Jules Verne was born on February 8, 1828 in Nantes, France. He wrote for the theater and worked briefly as a stockbroker. He is considered by many to be the father of science fiction. His most popular novels included Journey to the Center of the Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and Around the World in Eighty Days. Several of his works have been adapted into movies and TV mini-series. In 1892, he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in France. He died on March 24, 1905 at the age of 77.
Joris-Karl Huysmans (18481907) is recognized as one of the most challenging and innovative figures in European literature and acknowledged as principal architect of the fin-de-sicle imagination. He was a career civil servant who wrote ten novels, most notably A Rebours and La-Bas.Robert Baldick translated many volumes from the French for Penguin Classics, including volumes by Diderot, Flaubert, and Verne, and wrote a biography of Huysmans. He died in 1972.Patrick McGuinness is a fellow and tutor in French at St. Annes College, Oxford.
