Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

The french equivalent of the great American novel Moby-Dick? There are some striking similarities and reading through 20,000 leagues under the sea it was hard to get the idea of Moby-Dick out of my head. Moby-Dick was published in 1851 and 20,000 leagues appeared in serial form in 1869 and there is evidence that Verne had read Moby-Dick by his reference to the whale ship Essex and it's destruction which inspired Melville's novel. For French language readers 20,000 leagues had always been a literary masterpiece, but English readers had to wait until 1962 for a translation that did Verne's novel any justice. The original translation and the one that you are likely to read free on the internet, cut out over a quarter of Verne's novel and show more bowdlerised other sections and so for English readers Vernes novel had some catching up to do.

First of all the similarities: like Moby-Dick there are pages and sometimes chapters that read more like scientific research than an adventure novel, which has lead to shortened versions and films that leave out the boring stuff. Captain Nemo like Captain Ahab is a driven man that no one understands; exercising control by force of character as well as a knowledge that other people do not posses, also like Ahab he starts off by being mildly crazy, but ends up being completely insane. Most of the action takes place on the high seas or under the high seas. All of the protagonists are men, not a woman or love story anywhere. There are references to literature, to history and mythology strewn throughout the book. Verne like Melville as an author seems to be on a quest for knowledge. The protagonists are on a ship/submarine an enclosed space and are actual prisoners on the Nuatilus very similar to the crew signed up to serve on the Pequod. However it is the way the story is told that made this reader think he was reading such a similar book: interspersed with an adventure story are pages and sometimes chapters that focus on zoological or technical aspects of life in and under the oceans and on board the submarine. Much of this has little direct relevance to the storyline.

The big difference is that Jules Verne's is a science fiction story which has things to say about the future, whereas Melvilles book is mainly concerned with the here and now, (1850's) but also could be said to be looking backwards at an industry, the whaling industry which was looking at an uncertain future. A simple outline to the story in 20,000 leagues... is that Professor Arronax and his domestic servant (Conseil) are on board a frigate that has been sent to search out a mysterious animal that is believed to be doing damage to shipping. The frigate attacks what it believes to be a monster and in the battle Arronax, Conseil and the harpooner Ned Land are swept overboard. they manage to swim to what turns out to be the submarine Nautilus and reluctantly captain Nemo takes them on board. The terms of their rescue is that they must remain as captives of the captain because they become party to some of the secrets of the Nautilus and Nemo is interested in Professor Arronax knowledge of marine life. The Nautilus travels around the oceans of the world with a purpose that remains obscure, and on the voyages there are some notable events, which have become famous through more popular extracts from the novel. There are fights with various sea monsters, giant sharks, giant sea spiders and a kraken (giant octopus). The battle with the savages near an island in the south seas when the Nautilus is grounded. The discovery of the underground passage linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. The rescue of a pearl diver off the coast of India, the visit to the lost world of Atlantis beneath the waves. Nemo and Arronax reaching the South Pole and the Nautilus stuck below the ice. The journeys on the ocean beds in full metal diving gear and oxygen equipment are some of my favourite sections of the book, because of Vernes descriptions of the world beneath the waves.

The tension in the story apart from the life threatening adventures is the relationship between the four men, Nemo remains a mystery, but Arronax is full of admiration for the man he recognises as a genius and is perfectly happy to carry out his own exploratory work as a marine biologist. Ned Land is hell bent on escape but realises he jeopardises the safety of the other two and Conseils hovers between his loyalty to Arronax and his friendship with Ned Land. Opportunities for escape are rare as Nemo has a hatred for landfall, preferring to have nothing to do with the race of men that inhabit the land. His crew remain a mystery speaking in a language that is foreign to Arronax and there are few clues as to where they come from and how they got to be part of Nemo's loyal entourage.

Science fiction in my opinion is all about a sense of wonder, and there is much of this in the novel, but there is also plenty of what could be termed as hard science fiction and then again there is much that is just plain descriptions of fauna and flora, perhaps the best parts of the book are when Verne manages to combine all three. His love and respect for the natural world is evident throughout his book, however a total lack of anything approaching a sense of humour is a drawback.

Embarking on a reading of either of these two classics calls for some determination to get to the end, there are highs and lows in both novels, perhaps the highs in Verne's book outweighs those of Melvilles, but the lows are certainly lower; the descriptions of marine life, the outlines of historical events can be little more than list making and some of them seem to be repeated. Some of Melvilles best writing is contained in the more technical chapters, but this is not always the case with Verne, although there is evidence of scholarly work to put it all together. His knowledge of geography, meteorology and chemistry is impressive, but this reader wonders if some of it is little more than a demonstration of knowledge, I do not get the same feeling with Moby-Dick. The fact that I am able to compare both books in the same review says much for their value as important books in the literary canon. If I was a member of the crew of the Pequod or the crew of the Nautilus and was given an ultimatum by their respective captains of re-reading one of the books or else! I know which one I would choose, but I also know which one I would prefer to read again. 5 stars of course. show less

I was prompted to read this after appreciating the 1954 live-action Disney classic starring James Mason and Kirk Douglas. Its screenwriters were dismayed to read the novel, feeling there's no overarching plot but only a series of incidents. Perhaps I was made insensitive to this by exaggerating in my own mind what the movie brings to the fore: the three leads are trapped onboard, and must seek a means of escape. While they await their opportunity, Verne knew how to keep his novel interesting as Captain Nemo tours them and the Nautilus through a series of underwater wonders.

