Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Dodo Press) | Jules Verne

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Dodo Press) | Jules Verne | A real classic story kids should read!

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Twenty Thousand Le...

	Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Dodo Press) Jules Verne Dodo Press, 2007 - 316 pages average customer review:based on 185 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Jules Gabriel Verne (1828-1905) was a French author who pioneered the science-fiction genre. He is best known for novels such as Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). Verne wrote about space, air and underwater travel before air travel and practical submarines were invented, and before practical means of space travel had been devised. He is the third most translated author in the world, according to Index Translationum. Some of his books have been made into films. Verne, along with Hugo Gernsback and H. G. Wells, is often popularly referred to as the "Father of Science Fiction". Amongst his other works are From the Earth to the Moon (1867), Five Weeks in a Balloon (1869), The Fur Country; or, Seventy Degrees North Latitude (1873), The Blockade Runners (1874), The Field of Ice (1875), The Mysterious Island (1875), Facing the Flag (1879), and An Antarctic Mystery (1899).

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Wow

I read this book many years ago and still have the book. This is a thought-provoking book, and I can honestly say that it's one of the best books that I have ever read in my whole life. There is much to be thought about in this book, and I intend to reread this book so I can appreciate it all over again. Truly, this book is one of these classics that must be preserved always, for the wonderful writing and lessons contained therein.

A real classic story kids should read!

A fancinating story for kids and all the ages! Should have a map and ocean fish handbook while reading it. The printing is little too small for kids.

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Shows its age

Unfortunately, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" shows its age. While the story is, actually, quite good, the language is somewhat stilted and the book takes a while to really get going. I think many young readers will be puzzled by the vocabulary and will be bored. Eventually, the story picks up. However, I was bored in the 1950's and cannot imagine that today's youngsters will do much better. I think that the Walt Disney movie is a much better bet if you want to expose your child to a story that was a true classic. This is one of the few cases where a movie has an advantage over the written word.

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should have read this earlier

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.

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