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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Perhaps we saw the 1950's movie with Kirk Douglas, or maybe we had the snot scared out of us on the Disney World ride as kids-regardless, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is indelibly etched into the collective memory. The original by Jules Verne was published in 1869 when submarines where in their infancy: once again Verne predicts much of what will come technologically.The crew of an American ship sets off to investigate a giant sea monster, only to find it, fight it, and then realize it's a submarine. 


It's called the Nautilus, and was built by the mysterious Captain Nemo. Fortunately he lets the multinational crew live long enough to go exploring with him. Until, like many mad scientist types, he gets bored of his quarry and goes a bit nuts. One last thing: don't let the name 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea fool you. 20K leagues is over two and a half times the circumference of the Earth. The title refers to the total distance they traveled: 20,000 leagues. Enjoy!

LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 18, 2015
ISBN9781304033987
Author

Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) is one of the most well-regarded French writers of the nineteenth century. He was a poet, novelist and dramatist, and he is best remembered in English as the author of Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) (1831) and Les Misérables (1862). Hugo was born in Besançon, and became a pivotal figure of the Romantic movement in France, involved in both literature and politics. He founded the literary magazine Conservateur Littéraire in 1819, aged just seventeen, and turned his hand to writing political verse and drama after the accession to the throne of Louis-Philippe in 1830. His literary output was curtailed following the death of his daughter in 1843, but he began a new novel as an outlet for his grief. Completed many years later, this novel became Hugo's most notable work, Les Misérables.

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Reviews for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Rating: 3.7302250308418 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

2,756 ratings86 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The narrator has a habit of listing by genus and phylum every single plant and animal he sees and every shipwreck that has occurred in each region he travels to, but I skimed those and the rest was pretty good. I enjoyed the odd combination of 19th-century-style entitlement with surprisingly modern-sounding environmentalism (that species has been nearly hunted to extinction and this may be the last of its kind...let's eat it! or praising nature for creating new coal deposits in the sargasso sea for humanity to use when the land-bound deposits run out, or berating the harpooner for wanting to kill a whale needlessly, then slaughtering a huge group of other whales that came to hunt the first group....) And of course, an ambiguous villain(?) is often enjoyable.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    What do you get when you combine marine biology from the late 1800s and an action-adventure classic? 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, of course!

    If you haven’t already read it or seen one of the many film adaptations, the novel follows Professor Arannox, an educated gentleman, and Conseil, his servant, on their search for knowledge within the ocean’s depths. Along the way, they encounter many wonders and meet the acquaintance of some intriguing characters, including the mysterious Captain Nemo.

    When the plot focuses on the conflicts our cast of characters face on their journey, the pages fly by. From kidnappings to shipwrecks, a lot happens in what could be considered a rather short novel. Unfortunately, where there’s adventure, there’s also quite a lot of seemingly unnecessary description. Much of the book focuses on various characters making observations about fish. Unless you’re a scientist with a keen interest in the biological classification of sea creatures, there’s not much that will intrigue you in those passages. The descriptions that did not bother me were those that detailed the intricacies of Captain Nemo’s vessel, the Nautilus. At the time the novel was published, submarines were still incredibly primitive, so it’s impressive that Verne was able to predict the future, in a manner of speaking.

    All of the main and supporting characters are fascinating, to say the least. Professor Aronnax values knowledge over freedom, Conseil takes great pride in his subservient position, Ned Land has a bloodlust for the hunt, and Captain Nemo, well, we don’t know much about him, do we? The level of secrecy he exudes kept me engaged until the bitter end. Verne has a subtle way with dialogue too. There were many moments, particularly in interactions between Ned and Conseil, which left me chuckling to myself.

