Q 01/05

In which French city was Jules Verne born in 1828?

A) Amiens

B) Nantes

C) Bordeaux

D) Lyon

Answer · why

B) Nantes

He was born on Île Feydeau, then an artificial island in the Loire, in his grandmother's house.

Q 02/05

What was the profession of Verne's father, Pierre?

A) Schoolmaster

B) Ship's captain

C) Avoué (a lawyer)

D) Physician

Answer · why

C) Avoué (a lawyer)

He expected his firstborn to inherit the family practice and was dismayed when Jules refused it in 1852.

Q 03/05

Verne's first teacher told pupils her long-lost husband would return like which fictional character?

A) Ulysses

B) Robinson Crusoe

C) Sinbad the Sailor

D) Gulliver

Answer · why

B) Robinson Crusoe

The castaway theme, or robinsonade, stayed with him through The Mysterious Island and The School for Robinsons.

Q 04/05

According to a famous legend, why did the 11-year-old Verne try to stow away on the ship Coralie?

A) To join the navy against his father's wishes

B) To bring back a coral necklace for his cousin

C) To escape the boarding school he hated

D) To find his uncle lost at sea in the Indies

Answer · why

B) To bring back a coral necklace for his cousin

The tale, in which his father caught him at Paimbœuf and made him promise to travel only in his imagination, was invented by his niece and first biogr...

Q 05/05

What did Verne and his uncle play endlessly, later memorialised in The Will of an Eccentric?

A) Backgammon for money

B) Piquet and dominoes

C) The Game of the Goose

D) Chess by correspondence

Answer · why

C) The Game of the Goose

The game shapes The Will of an Eccentric (1900), while the uncle's name went into Robur the Conqueror.