Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
40% of this book is Verne describing Mollusks
No matter how many times I read this book, I will never cease to be enthralled by the imagery that Jules Verne describes. To think this book was written in the mid to late 1800s is unbelievable. Some of the science is obviously outdated and incorrect, but a lot of it was decades ahead of it's time.
This was on my TBR list for a long time, ever since I found the old hard cover versions in my grandmothers things. So now 8 years later i managed to get this done. I liked it, it was an easy read and considering the options on a boat are limited I am pleasently satisfied with the way Jules created the story.
I had never read this classic before, and vacation time seemed right.
There's an awful lot of lists of species and sometimes it's good to look them up.
There's an awful lot of lists of species and sometimes it's good to look them up.
147th book of 2020.
My first Verne, somehow, and I am glad to have finally read one of his novels: they are indeed as entertaining and romantic as I had hoped. In the end, one grows tired of reading references to books that one has not read... Captain Nemo is a character I have read too many times without knowing the true extent of his character, so I set that right. He is partly reminiscent of Ahab, but not entirely; Nemo is a classic "outsider" character- intriguing and mysterious. Perhaps like other books of this age, namely thinking about Wells, it is more impressive to remind oneself when reading that the technology and ideas these writers were writing about was unknown to their present world - the first page of my edition reminds us: "Verne is often referred to as the 'father of science fiction' because he wrote about space, air and underwater travel before aeroplanes, spacecraft and submarines were invented." So, to consider the concept of the Nautillus submarine (a long, cigar-shaped object, shining in the dark) and the workings that Nemo explains, it is astounding that Verne had no vision of the submarines we have today; and more so, that the submarines we have today aren't too dissimilar to that description above.
"But depend on me, we'll pay for this, the Lord never meant us poor mortals to see such sighs as this."
The book is comprised of short chapters, each with small scenes or incidents: run-ins with sharks, squids, islands, Atlantis, other divers/men, natives (cannibals - again, Melville-like), and so on. It is written simply but well - At the captain's order the ship shot upwards like a cork. In four minutes she travelled the four leagues to the surface, leapt into the air like a flying-fish, and fell back with a splash like a cloudburst. It makes for a relatively quick read, full of enjoyment and, suitably, adventure.
My first Verne, somehow, and I am glad to have finally read one of his novels: they are indeed as entertaining and romantic as I had hoped. In the end, one grows tired of reading references to books that one has not read... Captain Nemo is a character I have read too many times without knowing the true extent of his character, so I set that right. He is partly reminiscent of Ahab, but not entirely; Nemo is a classic "outsider" character- intriguing and mysterious. Perhaps like other books of this age, namely thinking about Wells, it is more impressive to remind oneself when reading that the technology and ideas these writers were writing about was unknown to their present world - the first page of my edition reminds us: "Verne is often referred to as the 'father of science fiction' because he wrote about space, air and underwater travel before aeroplanes, spacecraft and submarines were invented." So, to consider the concept of the Nautillus submarine (a long, cigar-shaped object, shining in the dark) and the workings that Nemo explains, it is astounding that Verne had no vision of the submarines we have today; and more so, that the submarines we have today aren't too dissimilar to that description above.
"But depend on me, we'll pay for this, the Lord never meant us poor mortals to see such sighs as this."
The book is comprised of short chapters, each with small scenes or incidents: run-ins with sharks, squids, islands, Atlantis, other divers/men, natives (cannibals - again, Melville-like), and so on. It is written simply but well - At the captain's order the ship shot upwards like a cork. In four minutes she travelled the four leagues to the surface, leapt into the air like a flying-fish, and fell back with a splash like a cloudburst. It makes for a relatively quick read, full of enjoyment and, suitably, adventure.
I was a bit nervous at first but I quickly got into it after getting used to how they interacted. much better than I thought it was going to be.
I spent more than three months underwater with Capt. Nemo and Prof. Arronax--mostly because Violet came along in that time--but this book drags on. Sure, there are some exciting parts (iceberg, squid, Atlantis), but most of the book is spent between adventures. I grew weary of Arronax's cataloging of various aquatic species and eventually skimmed those paragraphs.