    20,000 Leagues is a classic for a reason. As much as I disliked the long scientific passages, the novel certainly has its merits. If you’re bothered by the extensive marine life descriptions, I highly recommend skimming or skipping them completely if you’re concerned that they’re ruining your reading experience.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Not being familiar with the comparative criticism between Verne and Wells, can only offer that I while I enjoyed Nemo's narrative and the compelling saga presented, I felt it would've benefited from some of Wells' philosophy.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I loved all the descriptions of underwater life, and the different places the characters visit. I wanted to become a marine biologist after I finished reading!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Review #16 - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (1870)Captain Nemo and his Nautilus – a submarine so ahead of its time when you consider that this novel was written in 1870, is a story of such a grandeur, such wonder that the scientific progress and the explanations given by Prof. Aronnax, a naturalist and passenger on this journey seem so believable (and some quite accurate) that, in some moments you forget and believe that you are on the greatest voyage ever undertaken. Jules Verne was meticulous in his research and this is a marvellous adventure story. Alas I did not enjoy reading this on the Kindle for the illustrations alone and would recommend future readers to read this novel in a hardback that's profusely illustrated.Originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870, the first edition was published by Pierre-Jules Hetzel in 1870 in French. English translation appeared in 1872. This edition by Penguin translated by David Coward.- IRONJAW’S BOOK REVIEW, Review #16. October 7, 2017
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    In 1866, a mysterious sea-creature has been plaguing the shipping lanes of the oceans. Several ships have sighted and even been sunk by a long, unknown and unnamed threat. Professor Pierre Aronnax, a marine biologist, theorizes that the creature in question is a narwal of gigantic proportions, come from the depths of the ocean herself. He is invited aboard the Abraham Lincoln as the ship embarks on a quest to seek and destroy the creature before it can do more harm. However, the professor, his assistant Consiel and a whaler named Ned Land are surprised to discover that, upon being thrown from the ship during a battle with the 'creature' to discover that it is, in fact, a magnificent submarine. They are taken aboard by the creator and leader of the vessel, the enigmatic Captain Nemo, and there kept prisoner. Aronnax finds himself enthralled beneath the waves on this aquatic adventure, but he must take into account the feelings of his companions as the months roll by. Jules Verne is not for everyone. He is, by no means, a difficult read, but he is a thick read. Many of his works are heavily laden by his vast amounts of knowledge and research, and 20,000 Leagues is certainly no exception. Throughout the journey, we are given glimpses through the professor's eyes of the myriads of creatures and plants that he sees all over the world and he tends, as the narrator, to go on about these things for some paragraphs. I decided, not far in, that teachers should use this book as they have used Billy Joel's song 'We didn't start the fire' or whatever it is called, for years--make a list of the places, peoples and creatures listed throughout this novel and give it to the students for picking paper topics. I have a feeling it could be quite successful. Anywho. I really did find this book an enjoyable read, despite the scientific lulls. The Professor's excitement in the element combined with his intrigue at the mysterious figure Nemo makes him an excellent narrator. In his professorial role, he is continually observing and questioning and learning, providing details for the reader to clearly picture and absorb the actions and settings. Nemo himself is an enigma to the narrator and possibly even more so to the reader, as it is an interpretation of a man instead of a description of a man from an omnipotent or unbiased narrator...of course, there are those who would say there is no such thing as an unbiased narrator, but we shall not get into that here. It is a lonely argument when one-sided, as it would be. Nature of a blog post and all that. I am sorry that this is such a pathetic review, but I'm still not entirely sure how I should be writing these silly things, not to mention if I should be. Oh well. Off to play Scrabble.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    a good read
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Good book !
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really enjoyed the descriptions
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A classic that I had always meant to read . . .The first thing I learned was that I had always been in error in my expectations from the title. I had thought that the ship had descended 20,000 leagues under the ocean, but, of course, the submarine had merely undertaken a journey of 20,000 league while submerged. As a result, the speculative science basis for the book was much better grounded, and Verne gets many things right - along with a series of clangers.I had recently read Edgar Allan Poe, and found many similarities in their approach to early science fiction (to creating the genre of science fiction, really). A good read.Read March 2017
