Product Description: A mission to rid the seas of a monstrous creature becomes a terrifying nightmare when Professor Arronax, Conseil and Ned Land are thrown overboard. The huge marine animal which has haunted the water is no living beast, but a spectacular man-made vessel, and the three men find themselves the helpless prisoners of Captain Nemo. Resigned to their fate, they begin a miraculous journey on the submarine ship which can travel through waters never before explored. For the Professor, at least, this voyage is one he would not have missed for the world.
Shows its age Unfortunately, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" shows its age. While the story is, actually, quite good, the language is somewhat stilted and the book takes a while to really get going. I think many young readers will be puzzled by the vocabulary and will be bored. Eventually, the story picks up. However, I was bored in the 1950's and cannot imagine that today's youngsters will do much better. I think that the Walt Disney movie is a much better bet if you want to expose your child to a story that was a true classic. This is one of the few cases where a movie has an advantage over the written word.
Wow I read this book many years ago and still have the book. This is a thought-provoking book, and I can honestly say that it's one of the best books that I have ever read in my whole life. There is much to be thought about in this book, and I intend to reread this book so I can appreciate it all over again. Truly, this book is one of these classics that must be preserved always, for the wonderful writing and lessons contained therein.
Reading this with different eyes as an adult. It is really a shame that Amazon pushes so many editions together in the same group of reviews. This review is of the complete edition (not the bowdlerised children's version) and references the translation by Mendor T. Brunetti.
This was a reread for me. I read most of the Verne books when I was quite young, and lately wanted to revisit some of my favorites. When I was younger, I was very much (like Captain Aronnax) taken with the catalogue of undersea marvels that Captain Nemo and his Nautilus enabled us to visit. Reading it this time around, I was quite struck with the political picture of Captain Nemo. As a man from an unknown country who has lost everything at the hands of men, Nemo becomes what we would today call a terrorist. He funds freedom fighters. He takes his revenge on the men from the countries who hurt him and his. The portraits on his wall: John Brown, Kosciusko, Daniel O'Connell. I think that I'm going to add The Mysterious Island to my list. I had never read the sequel in the past, and I understand that it provides more background about the mysterious captain.
Readers who aren't familiar with this book are encouraged by this reviewer to rapidly amend this sad condition. I also have to say that I first read this when I was nine (the full version, not a children's edition) and I can't imagine what really needs to be cut to make it suitable for younger folks. I'd hand them the whole thing with a confident heart.
Reads Like a Travel Journal I loved this classic French novel by Jules Verne and found it to be very entertaining from start to finish! I was very surprised that I would enjoy this book as much as I did.... I figured "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", like many classic novels, would be boring, but Jules Verne is a marvelous storyteller. He imbues this novel with lots of intrigue and mystery as you wonder how the story will unfold... There is lots of adventure and interesting predicaments, and of course, many unforgettable characters one comes to care about during the course of the novel. Also if you like science fiction then this is the novel for you! Jules Verne seems to be ahead of his time in terms of technology and creates quite a wonderful piece of classic literature that has stood the test of time.
The attention to detail that Jules Verne used to capture the readers attention is marvelous... This book is written in the 1st person through the eyes of Assistant Professor Pierre Aronnax of the Paris Museum of Natural History. Professor Aronnax unfolds the story to the reader of this novel about several sightings of a mysterious object seen around the world by many different people.... Some believe it to be an island, others seem to think the object is a floating reef, a large whale or other large mammal and so on. It isn't until Professor Aronnax and his faithful Flemish assistant, Conseil, take part on an expedition aboard the Abraham Lincoln to seek out this unknown object once and for all. Eventually, it is discovered that this unknown object is a submarine named the Nautilus, on which Professor Aronnax, Conseil and Canadian harpooner, Ned Land, spend the remaining part of the novel sailing on the Nautilus through the various oceans of the world along with the crew of the Nautilus. What adventures they have while sailing on the Nautilus!! And the exquisite detail in which Jules Verne imparts is wonderful. One feels like they are truly reading the actually travel journal/diary of Professor Aronnax. Professor Aronnax writes from a scientific/natural history perspective as he is very much interested in the under water world of the worlds oceans.