The forward to my edition offers some interesting background: Verne had a grudge against the British for how they managed the Indian Mutiny, and posited Nemo as show more having Indian background and exacting vengeance on British shipping. His editor insisted on stripping that out, but in the sequel "The Mysterious Island" the good captain's heritage is more firmly established. Nemo, it is interesting to note, means "nobody" and it is a key part of appreciating his character ... which makes it further interesting how readily Pixar brushed this fact aside when naming their cute clownfish.

There's an incredible amount of well-researched details about undersea life, a lot of which apparently still holds up well in the century and a half since this was written. The only thing I smirked at is his initial description of Drake's Passage, which Verne makes sound like a pleasure cruise. Granted, several adventures engaged in by the Nautilus are known to be completely impossible now - no spoilers - so you'll have to indulge in a bit of fantasy and just play along.

Callous disregard for the environment has become a standout feature of this novel, now. Ned is enthused at the idea of hunting and killing an island's entire population of red-blooded mammals, and even the professor can't imagine anything wrong with that. In one of the novel's least realistic adventures, the Nautilus is transformed into a weapon for stabbing an entire pod of sperm whales to death just because the captain doesn't like the species. The professor does speak knowledgeably about how the extinction of manatee might do irreparable ecological damage - but then they proceed to harvest all the manatee in sight anyways. Verne made a lot of smart guesses about the future, but he underestimated how much damage we might eventually perpetrate through thoughtless actions such as these. show less

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 show more 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. show less

Given this tale's reputation, I was expecting a rip-roaring adventure of man against nature, technology versus beast, maybe even a bit of pirate-style swashbuckling excitement. Instead, I got a travelogue - the diary of a scientist classifying life below the ocean. The famed squid that seems to figure so heavily in every retelling of 20,000 Leagues factors into a single chapter out of forty-seven. That being said, I still enjoyed it. I just wish it wasn't so horribly mis-sold (kinda like when someone accustomed to Boris Karloff and Halloween costumes reads the original Frankenstein for the first time. It's still great, it's just...not what you've been told to expect).

It is always hard to appraise classics like this one. Their legend and influence on popular culture often means that when you finally get around to reading the genesis, it can be underwhelming. So it proves, to some degree, in Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. (The number of leagues indicates how far they travel in total around the globe, not – as I believed – the depth to which the submarine sinks).

The most disappointing thing was that the characters did not land; Ned Land's motivations are clear, but our narrator, Monsieur Aronnax, leaves something to desired, whilst Conseil is a cartoon. Even the fascinating and enigmatic Captain Nemo – the star of the show – has a vagueness to him. Over the course of this long and show more detailed novel, we learn very little about his motivations. In reading the book, I kept expecting a plot that never arrived.

That this is deliberate – 'Nemo' is Latin for 'nobody' – is particularly incomprehensible in light of the fact that Verne devotes practically half the book (and that is no exaggeration) to "a mania for classification" (pg. 268). The book is in large part an encyclopaedic chronicle of marine ecology, with the detail on the flora and fauna, not to mention ship displacements and longitudes and latitudes, becoming a meticulous cataloguing that is simply absurd by any narrative standard. Thankfully, these passages are so intrusive and wordy that it is – paradoxically – quite easy for the reader's mind to glaze over them, and tear through the actual interesting parts of the novel.

Despite its flaws it is a fascinating book, with a prescient conception of the submarine and a pseudo-scientific framework to the story that is delivered with such diligence that it ensured future science-fiction writers would also endeavour to do their duty. The adventure itself is a thrilling one, despite its seeming aimlessness, and told in that incredulous gentleman-narrator's tone which is common to all Victorian-era adventure fiction. There is every conceivable adventurous or wondrous element of the oceans crammed into this book: naval combat, deep-sea exploration, whales and narwhals, sharks and kraken, storms and icebergs and whirlpools, shipwrecks and lost treasure… I could go on. The book is a luminous feat of imagination that captures the reader in spite of its objective flaws. show less

Wow, what an amazing book! This science fiction adventure, so thoughtfully written that even the fantastical elements seem almost plausible, tells of an underwater journey that is grand in scale and full of excitement and danger. Although it is long, full of detail and digression, it is never the least bit dull. That is due, at least in part, to the care with which this underwater world is crafted; even the long descriptions serve to build excitement for this magical voyage. Another element that works well is the cast of characters. The distinctive personalities play off each other well, and the two supporting characters—the passionate and courageous Canadian and the calm Frenchman—appeal to different facets of the main character's show more personality. Even the mysterious Captain Nemo, who is perhaps the nearest thing this book has to an antagonist, still has enough nuance and depth to inspire empathy. A powerful tale from a man lauded as the father of science fiction. show less

Wow, what an amazing book! This science fiction adventure, so thoughtfully written that even the fantastical elements seem almost plausible, tells of an underwater journey that is grand in scale and full of excitement and danger. Although it is long, full of detail and digression, it is never the least bit dull. That is due, at least in part, to the care with which this underwater world is crafted; even the long descriptions serve to build excitement for this magical voyage. Another element that works well is the cast of characters. The distinctive personalities play off each other well, and the two supporting characters—the passionate and courageous Canadian and the calm Frenchman—appeal to different facets of the main character's show more personality. Even the mysterious Captain Nemo, who is perhaps the nearest thing this book has to an antagonist, still has enough nuance and depth to inspire empathy. A powerful tale from a man lauded as the father of science fiction. show less