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the unabridged version. It was long — very long! But what language, what grace of phrase! And finally, what drama! I imagine the abridged version leave out the lengthy descriptions of the underwater animals and plants, but I think it was worth reading. I admit that part is tedious. Perhaps my 4 stars are too generous for all I have agonized over the ichthyology, but the ending is so dramatic, it probably skews my rating to more positive.ETA: I just downgraded my star rating for the reasons stated above.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    If you are interested in the state of ichthyology in the 1860's this is the book of you. Every new area visited starts with an extensive list of the flora & fauna of the ocean and as far as I can tell is the most scientifically accurate part of the book, the rest sadly does not hold up as well. This mostly feels like a research project hung over a very loose plot. There is little story or plot and no character development to be found. The central mystery of the who and why of Nemo is only resolved in the most superficial manner. While it is somewhat interesting to see what was state of the art in the mid 19 century this is a story crying out for an abridged version.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I first read this book when I was eight. While my classmates were rushing against one another to bring home Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, I was devouring our library's collection of Verne and Sherlock Holmes books. They were thick, with huge prints and illustrations - clearly intended for kids. One time, I took out a book in the morning, read it during breaktimes, then returned it in the afternoon of that same day before I went home.Of all the titles in that collection, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea ended up being my favorite. So, more than ten years later, when I saw it again in the bookstore, I knew I just had to relive the adventure again. It had been a light and fast read in that small, thick book from third grade, so I certainly didn't expect it to be long and, frankly speaking, quite dragging in its unabridged form. That said, it was still a better adventure than before. If Verne didn't expound too much on the sea creature naming, this book would've been paced faster, but less believable too since he wrote it in a professor's point of view.In all, I still loved it and I look forward to re-reading his two other books that I first read a decade ago: Around The World In 80 Days, and A Journey to the Center of the Earth.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book shows the true roots of science fiction. A story so fully of carefully researched facts about the various oceans of the world and the fish and plant life in them that you could almost believe that the nautilus and captain nemo did exist and the wonders they showed our narrator exsisted as well.
    Science fiction is about taking what we know and expanding it just that little bit more into the impossible. Or the one day maybe possible and then seeing what might happen.
    Quiet apart from that this is a story that brings home the massive change in attitude our society has had in regard to the environment and its study. Nemo himself is somewhat of a conservationist "this would be killing for the sake of killing" he tells Ned the harpooner. He kills willingly for food or in his search for revenge but will not be party to senseless destruction.
    We never learn what Nemo actually hopes to achieve or what happens to the nautilus in the end. In many ways I think this would have added to the believability of the story when it was first published.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
     There's some unknown sea monster and it's destroying ships by gouging giant punture marks in them. Surmise is that it is a giant narwhal type creature and so the US Navy sends a boat out to chase it down. They do indeed find the creature, but it's not flesh and blood, it's a giant electric submarine. In the chase, our narrator, the french professor of biology, his servant and the Canadian harpooner get swept off the small boat and land on the submarine, where they are taken in and treated as captives, at least initially.They meet the ships captain, the enigmatic Captain Nemo and so begins a circumnavigation of the globe by submarine. You could argue that the descriptions of the South Pole and the passage between the Red and Mediterranean seas are quite unrealistic - but this was 50 years before men went to the South pole, and so is nothing more than an amazing flight of fancy. The descriptions of the fish became slightly dull after a while, (seen one & you've seen them all) but the story rolls along. Who Nemo is and what drives him to escape under the sea remains a mystery to me. A good read, and shows a hugely inventive mind at work.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This has to be near the sourcewaters of speculative fiction. As I read this book, I felt like I could feel Verne's mind working: "If I could travel under the sea, what sorts of marvelous things would I find?" Early chapters function as a kind of check-list for these imagined wonders: enormous underwater volcanoes, Atlantis, giant squids, the South Pole. And the wonders discovered really are the stars of the adventure. The technology is imaginative and interesting, but only to a point. Captain Nemo is mysterious and conflicted, but served more for me as background noise all all the delicious "what if?"s.