20,000 Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne

From Barnes & Noble

A pioneer of the now immensely popular genre of fiction we call science fiction, Jules Verne wrote startling adventure stories that not only vividly captured the imagination of the 19th-century reading public, but are still read avidly today. Filled with wondrous voyages, marvelous semi-scientific equipment, and warnings not to tamper too much with the natural order, his novels are not only universally popular, but have proved to be uncannily prophetic. Here are four of Verne's most enthralling stories: 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, The Mysterious Island, Journey To The Center Of The Earth, and Around The World In 80 Days. Each one explores different themes, but all share one in common: man's exploration of the dark unknown.

From the Publisher

First published over a century ago, this extraordinary tale of long-lost treasure and revenge remains one of the most memorable in classic literature. In this unabridged gift edition, two-time Cladecott Medal-winning illustrators Leo and Diane Dillon capture perfectly the grandeur, beauty and perils of Captain Nemo's underwater world.

Children's Literature

In another classic story, Ron Miller has retold of Professor Aronnax's time as a guest/prisoner of Captain Nemo aboard the submarine Nautilus. In addition to the exciting story, readers are offered plenty of information about the period, whaling, undersea life, diving suits and submarines through factual insets that are accompanied by photographs, paintings, drawings, maps and artifacts. It is more than the story, it is a lesson in history, social studies, oceanography and more. The most amazing fact is that this story was written in 1870 when science and technology had yet to produce submarines or scuba equipment and the many other things of which Captain Nemo was so proud. Verne was a true visionary and one of the earliest science fiction writers; this underwater saga continues to fascinate readers more than a hundred years after publication. This title and others in the "Eyewitness Classics" series are a wonderful way to introduce today's kids to yesterday's great stories.

George Galuschak - KLIATT

A mysterious creature is roaming the oceans, wreaking havoc on ships. Professor Aronnax, a professor of natural history, joins the crew of the American frigate American Lincoln. Its mission: destroy the sea-beast. Unfortunately the professor, his servant and the ship's harpooner are washed overboard during an encounter with the beastie. They take refuge on its back, which turns out to be a submarine, and become the reluctant guests of Captain Nemo, the master of the Nautilus. Thus begins a journey across the Seven Seas, in the course of which they reach the South Pole, rediscover the sunken continent of Atlantis and engage in a number of sea battles. In the end the Professor and his companions escape; the Nautilus sinks into the Maelstrom, its final fate unknown. This is a fine adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Whigham's b/w art is action-oriented and very busy; it does a good job of enlivening Verne's novel, which at time resembles an underwater travel video. The visualization of Captain Nemo, the book's most intriguing character, is particularly good; he is both noble and tormented. Contains comic book violence (most notably a battle with a giant squid); recommended for all readers. KLIATT Codes: JSA—Recommended for junior and senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2006, Penguin, Puffin, 176p. illus., Ages 12 to adult.

School Library Journal

Gr 4-8-Performed in radio theatre style, this audio version is a fine retelling of the Jules Verne classic. The St. Charles Players, composed of four actors, play a variety of roles with hammy gusto, although the dialogue is a bit rushed in the opening sections. This adaptation by Jeff Rack does a good job of capturing the feel of Verne's sprawling epic tale. The story is told by Professor Aronnax, who agrees to investigate a series of attacks by a mysterious sea monster. He joins the crew of the ship Abraham Lincoln. The men encounter what they believe is the monster, but turns out to be a large, state-of-the-art submarine, the Nautilus. Aronnax and a hot tempered harpoonist, Ned Land, are imprisoned on this vessel, captained by the misanthropic recluse, Nemo. Nemo takes them around the world. Verne's descriptions of the underwater world, with its exotic creatures and sunken ships, shine thanks to clear narration and evocative sound effects. As the journey continues, becoming monotonous, the program's midsection sags a bit. It picks up steam again with sequences involving a monstrous octopus and a storm. While not an essential purchase, this is an impressive attempt to adapt a classic.-Brian E. Wilson, Oak Lawn Public Library, IL Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Product Details

• ISBN: 0808520024
  
• ISBN-13: 9780808520023
• Format: Other Format
• Publisher: Topeka Bindery
• Pub. Date: January 1985
• Sales Rank: 713,443

• Read an Excerpt

Read an Excerpt

The year 1866 was marked by a strange event, an unexplainable occurrence which is undoubtedly still fresh in everyone's memory. Those living in coastal towns or in the interior of continents were aroused by all sorts of rumors; but it was seafaring people who were particularly excited. Merchants, shipowners, skippers and masters of Europe and America, naval officers of all countries and the various governments of both continents were deeply concerned over the matter.

