Best Books About Adventure Stories by Jules Verne

Jules Verne is the most translated novelist in the history of literature - his books have been published in more languages than almost any other author’s - and he is the father of science fiction. He sent his heroes to the center of the Earth, around the world in eighty days, twenty thousand leagues under the sea, and to the moon itself, and he did it with scientific precision, boundless imagination and complete propriety. His adventures are thrilling, instructive and entirely clean.

For readers who want adventure fiction with wonder, intelligence and no explicit content, Verne is an essential classic. This guide walks through his best work in a practical order.

Why Verne Is the Father of Scientific Adventure#

Verne’s genius was to combine two genres that had never been combined before: the adventure story and popular science. His heroes do not simply fight pirates and cross deserts - they descend into volcanic craters, navigate submarines through the abyss and calculate trajectories to the moon, and the reader learns real science along the way. Verne researched obsessively; his novels are full of accurate geography, geology and astronomy, and his predictions - the submarine, the helicopter, television, the moon landing - have become famous.

His adventures are also clean. There is no explicit content in Verne’s novels; the drama is in the peril, the discovery and the race against time, and the morality is straightforward: courage, curiosity and cooperation are rewarded. He is one of the few classic authors whose books can be handed to a ten-year-old or a grandmother with equal confidence.

The Essential Start: Around the World in Eighty Days#

Around the World in Eighty Days (1872)#

Verne’s most beloved novel: Phileas Fogg, a meticulous English gentleman, makes a wager with his club that he can travel around the world in eighty days. With his new French servant Passepartout, he sets off on a race against time - by train, steamer, elephant and sledge - pursued by a detective who believes he is a bank robber.

It is the essential Verne: the novel is a perfect adventure machine - a race, a chase and a travelogue in one - and its hero, the imperturbable Fogg, is one of the great comic creations in literature. The book is entirely clean, and its famous twist ending is one of the most satisfying in fiction. If you read only one Verne book, this is the one.

Around the World in Eighty Days, and Why It Endures#

The genius of the novel is its hero. Phileas Fogg is a man who has reduced life to clockwork - he eats, bathes and reads at fixed hours - and the adventure is the story of the world refusing to cooperate with his schedule. The comedy comes from the collision between Fogg’s rigidity and the chaos of the world; the romance comes from the woman he rescues along the way, Aouda, and his slow, wordless thaw. The book is also a portrait of the world at a specific moment in history - the age of steam, telegraphs and empire - and its famous device of the daily newspaper has made it a permanent part of popular culture. It is the rare classic that is as entertaining as its reputation promises.

If You Want the Greatest Adventure: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas#

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870)#

Verne’s masterpiece: Professor Aronnax, a French marine biologist, is invited to join an expedition to hunt a mysterious sea monster - and discovers that the monster is a submarine, the Nautilus, commanded by the enigmatic Captain Nemo. Aronnax and his companions become Nemo’s guests - and prisoners - on a voyage through the world’s oceans, from the coral reefs to the South Pole.

It is the essential read for the epic: the novel is a tour of the sea’s wonders - its forests, its graveyards, its volcanoes - and its hero-villain, Captain Nemo, is one of the most fascinating characters in literature: a genius, a fugitive and a revolutionary who has turned his back on the world above. The book is entirely clean - the violence is directed at the machinery of empire, never graphic - and its portrait of the undersea world remains breathtaking. It is Verne’s greatest adventure and one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century.

If You Want the Journey to the Center: Journey to the Center of the Earth#

Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864)#

The novel that made Verne famous: Professor Lidenbrock, a brilliant and impatient German scientist, deciphers a coded message in an old manuscript that points the way to the center of the Earth. With his reluctant nephew Axel and their Icelandic guide Hans, he descends into a volcanic crater - and finds, beneath the surface, an entire world: vast caverns, underground seas, prehistoric forests and creatures that should be extinct.

