Review of 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
In 1866 there are reports of a mysterious sea monster attacking ships throughout the world. The US sends the warship Abraham Lincoln to investigate with Professor Pierre Aronnax, his loyal servant Conseil, and Canadian harpooner Ned Land on board. The professor is convinced the mysterious attacker is a giant beast of some kind that they should be able to track down and kill but when the Abraham Lincoln is attacked and they are thrown overboard they find themselves on board the Nautilus, a massive submersible machine powered by the ocean itself and piloted by the mysterious, driven Captain Nemo who is resentful of the surface world and has exiled himself to a life in it's waters. They are given the opportunity to join the captain and his crew as they travel the world's oceans and exploring it's mysteries on the condition that they never leave. The professor, already a scholar of the oceans, jumps at the chance but Ned eventually wearies of the journey and seeks freedom but will the ocean kill them before they are ever free?
Often times this novel can be a bit technical with copious details about the various species of fish and other ocean life they encounter (which strikes me as being quite outdated now) and the pace does drag on somewhat but generally a very interesting and well-written novel. The characters in this novel are more fleshed out here than in other Verne's novels with distinct personalities as the story is told from the professor's perspective as he relates the events onboard the ship.
The “20,000 leagues” reference here is to the distance they travel as Nemo takes them from one end of the world to the other including a trip to the south pole which, as we know now, is land-locked and a visit to Atlantis which most agree never existed and certainly not in the location specified here. This is definitely a novel of the time with many of the attitudes and actions being very much of the time - The casual slaughter of “bad” natives, and the arbitrary killing of whales and other sea creatures. But, as with most of Verne's novels this is a book of adventure and discovery rather than any sort of social commentary. There is no particular moral here with story a mere mechanism for communication of a series of ideas…it is more of a travelogue. The ending leaves the reader a bit “up in the air” but this somehow appropriate.
An interesting novel of it's time telling a fantastic story of travel beneath the ocean waves.
Rating: “It is OK but I have some issues”
Genre: Science Fiction
Publication Date: 1870