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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I did not much like my reading experience with this book, but at the same time I consider it a masterpiece.
In my childhood, I've seen and read many adaptations and variations inspired by this story. As a consequence, I expected a great adventure. But what I got was an extremely knowledgeable exposition on all kinds of marine biology, geography, geology, engineering and physics, with some adventure mixed in.
It is obvious from every page how passionate Jules Verne was by the beauty of the world and the beauty of knowledge about the workings of the world. The immense joy of exploring the unknown or of confirming or rejecting existing hypothesis by sheer intimate observation, can be quite infectious in this book. It is also very clear (and partly I take this on the word of the editor who gave us some information at the start of the book) that Verne knows his stuff. It is uncanny how much of his descriptions is correct or even inferred correct as it may not have been validated or true when he wrote this book.
However, given all the knowledge and accuracy Verne tried to put in the book, it is riddled with numbers, distances (and yes my version had the inexplicable imperial system), coordinates, lists of descriptions of obscure Latin or old English names of sea creatures and so forth. I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion between M. Arronax (the first person narrator) and Captain Nemo about the mechanical and physics explanations of the Nautilus' working. The reason for that was that I am slightly knowledgeable in the area of physics. Overall, the endless descriptives kind of killed my enjoyment for a significant part of the book. Then again, if I had read this book to study, taking up amateur marine biology and plotting the travels on an actual world map using the coordinates, I might have enjoyed it a lot more. But it would have taken me 3-4 times the time to get throught it.
In the end I did find the story fascinating enough not to put it down. The actions with whaler Ned Land and Conseil are interesting and Captain Nemo does show some very interesting phenomena, historical locations and wonders of the undersea world. So my experience was a mixed bag. So a 2-3 stars for enjoyment but a deep bow for expertise and being ahead of the times. I see why this book is such celebrated classic.
In my childhood, I've seen and read many adaptations and variations inspired by this story. As a consequence, I expected a great adventure. But what I got was an extremely knowledgeable exposition on all kinds of marine biology, geography, geology, engineering and physics, with some adventure mixed in.
It is obvious from every page how passionate Jules Verne was by the beauty of the world and the beauty of knowledge about the workings of the world. The immense joy of exploring the unknown or of confirming or rejecting existing hypothesis by sheer intimate observation, can be quite infectious in this book. It is also very clear (and partly I take this on the word of the editor who gave us some information at the start of the book) that Verne knows his stuff. It is uncanny how much of his descriptions is correct or even inferred correct as it may not have been validated or true when he wrote this book.
However, given all the knowledge and accuracy Verne tried to put in the book, it is riddled with numbers, distances (and yes my version had the inexplicable imperial system), coordinates, lists of descriptions of obscure Latin or old English names of sea creatures and so forth. I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion between M. Arronax (the first person narrator) and Captain Nemo about the mechanical and physics explanations of the Nautilus' working. The reason for that was that I am slightly knowledgeable in the area of physics. Overall, the endless descriptives kind of killed my enjoyment for a significant part of the book. Then again, if I had read this book to study, taking up amateur marine biology and plotting the travels on an actual world map using the coordinates, I might have enjoyed it a lot more. But it would have taken me 3-4 times the time to get throught it.
In the end I did find the story fascinating enough not to put it down. The actions with whaler Ned Land and Conseil are interesting and Captain Nemo does show some very interesting phenomena, historical locations and wonders of the undersea world. So my experience was a mixed bag. So a 2-3 stars for enjoyment but a deep bow for expertise and being ahead of the times. I see why this book is such celebrated classic.
adventurous
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Pretty good characters, Nemo especially. Hard not to find him curious and intriguing. Ned was the character I felt for most, trapped and never enjoying the time onboard. Aronnax himself being torn between the magic of the Nautilus and wanting freedom is at times interesting to. Conseil is just a worse version of Passporteut.
At times the idea of the Nautilus was captivating to me, even though the book is as old as it is.
I enjoyed the weirder bits (kraken creature attack, Atlantis being real) and this book seemed less racist than around the world in 80 days, the only other Verne book I have read.
I enjoyed the ambiguity of the ending too, i guess I hope Nemo and his crew found somewhere on earth that could offer them peace.
