--- title: Jules Verne's Lost Novel link: https://blue-continuum.com/verne-paris source: hnrss-org published: 2026-10-30T19:55:10Z updated: 2026-10-30T19:55:10Z first_seen: 2026-10-31T08:47:39.594630982Z authors: - dnetesn content: extracted html: 2026-10-30-jules-verne-s-lost-novel.html remote_preview: url: https://blue-continuum.com/__l5e/assets-v1/4c93ed3c-ba50-4d5d-a01a-8490d86ffb63/verne-paris-hero.jpeg alt: The Eiffel Tower and the Paris skyline at sunset, seen from above --- How civilization learned to mine energy — and now knowledge. By John Steele Published October 28, 2026 Read 10 minutes [![Blue Continuum](https://blue-continuum.com/__l5e/assets-v1/04c6149c-7e76-4889-b34f-785f366ce11e/BD_logo_white.png)](https://blue-continuum.com/) Paris at sunset. Adobe Stock. In 1863, Jules Verne did something he would almost never do again. He looked not toward an undiscovered island, the bottom of the sea, the interior of the Earth or the far side of the Moon, but directly into the future. He imagined Paris almost a century ahead, in the year 1960, and asked what sort of civilization the nineteenth century might become if its faith in science, machinery, commerce and efficiency were allowed to run to its logical conclusion. The result was *Paris in the Twentieth Century*, a book so unlike the Verne we came to know that his publisher, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, refused to publish it. Hetzel thought the prophecy implausible and the tone too bleak. Verne put the manuscript away. It remained unpublished for 131 years, until it was recovered from a family safe and finally appeared in France in 1994. We commonly describe Verne as a great… **John Steele** is the Publisher and Executive Editor of Blue Continuum. Get *The Continuum*, our free Thursday newsletter.