Paris in the 20th Century - Technology rules in a world devoid of culture..

PARIS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Author: Jules Verne

Publisher: Del Rey; New York

Date: 1997

Published over 130 years after it was written, Jules Verne writes about the then futuristic Paris of the 1960s, an advanced society where many technological wonders exist. The novel's protagonist is 16-year-old Michel Dufrénoy, a graduate with a major in literature and the classics, subjects long forgotten in a world where only business and technology are valued. Predicting the rise of the internet, Verne is much less optimistic about the future in this novel, warning here against technological progress replacing all other pursuits. A slow novel that takes time to develop Michel's story, Verne spends a considerable amount of it fleshing out 1960s Paris.