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Vernes undersea adventure is an amazing trip that I've taken many times. Although history has proven his vision to be incorrect on many occasions in this yarn, it is still a mesmerizing odyssey. One of my favorite books.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I've long wanted to read the story of Captain Nemo and the undersea adventures of 20000 Leagues Under the Sea. I'm now glad to have read it and overall enjoyed the story. I can understand how this story had such a large impression on society in the late 1800s and early 1900s where life under the oceans was almost a complete mystery. I found the novel a bit dry and slow at parts but it was still a pleasure to read. For those looking to read a novel which had such huge impact on the development of science fiction one needs not look further than this.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this story when I was a kid and my rating is based on those memories. I doubt I would rate it lower if I read it again.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read this because it was on a list of Great Classics. I saw the movie long ago but did not remember much of it. I thought the title meant 20,000 leagues down! It seems Captain Nemo and Professor Aronnax (and Conneil and Ned land ) went on a submarine for 20,000 leagues, often under the sea's surfacce. It has some exciting things, especially when they almost die at the South Pole. This book is nnotated, and corrects some things in the standard English translation. The sequel is The Mysterius sland, but I don't think I have to read it. Verne wrote 65 books. I think I've read enough bny him.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A true classic. It did have sections where the scientific detail got a bit overwhelming, but they were easily skimmed and did serve to help with the characterization. For the most part, the narrative kept moving and the characters were fully developed. I was slightly disappointed in the ending. After all those adventures, I wanted the best adventure to be the grande finale, but the author employed the deus ex machina by having the narrator fall into a state of unconsciousness where he (and the reader) essentially missed the last adventure. Sad. But overall, a good read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    In 1866 there are a number of sightings of an unexplained object in the ocean. Some of these objects are far apart and with no other explanation, it is thought that it might be a sea monster.An expedition is established with the U.S. Naval frigate Abraham Lincoln under command of Captain Farragut. They are determined to find this sea monster and deal with it.Professor Pierre Aronnax of the Museum of Paris had written articles about this phenomenon of a possible sea monsgter and he his asked to join the others, along with his man Conseil and Canadian harpooner, Ned Land.Once they are out to sea and have traveled far in search of this monster, something is sighted and a small boat is launched. Ned Land is ready with his harpoon and Pierre and Conseil are with him. Ned realizes that this object is not a monster as their boat is swamped and they are picked up by the submarine, the Nautilus under Captain Nemo.They are kept in gentle captivity as the Nautilus travels around the world with Captain Nemo commenting as they reach various places. Pierre also comments on some of the things they find, such as a sunken ship with treasure aboard.The style of writing is dry and without much emotional comment. The style was so different from today's writing that It was challenging to get involved with the story.Jules Verne had some excellent ideas such as the deep sea diving equipment but when the Nautilus is said to go 20,000 leagues under the sea, that is more than the circumference of the earth.It was interesting to see where writing has changed in the last one hundred years and the changes in science fiction writing.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A good story, a little slow at times but it never stops moving entirely. It was interesting to see how people viewed our ecology in the past. I would reccomend reading it with a dictionary at hand as the main character is a zoologist and uses terms not familiar to the common man. All in all, I'm glad I read it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book intrigued me more than I expect, given the profoundly boring first few pages. Once the narrator finally was aboard the Nautilus, Verne's ability as a science fiction adventure write bloomed. He described dazzling underwater worlds, strange men and animals, and mysteries of the depth with excellent prose. I can see why this is a classic science fiction novel. Recommend for the ocean lover and the nerd alike.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Somehow this manages to be quite fascinating, despite the fact that the plot is only touched upon and large sections of the book are nothing more than descriptions of various denizens on the sea. It is hard not to find the narrator's pompous arrogance ridiculous to the point of amusement.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I first read this book when i was about 12, and now it's all worn out. I love it!