This is google looks like when its 8 Feb 2011. Google celebrate Jules Verne. Jules Gabriel Verne (French pronunciation: [ʒyl vɛʁn]; February 8, 1828 – March 24, 1905) was a French author from Brittany who pioneered the science-fiction genre. He is best known for novels such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before air travel and practical submarines were invented, and before practical means of space travel had been devised. He is the third most translated individual author in the world, according to Index Translationum. Some of his books have also been made into films. Verne, along with Hugo Gernsback and H. G. Wells, is often popularly referred to as the "Father of Science Fiction".

Hetzel substantially influenced the writings of Verne, who was so happy to finally find a willing publisher that he agreed to almost all changes that Hetzel suggested. Hetzel rejected at least one novel, (Paris in the 20th Century), and asked Verne to significantly change his other drafts. One of the most important changes Hetzel enforced on Verne was the adoption of optimism in his novels. Verne was in fact not an enthusiast of technological and human progress, as can be seen in his works created before he met Hetzel and after Hetzel's death. Hetzel's demand for optimistic texts proved correct. For example, Mysterious Island originally ended with the survivors returning to mainland forever nostalgic about the island. Hetzel decided that the heroes should live happily, so in the revised draft, they use their fortunes to build a replica of the island. Many translations are like this. Also, in order not to offend France's then-ally, Russia, the origin and past of the famous Captain Nemo were changed from those of a Polish refugee avenging the partitions of Poland and the death of his family in the January Uprising repressions to those of an Indian prince fighting the British Empire after the Sikh War.

He wrote many books such as

* Five Weeks in a Balloon (Cinq Semaines en ballon, 1863)

* Paris in the 20th Century (Paris au XXe Siecle, 1863, not published until 1994)

* Journey to the Center of the Earth (Voyage au centre de la Terre, 1864)

* From the Earth to the Moon (De la terre à la lune, 1865)

* Journeys and Adventures of Captain Hatteras (Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras, 1866)

* In Search of the Castaways or Captain Grant's Children (Les Enfants du capitaine Grant, 1867–1868)

* Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Vingt mille lieues sous les mers, 1870)

* Around The Moon (Autour de la lune, a sequel to From the Earth to the Moon, 1870)

* A Floating City (Une ville flottante, 1871)

* Dr. Ox's Experiment (Une Fantaisie du Docteur Ox, 1872)

* The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa (Aventures de trois Russes et de trois Anglais, 1872 )

* The Fur Country (Le Pays des fourrures, 1873)

* Around the World in Eighty Days (Le Tour du Monde en quatre-vingts jours, 1873)

* The Survivors of the Chancellor (Le Chancellor, 1875)

* The Mysterious Island (L'Île mystérieuse, 1875)

* The Blockade Runners, (1876)

* Michael Strogoff (Michel Strogoff, 1876)

* Off On A Comet (Hector Servadac, 1877)

* The Child of the Cavern, also known as Black Diamonds or The Black Indies (Les Indes noires, 1877)

* Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen (Un Capitaine de quinze ans, 1878)

* The Begum's Millions (Les Cinq cents millions de la Bégum, 1879)

* The Steam House (La Maison à vapeur, 1879)

* Tribulations of a Chinaman in China (Les tribulations d'un chinois en Chine), 1879

* Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon (La Jangada, 1881)

* The Green Ray (Le Rayon vert, 1882)

* The Headstrong Turk (1883)

* Frritt-Flacc (1884)

* The Vanished Diamond (L’Étoile du sud, 1884)

* The Archipelago on Fire (L’Archipel en feu, 1884)

* Mathias Sandorf (1885)

* Robur the Conqueror or The Clipper of the Clouds (Robur-le-Conquérant, 1886)

* Ticket No. "9672" (Un Billet de loterie, 1886 )

* North Against South (Nord contre Sud, 1887)

* The Flight to France (Le Chemin de France, 1887)

* Family Without a Name (Famille-sans-nom, 1888)

* Two Years' Vacation (Deux Ans de vacances, 1888)

* The Purchase of the North Pole (Sans dessus dessous, the second sequel to From the Earth to the Moon, 1889)

* Mistress Branican (Novel) (1891)

* The Castle of the Carpathians (Le Château des Carpathes, 1892)

* Propeller Island (L’Île à hélice, 1895)

* Facing the Flag (Face au drapeau, 1896)

* Clovis Dardentor (1896)

* The Sphinx of the Ice Fields or An Antarctic Mystery (Le Sphinx des glaces, a sequel to Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, 1897)

* The Mighty Orinoco (Le Superbe Orénoque, 1897)

* The Village in the Treetops (Le Village aérien, 1901)

* Master of the World (Maître du monde, sequel to Robur the Conqueror, 1904)

* Invasion of the Sea (L’Invasion de la mer, 1904)

* A drama in Livonia (Un Drame en Livonie, 1904)

* The Lighthouse at the End of the World (Le Phare du bout du monde, 1905)

* The Chase of the Golden Meteor (La Chasse au météore, 1908)

* The Danube Pilot (Le Pilote du Danube, 1908)

* The Survivors of the 'Jonathan' (Les Naufragés du « Jonathan », 1909)