Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before people invented navigable aircraft and practical submarines and devised any means of spacecraft. He ranks behind Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie as the second most translated author of all time. People made his prominent films. People often refer to Verne alongside Herbert George Wells as the "father of science fiction."
I got a good third of the way through Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea before I learned that the version in this book is considered to be a very poor English translation. Fortunately, I was able to find an unabridged, professional, annotated translation, with all the original illustrations. I enjoyed it quite a lot.