20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

by Jules Verne

Book Overview

The "man who invented the future," Verne created the prototype for modern science fiction. His prophetic 1870 adventure novel, featuring a bizarre underwater craft commanded by the mysterious Captain Nemo, predated the submarine. The crowning achievement of Verne's literary career, the book influenced H. G. Wells and later generations of writers.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0817216529
• ISBN13: 9780817216528
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Steck-Vaughn
• Length: 48 Pages
• Weight: 0.59 lbs.
• Age Range: 9 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 4 and higher

Customer Reviews

Verne's masterwork

For some reason, even after reading this book, my brain still translates "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" to mean 20000 leagues DOWN instead of a DISTANCE. What's wrong with me?Anyway, this book was a treasure. Jules Verne, the grandfather of science fiction, again shows that his is much more than a scientific mind. Verne is a grand storyteller, and this novel is his masterwork. Our heroes, Professor Arronax, his faithful compatriot Conseil, and the salty sailor Ned Land find themselves together in a hunt for a giant, mysterious undersea creature which has been causing havoc among shipping lines as well as towns along the coastline. Setting out to sea on top-of-the-line sailing vessel, the three men and the crew encounter the creature, only to have it sink their ship like so many others. However, as you probably know, this is no creature at all, but the most spectacular vehicle ever created by man. It is the Nautilus, a gigantic submarine, and the proud creation of the enigmatic Captain Nemo. Captain Nemo holds the three as his prisoner. They are instructed that they may never leave the Nautilus, yet will be treated with hospitality and respect by Nemo and his crew. The Captain keeps his word, and treats the Professor and his fellows to all the wonders of the ocean depths. Captain Nemo has made the sea his home, vowing never to return to the distasteful world on land. The Nautilus has everything you would need to live and prosper; infinite supplies of water through its seawater processing machines, and an abundance of exotic seafood dredged up from the deep.Captain Nemo himself is as mystifying and brilliant as his creations. He is one of the greatest villains ever put on paper, and Verne's skill as a storyteller brings him to life. Nemo's motivations are clouded in mystery. I can't stress enough how excellent this character is, and the sly way Verne allows for Nemo's true motivations to remain as unfathomable at the end of the novel as it was at the beginning. The Professor doesn't want to leave the Nautilus. He is enthralled by the sea life and the wonders of Nemo's brilliant submarine. Conseil goes where the Professor goes, and is pleased to assist him in their adventure. Ned feels like a prisoner. He longs to walk on firm ground again, and considers his imprisonment as a violation.The action is blended well alongside the exploration and discovery. This book reads and feels like a grand adventure in ways few books can equal. The language is crisp and clear and so is the humor, which is a unusual for a novel written well over 100 years ago. It flows perfectly in English as a result of a superb translation. If I were to single out one thing I disliked about it, it would be the detailed discussions of sea life in the undersea world. I still found Verne's descriptions of multitudes of ocean species fascinating, but some readers may not. What helps alleviate the (possible) boredom is to remember that readers back in the 1800 had NO TV and few had any

A masterpiece of science fiction and literature

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a masterful science fiction classic and the crowning achievement of Verne's impressive literary legacy. While the story itself is absorbing, it is the character of the enigmatic Captain Nemo that makes this novel so successful. Many of the characters we meet in Verne's fiction are one-dimensional; while eccentric, a man like Professor Lidenbrock in Journey to the Centre of the Earth is easy to understand, seemingly driven by science and nothing else. In contrast, Captain Nemo is an incredibly complex man whom neither the reader nor the protagonist is ever really able to understand. He has forsaken all of humanity and retreated beneath the sea, yet he shows great compassion to his crewmen and to the poor on earth; he is generally self-absorbed and emotionless, yet we see glimpses of an emotional trauma that constantly afflicts him and is capable of destroying him. He has suffered a great loss at some point in his life, and his sorrow is matched only by a drive for vengeance against his unnamed oppressors. Captain Nemo is one of the most interesting, delightfully mysterious characters in all of literature.As for the story, a naturalist, his assistant, and a harpooner join a party in search of a giant sea creature which has attacked a couple of ships. They are knocked overboard and find themselves saved by the monster, which turns out to be a submarine manned by a mysterious crew of sailors. Captain Nemo requires them to stay on board the Nautilus permanently because he wants to keep the existence of his submarine a secret from the world. The three men sail on the Nautilus for ten months, exploring the world's oceans and seas. They marvel at the animal life under the waves; explore underground forests, oyster beds, deep trenches; gaze with somber eyes at great numbers of sunken vessels; fight off giant squids and dangerous sharks; cast their eyes upon the sunken continent of Atlantis; and burrow underneath the polar ice caps to emerge at the South Pole. All the while, they hope to escape and return to their homelands, although the naturalist hesitates to leave his traveling laboratory until such a time as Captain Nemo's emotions become dangerously unbalanced. All in all, this is an incredibly rich, fascinating novel with a poignant yet powerful conclusion. Contemporary readers must have been overpowered by Verne's descriptions of this unknown sailing vessel and the exploits the sub was capable of. That magical element is missing from modern reader's reactions, but this does little to hinder the overall effect of the story. There is one negative aspect to the book--the naturalist and his assistant go out of their way to name and catalogue virtually every animal, mineral, and plant they discover. This is interesting to a point, but the plot often finds itself bogged down for a couple of pages while the reader is bombarded with a veritable encyclopedia of scientific names which are virtually unpronounceabl

