Jules Verne Books in Order: A Complete Reading Guide
Updated September 2026
Jules Verne Books in Order: The Short Answer
Almost all of Jules Verne's novels belong to one numbered series, Pierre-Jules Hetzel's Voyages extraordinaires: 62 novels, 54 published between 1863 and Verne's death in 1905 and 8 more issued afterward, heavily revised by his son Michel. Nearly all are standalones. If you just want the famous Jules Verne books in order, these are the ones to know:
- Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863)
- Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864)
- From the Earth to the Moon (1865)
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1869–70)
- Around the Moon (1870)
- Around the World in Eighty Days (1873)
- The Mysterious Island (1874–75)
- Michael Strogoff (1876)
Below is the whole series in order, then the handful of books that connect to each other, where to start, and the part most guides skip: which English translation to buy. With Verne, that choice matters more than the reading order.
In this guide:
- All 62 Voyages Extraordinaires in Order
- Verne Books That Connect: Gun Club, Nemo and Robur
- Where to Start: Around the World in Eighty Days
- Choosing a Good Jules Verne Translation
- Jules Verne by Age, Plus Homeschool Uses
- Jules Verne Movies Worth Watching
- Find Used Jules Verne
- Frequently Asked Questions
All 62 Voyages Extraordinaires in Order
Years are for first publication in French. Many novels ran as serials in Hetzel's family magazine, the Magasin d'éducation et de récréation, before the book came out, so a year range means the serial straddled two years. English titles vary from edition to edition; the most common is given here.
Published in Verne's lifetime
| # | English title | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Five Weeks in a Balloon | 1863 |
| 2 | Journey to the Center of the Earth | 1864 |
| 3 | From the Earth to the Moon | 1865 |
| 4 | The Adventures of Captain Hatteras | 1866 |
| 5 | In Search of the Castaways (Captain Grant's Children) | 1867–68 |
| 6 | Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas | 1869–70 |
| 7 | Around the Moon | 1870 |
| 8 | A Floating City | 1871 |
| 9 | Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa | 1872 |
| 10 | The Fur Country | 1873 |
| 11 | Around the World in Eighty Days | 1873 |
| 12 | The Mysterious Island | 1874–75 |
| 13 | The Survivors of the Chancellor | 1875 |
| 14 | Michael Strogoff | 1876 |
| 15 | Off on a Comet (Hector Servadac) | 1877 |
| 16 | The Child of the Cavern (The Underground City) | 1877 |
| 17 | Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen | 1878 |
| 18 | The Begum's Millions | 1879 |
| 19 | Tribulations of a Chinaman in China | 1879 |
| 20 | The Steam House | 1880 |
| 21 | The Giant Raft | 1881 |
| 22 | Godfrey Morgan (The School for Robinsons) | 1882 |
| 23 | The Green Ray | 1882 |
| 24 | Kéraban the Inflexible | 1883 |
| 25 | The Vanished Diamond (The Southern Star) | 1884 |
| 26 | The Archipelago on Fire | 1884 |
| 27 | Mathias Sandorf | 1885 |
| 28 | The Lottery Ticket | 1886 |
| 29 | Robur the Conqueror | 1886 |
| 30 | North Against South | 1887 |
| 31 | The Flight to France | 1887 |
| 32 | Two Years' Vacation | 1888 |
| 33 | Family Without a Name | 1889 |
| 34 | The Purchase of the North Pole | 1889 |
| 35 | César Cascabel | 1890 |
| 36 | Mistress Branican | 1891 |
| 37 | The Castle of the Carpathians | 1892 |
| 38 | Claudius Bombarnac | 1892 |
| 39 | Foundling Mick | 1893 |
| 40 | Captain Antifer | 1894 |
| 41 | Propeller Island | 1895 |
| 42 | Facing the Flag | 1896 |
| 43 | Clovis Dardentor | 1896 |
| 44 | An Antarctic Mystery (The Sphinx of the Ice Fields) | 1897 |
| 45 | The Mighty Orinoco | 1898 |
| 46 | The Will of an Eccentric | 1899 |
| 47 | The Castaways of the Flag (Second Fatherland) | 1900 |
| 48 | The Village in the Treetops | 1901 |
| 49 | The Sea Serpent | 1901 |
| 50 | The Kip Brothers | 1902 |
| 51 | Travel Scholarships | 1903 |
| 52 | A Drama in Livonia | 1904 |
| 53 | Master of the World | 1904 |
| 54 | Invasion of the Sea | 1905 |
Some lists also include The Wreck of the Cynthia (1885), which Verne co-wrote with André Laurie; that is why you will occasionally see 55 lifetime titles.
Published after his death (edited or written by Michel Verne)
| # | English title | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 55 | The Lighthouse at the End of the World | 1905 |
| 56 | The Golden Volcano | 1906 |
| 57 | The Thompson Travel Agency | 1907 |
| 58 | The Hunt for the Meteor | 1908 |
| 59 | The Danube Pilot | 1908 |
| 60 | The Survivors of the Jonathan | 1909 |
| 61 | The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz | 1910 |
| 62 | The Barsac Mission | 1919 |
The Jules Verne Society in France later published Verne's own unrevised manuscripts for several of these, starting in the 1980s; The Danube Pilot, for example, appeared in its original form as The Beautiful Yellow Danube in 1988. Outside the series, his early novel Paris in the Twentieth Century, written in 1863 and rejected by Hetzel, was not published until 1994.
