Jules Gabriel Verne (8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright, best known for his creation of the "Voyages extraordinaires", a series of bestselling adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872). His novels, always well documented, are generally set in the second half of the 19th century, taking into account the technological advances of the time.