As can be seen on the Literary Analysis page, "Verne’s legendary formula, when his works are seen as more than scientific fun, follows the lines of the main characters discovering something secret and/or doing something very daring, preliminary purification of said characters, perilous travel, ordeal, attaining the point suprême, death and transfiguration of some sort. Pure fantasy is rejected, because there is always a rationalist explanation behind Verne’s writing. Everything about Verne’s plots is impossible, extravagant, unbelievable, impulsive. Like the hero and explorer Ferguson in Five Weeks in a Balloon, Verne “explores text, works his way through it, covers known textual terrain and rewrites it in order to follow and itinerary through to a new place and break new ground. Narrative…is both about the exploration of previous narrative, and the plotting of new ‘journeys’ in terms of an earlier one. Physical space and narrative momentum and conceived along precisely the same lines, and follow the same model”, according to writer Timothy A. Unwin. Verne’s formulaic writing proved not only very entertaining but very profitable in regards to the masses."
This formula applied to the works that made Verne famous, the Voyages Extraordinaires. These works were also Verne's most commercial. Verne later abandoned the formula for his darker works, after the death of his beloved mother. These later works are significantly different in style, were less commercially successful, and are lesser-known to this day. A number of these were published posthumously and were significantly rewritten by his son, Michel.
