Book: 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

"It was not we the crew were anxious about.  'The Maelstrom! The Maelstrom!' they were crying.  The Maelstrom! Could a more frightful word in a more frightful situation have sounded in our ears?"

Often described as the man who created the genre of science fiction, Jules Verne has written many fantasy adventure novels that are still so well known a century and half after they were first published..  He was more popular in Britain than his native France, perhaps due to the British preoccupation with technological advances.  While in the mid 1800s science was not so far advanced that it would seem impossible to venture to the centre of the Earth, thoughts of submarine adventure or visiting the moon (From The Earth To The Moon) were barely just being considered.  Whether Verne had heard these ideas or if they were his original thought, his imagination caused them to grow into epic adventures of which the literary world had not yet seen.

Verne took great pains to make sure that all technical and scientific elements were accurate in their detail when writing 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea to help give a sense of reality.  Unfortunately, when the book was being published in other languages the translators didn't hold the importance of Verne's precision in such high regard.  Aside from the text being heavily edited to remove anything that could be conceived as anti-British, they had trouble switching Verne's calculations from the metric to imperial system.  Readers who were unaware of this assumed that Verne just hadn't bothered.

While the scientific detail is incredible, it does make the novel more difficult to read, and chances are you will get sick of the word 'zoophyte'.  It is important to remember that Jules Verne hadn't seen what Pierre Arronax sees in the story, it is purely down to research and imagination that we take a glimpse under the oceans.  And although at the beginning it is interesting to read the long lists of creatures and plants, along with their classifications by the end of the novel I admit that I found myself skipping paragraphs.  However, they are there to add weight to the story and do help you to believe that the three captives really were under the many oceans of the world.

Science and adventure are only part of the story.  20,000 Leagues Under The Sea combines many different elements to keep the reader interested.  It investigates conflicts between the interest of the narrator, Pierre Arronax and his two companions - the loyal Conseil and restless Canadian Ned Land.  Arronax in the beginning would like to stay aboard the submarine the Nautilus to complete his own studies and Conseil will follow his 'Monsieur' wherever he chooses to go.  However, Ned Land's only interest is to escape, and much of the novel revolves around his need for freedom.  

Captain Nemo takes the three men on a journey around the world, through hidden tunnels connecting seas, to the extremes of the South Pole and the hidden continent of Atlantis.  While they are free to roam his submarine they face a lifetime aboard the vessel - Captain Nemo provides the best hospitality but at the price of never leaving.  There is one other condition and that is that when it is requested the three men must be locked in their rooms and not question the reason.  While investigating the depths of the ocean, the reader is also given glimpses of Captain Nemo's darker secrets and personality.  Nemo and his crew are enveloped in mystery - from their language to their purpose.  Many questions are left unanswered allowing the reader to exercise their own imagination.

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea is a book that should be on everyones read-before-they-die lists.  It is hard work to read, but it is worth the effort.  It is easy to be put off by a book described as science fiction but some of the most famous books and films are covered by this genre.  HG Wells and his War Of The Worlds or Time Machine, Arthur C Clarke with 2001 - A Space Odyssey, A Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, Nineteen Eighty Four, Fahrenheit 451 - we must wonder whether any of this would have happened without Jules Verne.