The only draw back I had with this novel was that some of the descriptions were a bit overdone or a bit too much to take in (like classification of animal species or various nautical terms).... These descriptions aren't overwhelming or occur that frequently, I'd just find myself skimming through these parts rather quickly.
Interesting Anachronisitc Book - Inconsistent Quality of Publishing Having seen the movie a couple times this was the first time I read the book and was surprised to see a significant number of unexpected differences. Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is arguably the first technical thriller, launching a genre which has since grown wildly in popularity and includes most of Michael Chricton's work. It is a very imaginative book, the story of the mysterious Captain Nemo -haunted by an implied but never explained past - who has built for himself and his crew the submarine Nautilus to be free of the laws of man and to live successfully and sustainably on the bounty of the world's oceans, which he intrepidly explores in all its wonders. Inevitably he is chased by the main characters, Ned the Harpooner, Mr. Arronax the professor and Conseil his man-servant, in the frigate USS Abraham Lincoln. Unlike the movie the story is told entirely by Mr. Arronax and Ned is more a minor character, and a stolid Canadian as opposed to the boisterous and fun loving American in the movie. Also unlike the movie the Nautilus does not sink the Lincoln, but in a duel vents it with steam that throws our three main characters overboard whom are then rescued after the Lincoln, ignorant to the fact they are no longer onboard, retreats from the scene.
Thus begins a promising story of mystery and adventure, the possible drama of Captain Nemo being chased by worldly forces in his incredible Nautilus, the tension between the captives who are experiencing the amazing wonders of the ocean depths firsthand and their captor who cannot ever let them go without losing his own freedom, and the chance for exciting adventures. While all of these things are delivered in the book, they are done so very anachronistically (obviously), with the drama, tension and adventure being there - and being very creatively crafted - but also being very subdued and literally drowned in an ocean of Mr. Arronax describing the latin names of the sea life he sees outside the Nautilus's window. This captures the fascination of the age with Natural History versus today's focus on excitement and adventure in these types of novels. There are many times were the book gets very, very dry as the author rattles of names that you have no idea what they refer to, and even if you google them the only hits you will get are the passages in the book itself! Based on this, the fact that this translation cuts out some 20% of the book is probably not a bad thing.
Nonetheless there are some great moments of natural beauty and adventure. Jules Verne showed some incredible predictive power in describing the structural design, diving operations and maneuverability, and life support systems of a submarine, being basically spot on before anything beyond the Turtle of Revolutionary War heritage had ever been put to sea. The myriad undersea "terrains" the characters experience are particularly cool and fun. Relative to the movie the giant squid attack is underwhelming, but a much better scene that never made it to the film is one where after discovering the south pole (something Verne got wrong obviously) the Nautilus is caught in between two icebergs and must dig itself out before its air supply runs out. But there are some drawbacks too. There are some shockingly dark moments for a book aimed towards younger men from the 1860's which seem to imply they are leading somewhere and could have been great plot tension builders, but they are never fully fleshed out, and neither is the character they are supposed to be windows into, the reclusive, tortured yet brilliant Captain Nemo. The book ends quickly and inconclusively, feeling like a great set up for a story that ends as more travel log than character story or adventure yarn. Nonetheless the book is short and relatively easy to read despite it's older grammatical style which can sound very strange today.
The job the publisher did however is spotty. The cover design of the book is very well done, but the editing is poor with many glaring typos throughout the text.
All in all the movie is much better as a movie than a direct adaptation of the book would have been, with Ned Land turned into a main character that an American audience can connect with (unlike the highly intellectual and uninspiring Mr. Arronax as main character of the book or the turgid Canadian version of Ned Land), Captain Nemo is more explained as a character and pitted more against Mr. Arronax as two opposing sides of a moral coin, and the movie has a more solid story and conclusion. But the book has it's own advantages and overall is worth reading, especially for its historical significance.
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