Jules Verne was born in 1828 in France. His dream was to write a new kind of novel, which combined scientific fact with fiction. Verne eventually wrote 40 novels in his Voyages extraordinaires series. Unlike many of VerneZs novels Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon is an adventure novel with no science fiction elements. Loam Garral is a ranch owner who lives near the Peruvian-Brazilian border on the Amazon River. He is forced to travel down-stream in an attempt to escape his past. The novel is set on a large a Brazilian timber raft that is used by Garral and his family to float to Belem at the river's mouth. Verne gives detailed descriptions of the trip including the scenery and raft.