Great Eastern. Les enfants du capitaine Grant (The Children of captain Grant) is published.
1868Captain published. He purchases his first yacht, the Saint-Michel, named for his only son
1869Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea) is published in two volumes (1869-1870). Its depiction of the submarine Nautilus (named after the first submarine, invented around 1800 by American engineer Robert Fulton) predates the construction of the first submarine by twenty-five years.
1870The Franco-Prussian War breaks out; Verne serves in the Coast Guard.
1871Une ville flottante (A Floating City), partly inspired by a trip to Niagara Falls, New York, is published. Verne’s father dies. The Franco-Prussian War ends.
1872The Verne family moves to Amiens, where Verne will reside the rest of his life.
1873Another Verne masterpiece, Le tour du monde en quatre vingts jours (Around the World in Eighty Days), is published. French poet Arthur Rimbaud’s confessional autobiography Une Saison en Enfer (A Season in Hell) is published.
1874Le Docteur Ox (Dr. Ox’s Experiment and Other Stories) appears, along with L‘Île mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island). Around the World in Eighty Days is adapted for the stage. Verne purchases a new yacht, the Saint-Michel II.
1875Le Chancellor (The Chancellor) is published.
1876Michel Strogoff is published.
1877Les Indes noires (The Child of the Cavern) and Hector Servadac are published. Verne buys his last yacht, the Saint-Michel III.
1878A leisurely cruise aboard the Saint-Michel III takes Verne and his brother to North Africa, Portugal, and Gibraltar.
1879Les Cinq cents millions de la Bégum (The Begum’s Fortune) and Les tribulations d’un Chinois en Chine (The Tribulations of a Chinaman in China) are published.
1880Verne cruises to Scotland and Ireland. La Maison a vapeur (The Steam House) is published.
1881Verne cruises to Holland, Denmark, and Germany. La Jan-gada (The Giant Raft) is published.
1882Verne moves his family to a larger house in Amiens with a circular tower; today it is a well-known Verne landmark and the headquarters of the Jules Verne Society in Amiens.
1883Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Treasure Island is published. War in Indochina breaks out.
1884Verne voyages to Italy, where Pope Leo XIII personally blesses his work.
1885Victor Hugo dies. English novelist Henry Rider Haggard publishes King Solomon’s Mines.
1886Verne’s deranged nephew, Gaston, shoots him in the leg, laming him for life. This personal disaster, and his growing cynicism about industrialization, marks a turn toward pessimism in Verne’s outlook and writing. His longtime publisher, Hetzel, dies. Verne sells the Saint-Michel III because of financial concerns. Robert Louis Stevenson publishes Dr. jekyll and Mr.