A brilliant novel of epic proportions

This brilliantly crafted novel of epic proportions, tell of the adventures of Professor Pierre Aronnax, his servant Conseil, and Ned Land, a Canadian harpooner, as they are held captive aboard a submarine by a mysterious man who goes under the name Captain Nemo. Although they are in a sense prisoners, they are allowed to use all the facilities aboard the submarine. This submarine, powered by nuclear energy and christened the Nautilus, is one of Verne's many brilliant predictions of modern life made throughout many of his works. This like may others was correct. Through out the book, the reader gains a vast knowledge of marine life, and the lives of people in distant lands. The book begins when Professor Pierre Aronnax, the narrator of the story, boards an American frigate commissioned to investigate a rash of attacks on international shipping by what is thought to be an amphibious monster. The supposed sea creature, which is actually the submarine Nautilus, sinks Aronnax's vessel and imprisons him along with his devoted servant Conseil and Ned Land, a temperamental harpooner. When they are returned to their senses, the find themselves inside a dark, gloomy, desolate, endless, predicament. They are locked in a cell. However they soon meet Captain Nemo who agrees to let them move about the ship freely on one condition. They must remain aboard the Nautilus. So begins a great adventure of a truly fantastic voyage from the pearl-laden waters of Ceylon to the icy dangers of the South Pole, as Captain Nemo, one of the greatest villains ever created, takes his revenge on all society.The detail that Verne pours into this book is amazing. This is one of the few books that are capable of making the readers feel that they are actually there. His descriptions of how the Nautilus operates, how Nemo's crew harvests food and his account of hunting on Hawaii are excellent, and the plot never falters. The characters are wonderfully scripted; each one having their own unique personality, and they are weaved flawlessly into the awe filled spectacle. This is the book that predicted that there would be submarines, and that submarines would eventually go to the South Pole. It predicted the development of the SCUBA suit; it even predicted nuclear powered ships. The technology used in this book makes it easy to understand even today. This book is widely recognized as a classic- in my view, correctly.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a great book. It takes place inFrance when a "whale" starts attacking ships. SoProf. Aronnax sets out to rid the seas of this whale with his loyal servant Conseil and a harpooner by the name of Ned Land.But...end up as crew of a subarine called the Nautilus, the "whale" depicted by sailors. The captain,known as Captain Nemo, brings them through many adventures. Some include visiting the lost city of Atlantis,And even finding a lost continent! Jules Verne is my favorite author and I would recommend any book by him.

2O,OOO Leagues Under the Sea

This is actually my favorite book of all time next to Ivanhoe, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Man in the Iron Mask, and The War of the Worlds. I read this book in fourth grade and absolutely loved it. Now that I'm 3 years older, I appreciate it even more. Though there were some hard words, I loved the dialogue. There is even humor when Professor Aronnax explains how pearls are made and says, "Yes, my boy, oysters can produce many sharks" because he is scared to go shark hunting. Captain Nemo is a mysterious yet interesting character. My favorite parts are when they are at the sunken ship in the Mediterranean Sea, when they fight the giant squid, and when they are at Ceylon. Some of their other travels take them to the lost continent of Atlantis, a tunnel under the Suez Canal, and through the Great Ice Barrier. This is my favorite Jules Verne book, though it has some competition from Around the Moon and Journey to the Center of the Earth. This book is a must-have for science lovers. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves adventure and the ocean. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.