The characters of this novel are poor bordering on atrocious. The only interesting character is Nemo, whose "secret" was clear to me from the beginning. The reveal at the end of what Nemo occasionally does with The Nautilus was no surprise at all. The other characters are flat as tissue paper. Arronax is bereft of personality. Ned Land is all bluster. Worst is Conseil, who exists to serve Arronax for no reason. I've said it before: if I don't care about the characters, it's hard to care about the book.
20,000 Leagues is truly laudable for Verne's incredible imagination. Some of what he envisions here actually comes to pass decades later. However, if you're looking for an exciting adventure story, look elsewhere.
The characters of this novel are poor bordering on atrocious. The only interesting character is Nemo, whose "secret" was clear to me from the beginning. The reveal at the end of what Nemo occasionally does with The Nautilus was no surprise at all. The other characters are flat as tissue paper. Arronax is bereft of personality. Ned Land is all bluster. Worst is Conseil, who exists to serve Arronax for no reason. I've said it before: if I don't care about the characters, it's hard to care about the book.
20,000 Leagues is truly laudable for Verne's incredible imagination. Some of what he envisions here actually comes to pass decades later. However, if you're looking for an exciting adventure story, look elsewhere.
People suck, I'd live in a submarine and never let them find me, too, if I could.
Drama in the deeps...
A mysterious sea monster has been damaging ships around the world, so a team is put together to hunt it down. The famous French naturalist Dr Aronnax happens to be in America at the time, so is invited to join the hunting party. Soon he will discover that the monster is in fact man-made – a submarine built and captained by the enigmatic Captain Nemo, and Aronnax and his companions will find themselves unwilling guests aboard the Nautilus as Nemo takes them on a fabulous journey beneath the seas and oceans of the world. But Nemo is more than a simple explorer – gradually Aronnax begins to suspect there is a darker purpose to his travels...
The beginning of the book is very reminiscent of Moby-Dick, as the hunting party sets off to sail rather aimlessly around the vastness of the world’s oceans hoping that they might coincidentally happen upon the sea-monster. Aronnax’s servant, Conseil, accompanies him, and on board they meet Ned Land, a master harpoonist whose task is to kill the monster should they find it. When their ship finally has a disastrous encounter with the Nautilus, these three men will be taken aboard as captives, although for the most part they will be treated more as guests, free to participate in the submarine’s adventures but not free to leave it.
And what adventures! They will visit coral reefs and underwater passages between seas; they will slaughter all kinds of things for food or fun; they will visit islands inhabited only by savage tribes and find themselves in danger of being slaughtered themselves for food or fun, which seems like poetic justice to me! They will observe all kinds of strange creatures that live in the depths, some of them real, some mythical. Aronnax and his faithful assistant Conseil will catalogue hundreds – nay, thousands – of different species of fish and underwater plant life. And Aronnax, our narrator, will kindly list most of these, giving their Latin names and telling us their biological classification.
I must be honest and say all those lists of fish nearly did for me after a bit. Fortunately, I am a master of the art of skipping – obviously, or I’d never have made it through Moby-Dick’s interminable whales either – so very quickly learned to recognise when Aronnax was going to become the world’s leading fish bore and jump a few paragraphs. This worked excellently since, in between the excruciating fishiness and the mind-numbing technical descriptions of the submarine, there’s lots of adventure and some interesting insights on the world as it was in Verne’s day.
The characterisation is good too. Aronnax doesn’t much mind his status as prisoner since, as a scientist, the journey is giving him the opportunity to observe first-hand things that no man has seen before. Conseil is simply his faithful servant – wherever Aronnax is is where Conseil wishes to be – but he provides some gentle humour and acts as a bridge between Aronnax and the third member of the group, Ned Land. Ned feels his imprisonment harshly, especially since Nemo is not keen on letting him harpoon everything he sees, and he’s always pushing Aronnax to consider ways to escape. And Nemo himself is an ominous, brooding presence on board – a scientist too, but who has deliberately cut himself off from the world of men. Aronnax studies him much as he studies the other ocean life, and comes to think that he has perhaps suffered some tragedy or injustice that has driven him to this strange existence. He is another Captain Ahab, although he is sailing in the belly of the monster of the deep rather than chasing after it. But he is driven by the same desire – revenge!