Several ships had recently met at sea “an enormous thing,” a long slender object which was sometimes phosphorescent and which was infinitely larger and faster than a whale.

The facts concerning this apparition, entered in various logbooks, agreed closely with one another as to the structure of the object or creature in question, the incredible speed of its movements, the surprising power of its locomotion and the strange life with which it seemed endowed. If it was a member of the whale family, it was larger than any so far classified by scientists. Neither Cuvier, Lacépède, Dumeril nor Quatrefages would have admitted that such a monster could exist--unless they had seen it with their own scientists' eyes.

Taking an average of observations made at different times'and rejecting those timid evaluations which said the object was only two hundred feet long, and also putting aside those exaggerated opinions which said it was a mile wide and three miles long'one could nevertheless conclude that this phenomenal creature was considerably larger than anything at that time recognized by ichthyologists'if it existed at all.

But it didexist--there was no denying this fact any longer--and considering the natural inclination of the human brain toward objects of wonder, one can understand the excitement produced throughout the world by this supernatural apparition. In any case, the idea of putting it into the realm of fiction had to be abandoned.

On July 20, 1866, the steamer Governor Higginson of the Calcutta and Burnach Steam Navigation Company had encountered this moving mass five miles east of the Australian coast. Captain Baker first thought he had sighted an unknown reef; he was even getting ready to plot its exact position when two columns of water spurted out of the inexplicable object and rose with a loud whistling noise to a height of a hundred and fifty feet. So, unless the reef contained a geyser, the Governor Higginson was quite simply in the presence of an unknown aquatic mammal, spurting columns of water mixed with air and vapor out of its blowholes.

A similar thing was observed on July 23 of the same year in Pacific waters, by the Christopher Columbus of the West India and Pacific Steam Navigation Company. This extraordinary creature could therefore move from one place to another with surprising speed, since within a space of only three days, the Governor Higginson and the Christopher Columbus had sighted it at two points on the globe separated by more than 2100 nautical miles.

Two weeks later and six thousand miles from this last spot, the Helvetia of the Compagnie Nationale and the Shannon of the Royal Mail Steamship Company, passing on opposite courses in that part of the Atlantic lying between the United States and Europe, signaled one another that they had sighted the monster at 42° 15' N. Lat. and 60° 35' W. Long. In this simultaneous observation they felt able to judge the creature's minimum length at more than 350 feet, since it was larger than both ships each of which measured 330 feet over-all. But the largest whales, the Kulammak and Umgullick that live in the waters around the Aleutian Islands, never exceed 180 feet in length, if that much.

These reports arriving one after the other, with fresh observations made on board the liner Le Pereire, a collision between the Etna of the Inman Line and the monster, an official report drawn up by the officers of the French frigate Normandie, and a very reliable sighting made by Commodore Fitz-James' staff on board the Lord Clyde, greatly stirred public opinion. In lighthearted countries, people made jokes about it, but in serious practical-minded countries, such as England, America and Germany, it was a matter of grave concern.

In every big city the monster became the fashion: it was sung in cafés, derided in newspapers and discussed on the stage. Scandal sheets had a marvelous opportunity to print all kinds of wild stories. Even ordinary newspapers--always short of copy--printed articles about every huge, imaginary monster one could think of, from the white whale, the terrible “Moby Dick” of the far north, to the legendary Norse kraken whose tentacles could entwine a five-hundred-ton ship and drag it to the bottom. Reports of ancient times were mentioned, the opinions of Aristotle and Pliny who admitted to the existence of such monsters, along with those of the Norwegian bishop, Pontoppidan, Paul Heggede and finally Mr. Harrington, whose good faith no one can question when he claims to have seen, while on board the Castillan in 1857, that enormous serpent which until then had been seen in no waters but those of the old Paris newspaper, the Constitutionnel.

It was then that in scientific societies and journals an interminable argument broke out between those who believed in the monster and those who did not. The “question of the monster” had everyone aroused. Newspapermen, who always pretend to be on the side of scientists and against those who live by their imagination, spilled gallons of ink during this memorable campaign; and some even spilled two or three drops of blood, after arguments that had started over sea serpents and ended in the most violent personal insults.

For six months this war was waged with varying fortune. Serious, weighty articles were published by the Brazilian Geographical Institute, the Royal Scientific Academy of Berlin, the British Association and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington; others appeared in the Indian Archipelago, in Abbé Moigno's Cosmos, in Petermann's Mittheilungen and in the science sections of all the important newspapers of France and other countries.