Verne Books That Connect: Gun Club, Nemo and Robur
Verne's novels are standalones, but a few link up. Read these pairs in order:
- The Gun Club: From the Earth to the Moon → Around the Moon → The Purchase of the North Pole. The first book ends on a cliffhanger, so have the second ready.
- Captain Nemo: In Search of the Castaways and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, then The Mysterious Island, which ties up threads from both. Read the island book last or its revelations lose their punch.
- Robur: Robur the Conqueror → Master of the World.
- A sequel to Poe: An Antarctic Mystery continues Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym; our Edgar Allan Poe books in order guide covers Poe's side of the pairing.
Where to Start: Around the World in Eighty Days
Around the World in Eighty Days is the best first Verne. It is the shortest of the big ones, it is funny, and Phileas Fogg's race against the calendar works as well now as in 1873. (There is no hot-air balloon in the book, despite the posters; that came from the 1956 film.)
Next, Journey to the Center of the Earth for pure adventure, then Twenty Thousand Leagues. Be ready for long stretches of marine-biology catalogues in the latter; they are part of the point, but young readers often skim.
For readers who want something less familiar: Michael Strogoff, a courier's ride across Siberia; Two Years' Vacation, about a group of schoolboys shipwrecked on an island (castaway fans will find more in our survival adventure novels for teen boys); and The Begum's Millions, an early rival-cities dystopia.
When you have read the big Verne titles, the natural next author is the other founding figure of science fiction; our H.G. Wells books in order guide covers everything from The Time Machine on.
Choosing a Good Jules Verne Translation
Verne's reputation in English suffered for a century because of bad translations, and many of them are still in print because they are in the public domain.
- Avoid the 1872 Mercier Lewis translation of Twenty Thousand Leagues. It cut nearly a quarter of the French text and introduced hundreds of errors, famously turning a diving suit into a "cork-jacket." Many cheap editions still reprint it. If the title page names no translator, assume the worst.
- Watch for the old Journey to the Centre of the Earth translation that renames Professor Lidenbrock "Hardwigg" and Axel "Harry." If you see those names, it is the loose Victorian version.
- Good choices for Twenty Thousand Leagues: the restored and annotated translation by Walter James Miller and Frederick Paul Walter (1993), William Butcher's for Oxford World's Classics (1998), or David Coward's for Penguin Classics (2017).
- For the other famous titles, Oxford World's Classics editions with a named modern translator and notes are a safe choice. Wesleyan University Press has also published careful modern translations of several novels, including lesser-known ones.
For younger children, abridged "illustrated classics" retellings are fine as an introduction, just know they are adaptations, not Verne's text. An unabridged Twenty Thousand Leagues runs to several hundred pages.
Jules Verne by Age, Plus Homeschool Uses
Verne wrote for a family magazine, so there is little that would bother a parent in terms of language or romance. Unabridged editions suit strong readers from about 11 or 12; retellings work from 8 or 9. The real caution is attitudes of the period: African and Indigenous characters in books like Five Weeks in a Balloon and Dick Sand are often drawn as stereotypes, and Off on a Comet includes an ugly antisemitic caricature. These are good discussion points for older students and a reason to pre-read the lesser-known titles for younger ones. Teens who take to Verne can keep going with our best science fiction books for teens.
For homeschoolers, Verne pairs naturally with geography and science. Trace Fogg's route on a map and check his timetable (our homeschool geography books list has good companions for that); compare the Nautilus with real submarines; discuss what the moon-cannon novels got right and wrong about spaceflight.
Jules Verne Movies Worth Watching
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) — Disney, with Kirk Douglas and James Mason as Nemo. It won two Academy Awards and remains the best family version.
- Around the World in 80 Days (1956) — David Niven as Fogg; it won the Oscar for Best Picture. Later versions include a 2004 Jackie Chan comedy and a 2021 television series with David Tennant.
- Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) — with James Mason and Pat Boone; a 2008 version starred Brendan Fraser.
- Mysterious Island (1961) — best known for Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion creatures.
Find Used Jules Verne
We see a steady flow of Jules Verne in used editions, from school paperbacks to illustrated hardcovers; check the translator before you buy. Browse our science fiction books and classic literature, and look for the Disney film on DVD. Orders over $15 ship free.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books did Jules Verne write?
The Voyages extraordinaires series has 62 novels: 54 published in Verne's lifetime and 8 published after his death in 1905. He also wrote short stories, plays and nonfiction.
Do Jules Verne's books need to be read in order?
No. Nearly all are standalones. Read From the Earth to the Moon before Around the Moon, and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas before The Mysterious Island.
What is the best Jules Verne book to start with?
Around the World in Eighty Days. It is short, funny and fast. Journey to the Center of the Earth is a good second choice.
What is the best translation of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea?
Choose a modern, complete translation, such as the Miller and Walter annotated edition, William Butcher's Oxford World's Classics version or David Coward's Penguin Classics version. Avoid the 1872 Mercier Lewis translation.
Is The Mysterious Island a sequel to Twenty Thousand Leagues?
Yes, in part. It is a separate adventure about castaways, but it brings back Captain Nemo and ties up his story. It also connects to In Search of the Castaways.
What age are Jules Verne books for?
Unabridged editions suit strong readers from about 11 or 12. Abridged retellings work for ages 8 to 10.
Did Verne write the posthumous novels himself?
Only partly. His son Michel revised the manuscripts heavily and wrote The Thompson Travel Agency and much of The Barsac Mission himself. Verne's original versions were published later in France.
