“Paris in the 20th Century” contains the characteristic features of the “classical” Jules Verne - what is called science fiction, but what he rather had was a scientific foresight (the novel already has a subway and cars with an internal combustion engine, running on hydrogen, and faxes, and computers, and electric machines and much more). But the admiration for scientific and technical genius, familiar to us from other works of the writer, is here combined with a warning to humanity: a civilization where two gods are worshiped - the machine and money - carries the threat of spiritual degradation. And finally, another touch of novelty: instead of travel and adventure, the plot is based on a love story.