Three of Verne’s Voyages Extraordinaires are on this site, published between 1864 and 1873. They are the three that English readers kept, and they are all built on the same trick: a journey with a schedule.
Verne was a stockbroker who wrote for a monthly magazine, and the books were serialised before they were books. That shows in the pacing: each chapter ends on a small hook, and the geography is doing as much work as the plot.
The translations matter more with Verne than with most nineteenth-century novelists, because the early English versions cut whole passages of his scientific argument. The editions here are public-domain translations, which means they are the versions that shaped his reputation in English.
Where to start
Around the World in Eighty Days — the shortest and the most tightly plotted of the three, and the one with the least scientific baggage. If you want the adventure with the science left in, start with Twenty Thousand Leagues instead.
Jules Verne in publication order
Numbered by first publication. Word counts and reading times are for the text on this site.
| # | Year | Title | Words | Reading time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1864 | A Journey to the Centre of the Earth | 88,854 | 4.9 h | 1864; the first of the three here. |
| 2 | 1870 | Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea | 104,016 | 5.8 h | 1870; Nemo and the Nautilus. |
| 3 | 1873 | Around the World in Eighty Days | 63,000 | 3.5 h | 1873; the shortest and the most famous. |
How to read Jules Verne
- Publication order. Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, Around the World in Eighty Days, 1864 to 1873.
- Shortest first. Around the World is about 63,000 words; Journey to the Centre of the Earth is around 89,000; Twenty Thousand Leagues is the longest at about 104,000.
- The underwater one. Twenty Thousand Leagues is the book most people mean when they say Verne. Read it after Around the World if you want to see how much more he could do with a single setting.
There is no series order to worry about. Each book is a separate voyage with a separate cast, and they can be read in any order.
Every title above has a page here with chapter summaries, the word count, reading time, and free EPUB, AZW3 and KEPUB files. Jules Verne’s shelf · Adventure and sea stories · Science fiction classics — or go back to Jules Verne for the full shelf.