4000 Jules Verne illustrations now online

As someone who loves adventure books and science fiction, I have read numerous Jules Verne novels and stories. If you want plucky groups of stiff lipped explorers (usually accompanied by a beautiful woman) going somewhere interesting in the 1900s, then Verne is a great place to start. Also check out H.G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle (Lost World) and H. Rider Haggard. There are apparently quite a few giant beasts and undiscovered dinosaurs out there, so be careful people.

I once got Mrs Scifi Ward a huge seven-novel edition of Jules Verne because she has a weird obsession with Captain Nemo. It is a gorgeous volume but sadly there are no illustrations. There are some books of his out that do have illustrations but these are sadly few in number. And there were a lot of lovely pictures that went with the original stories, as you can probably guess by reading the headline of this post.

Did you know that a lot of Verne’s more famous work such as: Around the World in Eighty Days, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon, Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island, were all part of a single 54-volume series called the Voyages Extraordinaire? Well, nor did I until I read this article in Open Culture. The article gives a bit more background if you are interested (and you should be as it is interesting).

And now, after much waffle. Click on this link for the archive. Here, in addition to the above, are some personal favorites just to give you a taster:

There are loads more but you might as well have fun browsing the archive. Ok, one more but just because it has dinosaurs and everyone loves a good dino fight. Now put on you favorite pith helmet and enjoy.