Jules Verne House — Science Fiction as Civic Life
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
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Transcript
Jules Verne lived in this house from 1882 to 1900. By then he was already internationally famous for the Voyages extraordinaires, but he was also an active citizen of Amiens and served on the municipal council.
The rooms and collections show a writer interested in geography, technology and the machinery of publishing. Verne did not predict the future in a simple technical sense; he built adventures from the scientific knowledge, imperial geography and anxieties of his own century.
His life here also corrects the image of the isolated novelist. Literary careers depend on editors, readers, institutions and cities. Amiens was not merely where Verne retired—it was part of his working environment.