Reviews - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Esprios Classics)

2.94k reviews for:

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Esprios Classics)

Jules Verne

3.59 AVERAGE

gh2mi's review against another edition

1.5

adventurous informative slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

20,000 Leagues is one of those books that would make just about anyone come to the conclusion that they hate reading. The only people who will have any appreciation for this are some historians and marine scientists. It's horrifically dull, with an exceptionally awful narration thanks to Aronnax constantly dumping useless science facts on the reader. There is an interesting dynamic between Nemo and the Professor here, but it's buried under so much junk that it's impossible to latch onto, which is a problem when the action is this passive and the characters are so insufferable.
It's not so bad to get a 1/5, I think it would have to be downright offensive to get that low, but I really strongly disliked reading this book and would not recommend this in most contexts.

skeen59's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

myllan's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

sams84's review against another edition

4.0

An imaginative and beautifully written adventure beneath the waves of the world's seas. The sights and creatures seen are well conceived and described in vivid detail while the characters themselves are complex and intriguing. Written before the advent of the modern submarine this book is well conceived and believable, to some extent even today. Some of the more technical aspects can be difficult to comprehend but I feel that the story would not be as impressive and impacting if these were missing.

colofj's review against another edition

3.0

I can see why this is a literary classic of adventure/sci-fi and deserves to be such, but it didn't grab me the way H.G. Wells's books do.

thelifeoftabia's review against another edition

1.75

adventurous informative inspiring slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Thought it was going to be more about out of this world monsters of the sea, but it was more like a researchers notebook of real creatures and places. Forced myself to finish but it was boring.

boiling_avocado's review against another edition

4.0

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I’m pretty sure it’s meant to criticise the useless killing of sea creatures and birds etc, and even if it’s not meant to do that, it does that pretty well for me at least.

Happily I really like the character of Captain Nemo. I also like how obviously our main character is infatuated with him. Even I could not brush this off as accidental.

I’m not quite interested enough in measurements and different species of creatures to not skim most of the litanies but the rest was quite enjoyable

Did not like Ned Land but I’m sure he’s not meant to be liked either. He certainly acts as a sort of mirror to Nemo, being literally ’Land’, and is therefore pretty interesting to follow, but never likeable.