I loved this book! I guess you all know the story, so there's no need to go into that. Unless you've read it though, you might not realise that's it got a really odd tenancy to slip into paragraphs of sea life science, in a completely different voice to the rest of the story, presumably aimed at educating the reader. Kind of like Dan Brown with a brain. I found this oddly endearing. ( )

This novel tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine, the Nautilus. The story is narrated by a Professor Aronnax, who by accident and chance becomes a part of the ships crew, along with his servant and a whaler called Ned. They travel the seas, exploring the many wonders that the oceans normally keep hidden beneath its waves.

I enjoyed the book throughout, however, the beginning and the end chapters are the most interesting, having more adventure to them. Verne is a lover of scientist and he can't help going on and on about the new species of fish and plant life beneath the waves, which are a wonder to the Professor narrating, but all sort of blurs together as any long list of names and descriptions would do. It fits perfectly with the character, of course, since he would have been deeply fascinated by such things, but it's a bit tedious for the reader. ( )

A mysterious creature is haunting the seas, and Professor Aronnax is determined to discover the origins of the beast. However, the encounter brings more than he ever expected, as he is captured by the strange and withdrawn captain of a submarine ship and whirled around the world's oceans. The aquatic wonders he experiences thrill his academic soul, while the actions and motivations of his host leave him questioning both the individual and civilizations at large.

Verne's underwater adventure is the latest novel I have read to my toddler at bedtime, and is far from my favorite. As we finished the third Verne novel we have approached I found myself lamenting a brilliant story bogged down by careless prose; I found that the language was flat and uninspired, and the sentence structure was unbelievably choppy. The failings of the writing itself took away from what would otherwise have been a book full of wonders, and I believe we will leave Verne buried once and for all. ( )

It was Horrible u shouldnt read it i hated it! it was boring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( )

Still remember it after all these years ( )

Nice travelogue and suprisingly not dated. Not the best book for a strict vegetarian. ( )

Taken as a 19th century man's insight of the future, the book is amazing and oddly prophetic. But as a novel it plods on very slowly, and rarely captures the attention. I have only read the English version, so perhaps something is lost in the translation. ( )

For reasons I cannot now comprehend, I checked this book out of my school library in second grade and read it all through class. Also for reasons I can't explain, I LOVED it. Which is why it has a five star rating, even though in all honest consideration it's probably not that great. I can't even be honest anymore; it's stuck to my memory like a twig between teeth, ever-present and slightly minty tasting. There are some very involved politics here, interesting from an anti-nuclear-war position. I was fascinated with the use of sea life for supplies as a child, and the imagined technology of the submarine has held up surprisingly well. If either of those things interest you, pick this book up. I'd also recommend it for anyone interested in older science-fiction, or for those reading through the Verne canon (of which I think this is the best). Otherwise, well, the five stars aren't as brilliant as they might appear. ( )

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. ( )

You MUST read Miller's translation 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. You probably would have to enjoy and appreciate the technical aspects of his work as well to rate this as high as I have. ( )

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A 19th-century classic. Through a strange twist of fate, Professor Aronnax and two companions, his man-servant Conseil and a French Canadian (!) harpooner (whaler) called Ned Land, journey to the deepest, darkest depths of the sea with the elusive Captain Nemo on his fantastic submarine, Nautilus. It's a fantastic journey, but the reading is not for those who want their stories told quickly: the Professor is a noted marine biologist, and he wastes no opportunity to minutely detail every creature of the sea that he encounters.