It is the essential read for the wonder: the novel is a descent into the unknown, and its underground world is one of the great imaginative creations of literature. The science is dated - no one believes in a hollow Earth anymore - but the wonder is timeless, and the book’s atmosphere of discovery has never been surpassed. It is entirely clean, and it is the perfect Verne for readers who love the sense of awe.

If You Want the Race to Space: From the Earth to the Moon#

From the Earth to the Moon (1865)#

The most prophetic of Verne’s novels: after the Civil War, the members of the Baltimore Gun Club - bored artillerymen with nothing to do - decide to build a giant cannon capable of firing a projectile to the moon. They succeed beyond their expectations: three men, including the French adventurer Michel Ardan, climb into the projectile and are launched toward the moon.

It is the essential read for the prediction: Verne’s novel anticipated the Apollo program with uncanny accuracy - the launch site in Florida, the three-man crew, even the splashdown in the Pacific - and it remains a delightful adventure. The sequel, Around the Moon (1870), follows the projectile’s journey, and the two books together are a love letter to human curiosity. Both are entirely clean.

If You Want the Survival Adventure: The Mysterious Island#

The Mysterious Island (1874)#

Verne’s Robinsonade - his answer to Robinson Crusoe: five castaways, escaped from Richmond during the Civil War in a balloon, are blown across the Pacific and land on an uncharted island. With nothing but their intelligence and their hands, they build a civilization from scratch - and gradually discover that the island is not as deserted as it seemed.

It is the essential read for the engineering: the novel is a celebration of human ingenuity - the castaways make pottery, glass, iron, even a telegraph - and its portrait of a small society creating itself is deeply satisfying. The book also connects to the rest of Verne’s universe: the mysterious benefactor of the island turns out to be a character from his other novels. It is entirely clean, and it is the longest and most ambitious of his adventure stories.

A Complete Reading Order for Verne’s Adventure Stories#

Here is a suggested path through Verne’s best work:

• Start with Around the World in Eighty Days for the essential introduction.
• Move to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas for the greatest adventure.
• Try Journey to the Center of the Earth for the wonder.
• Read From the Earth to the Moon for the prophecy.
• Attempt The Mysterious Island for the survival epic.

For more clean fiction in this spirit, our thoughtful guide to clean books for adults gathers novels that are thrilling without being explicit, and our thoughtful guide to clean historical fiction extends the shelf into the wider world of period adventures. The stories section of our site is full of guides like this one, so there is always another voyage to take.

Why Verne’s Adventures Endure#

Verne’s novels have been read for a century and a half because they capture a particular human feeling better than almost anything else: the thrill of discovery. His heroes are not warriors or lovers; they are scientists, engineers and travelers, and their adventures are voyages of curiosity. The reader descends into the volcano, walks the ocean floor and watches the Earth recede from the moon, and the wonder is real - even when the science is dated, the feeling is not. That is why children still read Verne with the same delight their great-grandparents felt: curiosity does not age.

His cleanliness is part of his endurance. Verne wrote for a family audience - his publisher marketed the books as educational entertainment for young readers - and he maintained those standards throughout his career. There is no explicit content, no gratuitous violence and no cynicism; the world of his novels is one in which knowledge is power, courage is common and the universe is full of marvels worth exploring. For readers who want adventure that is thrilling and safe, Verne is the essential classic.

Why Verne Is the Essential Classic for Scientific Adventure#

Jules Verne sent his readers to the center of the Earth, around the world in eighty days, twenty thousand leagues under the sea and to the moon - and he did it without a single page a reader would need to skip. Around the World in Eighty Days is the perfect introduction; Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas is the greatest adventure; Journey to the Center of the Earth and the moon novels are pure wonder; The Mysterious Island is a hymn to human ingenuity. Every one of them is entirely clean. For readers who want adventure with intelligence, imagination and no explicit content, Verne is the essential discovery - the author who proved that the most thrilling voyages are the ones taken in the mind, and that science and wonder belong together. Start with Phileas Fogg, and you will understand why Verne has been the world’s favorite tour guide for a century and a half.