The turn of the 20th century was an electric time, filled with the promise of invention and the dread of an uncertain future. At the center of this cultural tension stood two literary giants, often considered the fathers of modern science fiction: Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.
Though both authors peered into the future, their methods were as different as an engineer’s blueprint and a philosopher’s treatise. Their contrasting visions not only defined the emerging genre of science fiction but also gave us a fascinating look at what Victorian and Edwardian society thought about the technology to come.
Jules Verne: The Engineer of Possibility
Jules Verne, the French novelist, was the era’s great extrapolator. His work, often classified as “hard science fiction” for the time, took existing technology and simply pushed it further. He was less interested in the philosophical ‘what-if’ and more concerned with the mechanical ‘how-to.’
The Triumphs of Verne’s Vision:
- The Electric Submarine: In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), Verne introduced the world to the Nautilus, a magnificent electric-powered submarine. While early, rudimentary submarines existed, Verne’s creation was far more sophisticated, fully electric, and capable of prolonged deep-sea travel. It was a clear blueprint for the nuclear-powered submarines that would patrol the oceans in the mid-20th century.
- The Apollo Prophecy: Perhaps his most stunning prediction is found in From the Earth to the Moon (1865). Verne correctly foresaw several eerily specific details of the real-life Apollo missions over a century later:
- The launch site in Florida (specifically, near Tampa Town, close to where Cape Canaveral would be built).
- The use of a massive, hollowed-out cannon (a metaphor for the sheer force of a rocket launch).
- The crew size of three men.
- The dramatic splashdown reentry in the Pacific Ocean.
Where Verne Misjudged:
While his vision was technologically sound, his execution was sometimes scientifically flawed. His biggest ‘misjudgment’ was the launch mechanism for his lunar flight: firing the spacecraft from a cannon. The instantaneous, massive acceleration required would have simply crushed the astronauts to death. Verne saw the destination and the vehicle, but in his commitment to the technology of his time (cannons), he missed the true power of rocketry that would be required.
H.G. Wells: The Seer of Social Consequence
H.G. Wells, the English writer, approached the future not as an engineer, but as a sociologist and moralist. Where Verne focused on the machine, Wells focused on its impact. His works, considered ‘soft science fiction,’ often involved a single impossible leap—like a time machine or a ray gun—to explore human nature, social class, and the dark side of progress.
The Triumphs of Wells’s Vision:
- Tanks in Warfare: In the short story The Land Ironclads (1903), Wells described massive, armored, wheeled vehicles that could cross trenches and deliver troops under fire. A little more than a decade later, during World War I, the first British tanks rolled onto the battlefield, looking strikingly similar to his chilling description.
- The Atomic Bomb: His 1914 novel The World Set Free introduced the concept of an indefinitely-exploding explosive device based on atomic energy—the atomic bomb. The description of its destructive, long-lasting power was so accurate that it is said to have inspired physicist Leo Szilard, who would later contribute to the Manhattan Project.
- Future Human Degeneration: In The Time Machine (1895), he posited a future where humanity splits into two species: the childlike, surface-dwelling Eloi and the brutal, subterranean Morlocks. While not a technological prediction, it was a profound sociological critique, imagining that the existing class divisions in Victorian England would calcify into separate evolutionary paths—a “prediction” of societal, rather than mechanical, decay.
Where Wells Misjudged:
Wells’s fantastical leaps of faith—such as the gravity-repelling “Cavorite” substance in The First Men in the Moon (1901) or the Time Machine itself—were brilliant narrative devices, but never meant to be plausible technology. His work often overlooked the granular, incremental steps of scientific progress in favor of the spectacular; no one is building a Time Machine, yet the principles of space travel that Verne labored over became a reality.
Two Paths to the Future
| Author | Approach | Primary Focus | Key Accurate Prediction | Key Misjudgment/Flawed Tech |
| Jules Verne | Extrapolative (Hard Sci-Fi) | The Machine and the Journey | Submarines, Launch from Florida (Apollo) | Cannon-launched space travel |
| H.G. Wells | Speculative (Soft Sci-Fi) | The Consequence and Society | Tanks, Atomic Warfare | Cavorite (gravity-repelling substance), Time Travel |
In the final analysis, neither author was a perfect prophet. Verne, the dedicated Vernian, gave us the tangible, achievable things—the sleek submarine, the vision of the moon rocket—but sometimes missed the most effective methods. Wells, the keen Wellsian, gave us the profound implications—the moral terror of the atomic bomb, the social cost of progress—but often used impossible “magic” to get there.
Together, these two literary titans laid the foundations for the entire science fiction genre. Verne showed us that with enough engineering, anything is possible. Wells showed us that even when we build the impossible, the truly fascinating challenge is not in the science, but in us.