However, the story itself is entertaining, and while I don't know Verne's background (nor have I read anything else by him - an oversight I should correct someday), I admire the level of work and research that must have gone into the writing of this tale. While submarines did exist when Verne wrote this, many of the features of Nautilus were not yet possible, and his imagination has to be admired. Finally, I found the political vision of Captain Nemo, a man who has turned his back on most of mankind, to be fairly un-Victorian, giving the book an interesting resonance for contemporary times (at least for me). Besides, if nothing else, this book was worth reading just to see how the 19th-century French viewed their provincial Canadian cousins. ( )

Long winded but good. ( )

I'm not much of one for sea stories, but I loved this one. Jules Verne can be very "long-winded" and the descriptions can feel interminable, but that's just the way things were done then and I find it more interesting than irritating. I've always loved classics, and this is no exception. ( )

Great story which felt bogged down by the laundry lists of unknown (at least to me!) sea animals. Maybe I am just not a marine biologist at heart. ( )

Refreshing adventure yarn. Feels like it was written in the 1960s not the 1860s. The question is not why are some bits of the science wrong but how in the world did he get so much right. Feels more like science than science fiction to me. Anyone who loves the sea and travel therein should be enthralled. ( )

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. ( )

If you don't know the story, it's about a naturalist, Professor Arronax, and his assistant on a quest to find the giant sea creature that's been menacing the seas. But the sea creature turns out to be a submarine, the Nautilus, and they're joined by the harpooner Ned Land in being rescued/captured by its crew when their attack on it fails.

I definitely encountered this book far too late to fully enjoy it. Like when I tried re-reading Tolkein a couple of years ago, I found I lacked the patience to read through pages and pages of interminable description. There were several times when I just couldn't stand it any longer and I'd put the book down and go do something else. Only sheer stubbornness made me finish it.

The story itself was interesting, though the style of the times was a bit of an obstacle. The enigmatic Captain Nemo is never fully explained, nor are the professor and his two companions. It's left up to the reader to fill in the blanks. The professor's unconcern about his imprisonment on the submarine is partially explained by his fascination with the undersea worlds he encounters; the complacence of his assistant and Ned Land are less understandable. Ned Land does try to escape occasionally, but he's portrayed as narrow-mindedly violent because of that, which I found peculiar.

I do see why films were made from this--condensing those descriptive passages into scenery would make the action and adventure parts of the story stand out more. I've never seen one, but I'm thinking of adding one to the Netflix queue. Any suggestions of which version to try?

In short, I'm giving this 4 stars for the story, but 2 stars for the pain of reading it. ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )

This nineteenth-century tale of a voyage under the ocean is widely considered to be one of the first works of science fiction ever written. As science fiction, it has not aged very well. The ideas of dependable electricity, a submarine, and scuba diving are not particularly exciting to the twenty-first century mind. As an adventure story, it also has failings. While the idea of a mysterious man with a mysterious mission under the sea is intriguing, Verne never lets us discover the secrets of Captain Nemo and instead tries to convince us that detailed descriptions of marine life and shipwrecks are more worthwhile. It's hard to judge the book as literature. It is often said that Verne's work has suffered from its translation to English. The ridiculous short-tempered backwoods Canadian character and the hideously faithful servant who doesn't even merit a last name reflect the prejudices of the time. After a recent re-read, I have to admit that I'm hard pressed to understand why this book has survived at all.

There are some books I haven't read yet that I know I should have read in my preteen/early teen years. This book is one of those books. I read this finally last year, and I must admit that I absolutely loved it. I regret not reading it earlier for that young adventurer experience. Perhaps it was because in my misguided youth I felt it was not at all a book for girls. How completely wrong was I?!?

Captain Nemo is one of the best fictional characters ever. Some say he is a villain. Some say he is an antihero. I say he's a marvel.

Young, youngish, old or oldish, you need to read this book. ( )

I first read this book when i was about 12, and now it's all worn out. I love it! ( )

I don't know why this disappreciation of Verne's language has happened, but I was not struck by the idea of a great writer as I read this for the umpteenth time. Maybe it was the translation, as French is axed when brought under the umblat reign of English. Having said that, the journey of Ned Land with Captain Nemo throuigh the perils of deep sea caverns, giant squids, and the monomaniaical purpose of the Captain, is always a pleasure. ( )

http://home.comcast.net/~ktoonen/summ... ( )