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Phew, this took me ages to read. I had to dip in and out over quite a long period of time. Not because it was bad, no, just because of the sheer amount of information and description in every paragraph. If anyone wants a natural history tour of the oceans this is it, and it is fascinating. I even went and looked up some of the creature described in here so I could better picture it . The adventure that comes along with the education is somewhat sidelined by the geographical and biological information but is in itself quite exciting.It is very poorly paragraphed, as I'm sure is the main complaint, but that just means it is not one of those books you can read over a couple of days, and why is that a bad thing? Savour the descriptive prose and imagine you are also captive with the insane genius of Captain Nemo.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    As often happens when I read a book that inspires countless movies, I found 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea much stranger than it’s legion of popular adaptations. Often cited as a pioneer of science fiction, it reads more like a brochure for underwater tourism. The book consists mainly of amazed sightseers following a rigorous underwater itinerary inside a steampunk submarine. I could sense Verne checking off his list as he devoted each chapter to a distinct marine trope: kelp forests, sunken ships, sunken cities, volcanoes, shark attacks, squid attacks, navel battles, deserted islands, swift currents, coral reefs, icebergs, whirlpools, and all the rest are represented. If I were considering an expensive vacation I would call Nautilus Adventures and book a seat. Yet this aquatic amusement ride makes frequent stops for doggedly educational lessons. The “halt and explain” technique appears endemic of marine fiction; Moby Dick uses it famously, but whereas Melville inserted discreet explanatory chapters in his own voice, Verne has his characters break into learned discourse right in the middle of the action. The effect is usually comic. The characters will plummet down a dark underwater chasm, stop, discuss at length how atmospheric pressure can be withstood by reinforced glass, then plummet down some more. It’s like the cartoons of my childhood, where the cat and mouse would, at the sound of a bell, immediately stop their violent antics, sit down to high tea and discuss the weather, then, when the bell rang again, immediately resume their war. If Verne intended to do this as an ironic distancing device then he would be a genius akin to Brecht, but such is not the case. He intended to show how the seemingly impossible is in fact plausible. A noble goal, but he did it very clumsily. In this maladroit oscillation between narrative and exposition, Verne is indeed a pioneer of science fiction, for it is common flaw of the genre. Verne had ideas galore, far, far more ideas than most mortals ever conceive, and he had a rich imagination that gave his ideas wonderful color, but like many an author of speculative fiction, he struggled to integrate his ideas smoothly into a story. His wooden characters do not help matters much: an officious professor, a deadpan manservant, a hothead whaler, and, most famously, the “enigmatic” Captain Nemo. The professor is mainly a vehicle for Verne’s lectures, the servant is a source of lame one-liners, the whaler is there solely to fight the sharks, and Captain Nemo behaves more or less like a brooding teenager throughout the story. These are not psychologically complex, well rounded characters. Nor are they, in the manner of Dickens, poignant caricatures. They are naught but empty narrative vehicles. A robot could have stood in for any of them, and perhaps should have done so, as it would have added yet another expository twist to the story.This novel is tremendously influential and choc-a-block with images and ideas, but all in all this is not a fantastic work unfairly obfuscated by subsequent cinematic adaptations. In fact, some of those movies may actually be better than the book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is the classic translation, which suffers from many shortcomings (hence the low rating). You MUST read Miller's translation (usually published in an annotated edition) to have a chance to appreciate Verne's works. The early English translations are slightly more than worthless; they make Verne look like a mediocre writer of juvenile adventure novels. Even with Miller's translation, however, you probably would have to enjoy and appreciate the technical aspects of his work as well to rate that edition (Miller's translation) as high as I have.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is one of the most intriguing books I have ever read. Jules Verne predicts so many technologies that didn't exist in his time, but do exist today in some form. For example, in Verne's time there was no such thing as a deep sea submarine, but in this work of art, Verne depicts a submarine which is able to hold a crew under water for 48 hours, and it's impervious to the shells of the cannons of the 1800's. 20,000 Leagues has many surprising events in it. Humans are so oblivious to the hi-tech creation of one captain, Captain Nemo, that when the US Navy first see his submarine, they think it's a huge monster! Later on in the book, many mysteries are uncovered, such as the myth of Atlantis, Giant Squid, and many more.I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a book that is action-packed throughout the entire thing, but there is some action in it. If you're a reader who's looking for a book that makes you think about the mysteries around us, and has a few good action sequences, then definitely pick this book up.