20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

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3.8333333333333
(48 Reviews)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Published:

1870

Pages:

296

ISBN:

140272599X

Downloads:

249,839

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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

By

3.8333333333333
(48 Reviews)
Sent to investigate mysterious encounters that are disrupting international shipping, Professor Aronnax, his servant Conseil, and disgruntled harpooner Ned Land are captured when their frigate is sunk during an encounter with the "monster." The submarine Nautilus and its eccentric Captain Nemo afford the professor and his companions endless fascination and danger as they're swept along on a yearlong undersea voyage.

Book Excerpt

was warmly discussed, which procured it a high reputation. It rallied round it a certain number of partisans. The solution it proposed gave, at least, full liberty to the imagination. The human mind delights in grand conceptions of supernatural beings. And the sea is precisely their best vehicle, the only medium through which these giants (against which terrestrial animals, such as elephants or rhinoceroses, are as nothing) can be produced or developed.

The industrial and commercial papers treated the question chiefly from this point of view. The Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, the Lloyd's List, the Packet-Boat, and the Maritime and Colonial Review, all papers devoted to insurance companies which threatened to raise their rates of premium, were unanimous on this point. Public opinion had been pronounced. The United States were the first in the field; and in New York they made preparations for an expedition destined to pursue this narwhal. A frigate of great speed, the Abraham Lincoln, was put in comm

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(1870) Sci-fi (Invention) / Adventure (Undersea)


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Plot bullets

Professor Aronnax sets out with others, to discover the cause of several mysterious ship sinkings, that are at first attributed to a rogue whale.
He finds the true source of the occurrences, as he, his servant Conseil, and a master harpooner, Ned, find themselves in the ocean, clinging for their life to a strange ship.
The ship/submarine, The Nautilus, commanded by Captain Nemo, is a wonder of science and far in advance of the technology of that time..
The ship becomes a prison for the three men, as Nemo has his own agenda and a strong desire to separate himself from society. The men have free rein of the vessel, but can never return to their homes.
The professor is at first engrossed in the science of the incredible vessel, but over time realizes that he wants his freedom. Conseil is happy wherever his master is. Ned, from the first, plots for his freedom.
There is a long, mysterious and wonderful undersea voyage ahead of them, until the strong, self-made Nemo's interests and abilities are diminished by events and past, haunting memories.
The wonders of science and nature unfold as do the personalities and desires of these men. These men who would travel 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'.

Republished in 1871 with the subtitle of 'An Underwater Tour of the World'.
A French league in Vern's time was about four kilometers, or about 2.5 miles per league.

Captain Nemo appears again in one of Vern's later works.
'The Mysterious Island', begins a new adventure and ties together three of Vern's stories, 'In Search of the Castaways', 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea' and 'The Mysterious Island'. I suggest you read them in that order, although, each story provides a synopsis of previous events at critical points.''

Walt Disney movies were made of all three stories.
This is the best work on science fiction I've ever read... It is imaginative, descriptive, thrilling, yet calm... I'd say this is Verne's best work.
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Philipp
3
Once you have adapt youself to the old fashioned writing and the slow story progression it's really good!
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