Customer Reviews

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

this book is full of adventure and fun.kids below 10 dont miss it.i found the end quite disappointing.as we follow the prisoners in the nautilus i thought the climax would be full of action but the book finishes as such.there are many biological facts which may hinder the adventure for young readers.i also recommend around the world in 80 days for young readers which is more thrilling than this one.

This is without a doubt the best translation of Jules Verne's 1870 science fiction classic "Vingt mille lieues sous les mers" ("20,000 Leagues under the Sea"). This translation by two Verne scholars, Walter James Miller and Frederick Paul Walter, takes all the knowledge available on the book and its author to not only make an accurate and readable complete text (early versions often omit a full quarter of the French original) that fixes the many errors of earlier translators, but also purges the text of many mistakes that were made by the original French compositors. The research and work that went into this translations is really quite stunning, and the result is a text that really lets Verne's genius shine: "20,000 Leagues under the Sea" is not only a brilliant piece of scientific prophecy, but also a thrilling story with superb, subtle characterizations.

The plot is familiar: Captain Nemo, an enigmatic figure who has withdrawn himself from the world, tours the oceans in his submarine called the Nautilus. We see this journey of 20,000 leagues (approx. 43,200 miles) through the eyes of Professor Pierre Aronnax, a scientist who is both Nemo's guest and prisoner. Also aboard with Aronnax are his manservant Conseil and a gruff ship's harpooner, Ned Land. The Nautilus encounters many wonders and obstacles on its long voyage: underwater forests, giant clams, attacks by huge squid, imprisonment in ice at the South Pole, monster storms, a war with a pack of sperm whales, and the discovery of the lost continent of Atlantis. But as something deep and destructive gnaws away at Captain Nemo, his prisoners seek a way to escape from the miracle ship.

In the English-speaking world Jules Verne has rarely received in the praise he truly deserves as a writer. People applaud his scientific foresight (while criticizing him for errors that were usually the fault of the translators), but shrug off his writing as inconsequential, with cardboard characters and plotless stories. If only these critics would read this translation of Verne's best novel...they would have to re-think their position on the great French writer! His genius for blending adventure, comedy, and psychology burst through in this translation. The book does veer into lengthy descriptions of marine life in places, and modern readers are likely to skim these parts (Verne even provides clues in the text to indicate when he's about to digress), but as a whole the novel is absolutely engrossing, throwing one stupendous adventure after another at the characters, while developing a mystery around Captain Nemo and increasing tension onboard the Nautilus so that the many different incidents hold together as a single plot. Even though submarines are commonplace technology today, Verne infuses his story with such awe-inspiring wonder that you can't help but feel the same sense of amazement as Professor Aronnax when he finds himself cruising the depths of the world's oceans. Real wonder never gets stakes, and no one was better at creating wonder than Jules Verne.

Aside from the excellent translation, this edition contains numerous extras (if this were a DVD, it would be labeled as a Special Edition Director's Cut). The lengthy introduction explains Verne's background, education, the development of the novel, the many things that Verne accurately predicted, the book's unsung literary qualities, the different French texts, and the problems with earlier translations. All the original illustrations from the original French edition are reproduced in the text, and generous footnotes give the reader a guide through Verne's more obscure references and shed light on the author's scientific genius. As a bonus at the end of the book, the editors include a new translation of the relevant passages from "Mysterious Island" that discuss Captain Nemo's background (just in case you're too impatient to go read "Mysterious Island" for yourself to solve the Captain Nemo mystery). There's also a table of the measurements used in the novel for those readers who really want to test the author's scientific accuracy.

There really isn't any other choice when it comes to translations of the "20,000 Leagues under the Sea." Nothing comes close to this: it will appease hard science readers, and it will open people up to Jules Verne's overlooked literary talents. With the wealth of background information available, this edition does better by Jules Verne -- ANY Jules Verne -- than has ever been published in the English language.

I could not believe this version of 20,000 leagues under the sea. I learned so much from this book. All the other movies and stories that I heard about Captain Nemo were not even close to all the adventures that he goes on in this book. When I think about the movie by Walt Disney and then remember the book I realize that the movie was about 1/4 of the books adventures.

All the adventures that I never heard about before like the hunt on the sea floor with the electric bullets, the Arabian tunnel under the sea, Santorin Island the Grecian Archipelago, the volcanoes of the Mediterranean, the Bay of Vigo with all the treasures, the size of the mountains in Atlantis, the adventure at the South Pole, the fight with all the sperm whales, his home Island and the production of salt to run his electric engines.

There is so much more to this story than what I have heard before and in this edition the foot notes are excellent. I especially like the story of Arachne and how the name of Arachnid came to mean spiders. The footnotes explain all the literary references which are helpful to understanding the characters. There is so much information here about the sea world in an adventure that makes each moment exciting.

Verne must have done so much research for this book to get all the scientific information correct. I never thought they knew all those things about the sea at that time.

I was surprised by the character of Nemo who never seemed to go after anyone unless he was attacked. The whole idea that he chased after all forms of warships was something made up in Hollywood. Nemo never seemed to want to even deal with people. The story of Nemo's life at the end of the book explains many of his behaviors.

The description of all the types of food that they were constantly eating was interesting you never knew what they were going to catch in the Nautilus' nets.

I thought the adventure at the South Pole was the best of all with the predicament that they got into. It was the most adventurous and had the most suspense.