At times the idea of the Nautilus was captivating to me, even though the book is as old as it is.
I enjoyed the weirder bits (kraken creature attack, Atlantis being real) and this book seemed less racist than around the world in 80 days, the only other Verne book I have read.
I enjoyed the ambiguity of the ending too, i guess I hope Nemo and his crew found somewhere on earth that could offer them peace.
Unfortunately I couldn't finish this. Jules Verne doesn't age well.
Set in Victorian times, the story begins with the discovery of a sizeable unknown aquatic beast, presumably a whale, playing havoc with the shipping lines and disrupting trade. The obvious solution is to hunt it down and kill it.
The none-too-likeable professor keeps company with a harpoonist and a manservant whose characters are very poorly drawn and their interactions are very classist. The implication is that only rich and educated people can be interesting or intelligent.
We encounter Captain Nemo and his ship the Nautilus which is entirely self sufficient through harvesting sea life and ocean materials.
Captain Nemo, is quite a surly and objectionable character who keeps our professor and friends captive on the ship.
We then got stuck in groundhog day with constant expeditions and the wonders of turning algae into electricity or food, etc.
I got half way through but disliked the characters so much I didn't care how, or even if, they would escape. I had some interest in how Captain Nemo was going to meet his fate but only that couldn't keep me going.
Life if too short - I abandoned. H.G.Wells is far more diverting reading from a similar period and genre.
Set in Victorian times, the story begins with the discovery of a sizeable unknown aquatic beast, presumably a whale, playing havoc with the shipping lines and disrupting trade. The obvious solution is to hunt it down and kill it.
The none-too-likeable professor keeps company with a harpoonist and a manservant whose characters are very poorly drawn and their interactions are very classist. The implication is that only rich and educated people can be interesting or intelligent.
We encounter Captain Nemo and his ship the Nautilus which is entirely self sufficient through harvesting sea life and ocean materials.
Captain Nemo, is quite a surly and objectionable character who keeps our professor and friends captive on the ship.
We then got stuck in groundhog day with constant expeditions and the wonders of turning algae into electricity or food, etc.
I got half way through but disliked the characters so much I didn't care how, or even if, they would escape. I had some interest in how Captain Nemo was going to meet his fate but only that couldn't keep me going.
Life if too short - I abandoned. H.G.Wells is far more diverting reading from a similar period and genre.
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
I listened to this on audiobook. James Frain has a lovely, relaxed reading voice, however he does himself and the book an injustice in his character voices. He gives three of the four speaking characters almost indistinguishable voices, which gets confusing when they're talking to each other. And, completely inexplicably, he gives a Canadian character what sounds to me like a Yorkshire accent. This is baffling in itself, but even moreso because he does a decent American accent in the introduction so I'm sure he would have been capable of tackling a Canadian one.
As for the book, it wasn't quite as epic as I'd imagined and there are a LOT of lists of sea creatures, but it was interesting. There are elements of the story which are very intriguing and I feel unsatisfied by how much I learnt by the end.
As for the book, it wasn't quite as epic as I'd imagined and there are a LOT of lists of sea creatures, but it was interesting. There are elements of the story which are very intriguing and I feel unsatisfied by how much I learnt by the end.
Spoiler warning I guess. This was so boring. I really don't understand why anyone would read this in this century purely for fun. At it's heart, this is a travel novel. It spends most of its time describing the different places the Nautilus travels. There is very little characterization of the main character. I did like everything we found out about Captain Nemo, he was pretty cool (the narrator was also obsessed with him lol). The fighting the giant squid scene that this book is known for lasts exactly one page. I had kept reading because I thought there was going to be a cool giant squid and there barely was. The narrator says himself that the text he's written (the book itself) doesn't really capture the emotions of what happens and that he is not a good writer. The most egregious example of JULES VERNE being a bad writer is that the narrator passes out while they are escaping so he can't describe any of the action of how they escape. THAT'S SO BORING! There's also just some stuff from the time period that hits super weird 150 years later. There was some anti-indigenous stuff that is pretty much exactly what you'd expect. The narrator has a servant that is so completely devoted to him it's like a rich person's wet dream of a servant. The writing style is very scientific and describey, not very plot or emotion driven. I had a bad time. That's on me idk why I read this.