I do not know why a book like this is not required reading for high school kids they would learn so much as well as adults. There is so much science geography, ichthyology, astronomy practical uses of physics etc.

I would recommend this book to everyone who likes science and adventure.

It is time to give due credit to Jules Verne, the French author whose stories have proved to be so uncannily accurate in some respects that some scientists and mathematicians actually criticise him for making "errors" in his predictions. 20,000 Leagues under the Sea is probably Verne's best-known work. (It was the subject of one of the first science fiction movies ever made, in 1916, and was then remade in 1954 by Disney.)

What amazes me upon reading this book is Verne's grasp of marine biology. The protagonist lists species after species which he sights in his journey most of the way around the world. (The "20,000 leagues" in the title refers to the distance travelled, not the depth to which the Nautilus can descend. After all, the ocean isn't even close to 20,000 leagues deep.) This grasp is all the more impressive when you consider that 20,000 Leagues under the Sea was published some 70 years before the invention of the aqualung, at a time when mankind's understanding of the world beneath the surface of the ocean was fragmentary at best. Verne is also a good story teller. I found myself asking, at the end of the book, "Who was after Captain Nemo, and why?"

There are endless debates on which science fiction works are the most important in understanding the genre. I do not propose to supply a definitive list, but I will say that no list which does not include at least one work by Verne can be definitive.

When I was a child I loved reading the stories of Julio Verne. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Around the World in 80 Days were my favorites. This new translation based on the original French texts is amazing, it moves quickly and I discovered things that I had never read in other English versions. You get more of Verne's politics here than in earlier translations including such memeorable phrases as: "The world needs no new continents, it needs new people."

The characters are well developed and you can indentify with all of them and how they view their effective captivity aboard the Nautilus. Captain Nemo is a wonderful character and Verne gives the reader just enough information about him to keep you enthralled but not enough to remove the mystery. The intro relates that Nemo was supposed to be a Polish aristocrat, getting back at the world for the the atrocities the Russians had commited against his family. But when Hetzel his publisher balked at the idea because of the new Franco Russian alliance Verne decided to remove any trace of nationality.

What else can be said? The English is not archaic!! This restored and annotated version, is a VAST improvement over previous English editions. The translation is very well done, and the annotations explain what has been changed and what previous translations accomplished. The wealth of background information also makes this one of the best English translations of this adventure I have ever read.

I enjoyed the story of this novel, but that was only 1/3 of this novel. I felt as if I was in biology class again with all of the classifying of every animal any of the characters saw. I found myself skipping pages of classification because I didn't care to attempt to pronounce a fifteen letter word that has no relevance. Not only was this upsetting, but I also didn't feel all of the geographical focus was necessary. I don't believe the average reader knows exactly where the __ parallel is and how many degrees south of that point the Nautilus is located. I'd say, read this novel, but don't expect anything out of the ordinary. Captain Nemo is an interesting character, but there's definately better out there. This is a book worthy of a library visit, not a purchase.

This book is pretty exciting from start to finish. If you have read other Verne and not this one, then it is highly recommended. The only beef I have is that Verne gets too descriptive with the fish in each sea. It almost becomes redundant and the picture for me always seems to look the same. A lot of action and its a lot of fun trying to figure out the mystery behind Captain Nemo.

We follow Captain Nemo, and his Nautilus - a sub that runs on batteries, in his travels around the oceans of the Earth. We follow him as he explores underwater forests, goes hunting dangerous sea monsters, takes from the sea what he and his men need to live, visits the South Pole and even shows us Atlantis.
The problem is that about one third of the book is Jules Verne explaining EVERY tiny detail, from the family trees of fish and other sea creatures, to page after page on how the Nautilus works. The fight with the school of squid is only a few pages long.
On the other hand, Nemo is not shown as a man trying to force mankind to improve as much as he is trying to live without contact with it (even when he helps some parts of it to fight back by giving rebels gold he finds on the seafloor). In the end, it is mankind who forces him to fight back, by hunting him down with warships.
My book had an introduction by Ray Bradbury, which was very interesting, but did little to help the story itself.
A good book for fans of Jules Verne, classic adventure stories and anybody interested in the sea.

The legendary *Twenty Thousand Leaques Under the Sea* is magic realist Jules Verne's greatest work. Who can forget the sardonic Captain Nero, fiddling with his tools while Rome drowns? The jovial Ishmeal, cloven-chinned English tar with a finger in every pie, and his morose, moon-eyed sidekick, Quickkeg? Nero's dreams of world domination, with his imagined army of 20,000 facing the hardened veterans of the Civil War, the Crimea, and the Teapot Dome Incident are only a handful of the great imagines that will flood your senses.

Enjoy. You'll never eat calamari afterward without a pang of angst.

First of all, I was disappointed when I realized that we're going 20,000 HORIZONTAL leagues while under the sea (not to a depth of 20,000 leagues). But my main disappointment with this book is the lack of development or progression. It's just a travelogue. You could scramble the order of most of the chapters, and it would still read the same. And how dare Verne take us to Atlantis and spend less than two pages there? None of the characters is any different by the end of the book, and we never really find out what it is that makes Captain Nemo the way he is.

That said, the nineteenth century science fiction is wonderful. Verne's visions of technology and even geography are fascinating. Will modern science fiction be so accurate in 100 years?