This is a new translation by William Butcher who is an expert on Verne, and that expertise shows in the avoidance of any of the obscurity that can happen in translations, especially of older works. He also wrote the excellent introduction and notes, which give a lot of insight into the writing of the book – what influenced Verne, his ongoing negotiations with his publisher to get the book into shape, how the book fits into his overall body of work, etc., along with a literary analysis of the various themes. There’s lots of actual science in the book, and unfortunately I lacked the knowledge to know what was still considered true and what had been superseded since Verne’s day. I was a little disappointed that the notes didn’t do a bit more fact-checking, but there are so many facts it would have been a huge undertaking. However, the notes do explain many references to contemporary scientists and events that would otherwise have gone over my head.
Truthfully, if I factored in those endless fish-lists, I’d find it hard to rate the book as more than a 4-star read, but since I found it easy to skip them without missing anything essential to the story, they didn’t bother me (and fish enthusiasts might even enjoy them!). The descriptions of the wonders of the deeps, the glimpses of other civilisations, the mystery surrounding Captain Nemo and the thrilling adventure aspects all more than made up for the excessive fish-detail, making it a five-star read for me – a true classic!
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Oxford World’s Classics.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
A mysterious sea monster has been damaging ships around the world, so a team is put together to hunt it down. The famous French naturalist Dr Aronnax happens to be in America at the time, so is invited to join the hunting party. Soon he will discover that the monster is in fact man-made – a submarine built and captained by the enigmatic Captain Nemo, and Aronnax and his companions will find themselves unwilling guests aboard the Nautilus as Nemo takes them on a fabulous journey beneath the seas and oceans of the world. But Nemo is more than a simple explorer – gradually Aronnax begins to suspect there is a darker purpose to his travels...
The beginning of the book is very reminiscent of Moby-Dick, as the hunting party sets off to sail rather aimlessly around the vastness of the world’s oceans hoping that they might coincidentally happen upon the sea-monster. Aronnax’s servant, Conseil, accompanies him, and on board they meet Ned Land, a master harpoonist whose task is to kill the monster should they find it. When their ship finally has a disastrous encounter with the Nautilus, these three men will be taken aboard as captives, although for the most part they will be treated more as guests, free to participate in the submarine’s adventures but not free to leave it.
And what adventures! They will visit coral reefs and underwater passages between seas; they will slaughter all kinds of things for food or fun; they will visit islands inhabited only by savage tribes and find themselves in danger of being slaughtered themselves for food or fun, which seems like poetic justice to me! They will observe all kinds of strange creatures that live in the depths, some of them real, some mythical. Aronnax and his faithful assistant Conseil will catalogue hundreds – nay, thousands – of different species of fish and underwater plant life. And Aronnax, our narrator, will kindly list most of these, giving their Latin names and telling us their biological classification.
I must be honest and say all those lists of fish nearly did for me after a bit. Fortunately, I am a master of the art of skipping – obviously, or I’d never have made it through Moby-Dick’s interminable whales either – so very quickly learned to recognise when Aronnax was going to become the world’s leading fish bore and jump a few paragraphs. This worked excellently since, in between the excruciating fishiness and the mind-numbing technical descriptions of the submarine, there’s lots of adventure and some interesting insights on the world as it was in Verne’s day.
The characterisation is good too. Aronnax doesn’t much mind his status as prisoner since, as a scientist, the journey is giving him the opportunity to observe first-hand things that no man has seen before. Conseil is simply his faithful servant – wherever Aronnax is is where Conseil wishes to be – but he provides some gentle humour and acts as a bridge between Aronnax and the third member of the group, Ned Land. Ned feels his imprisonment harshly, especially since Nemo is not keen on letting him harpoon everything he sees, and he’s always pushing Aronnax to consider ways to escape. And Nemo himself is an ominous, brooding presence on board – a scientist too, but who has deliberately cut himself off from the world of men. Aronnax studies him much as he studies the other ocean life, and comes to think that he has perhaps suffered some tragedy or injustice that has driven him to this strange existence. He is another Captain Ahab, although he is sailing in the belly of the monster of the deep rather than chasing after it. But he is driven by the same desire – revenge!
This is a new translation by William Butcher who is an expert on Verne, and that expertise shows in the avoidance of any of the obscurity that can happen in translations, especially of older works. He also wrote the excellent introduction and notes, which give a lot of insight into the writing of the book – what influenced Verne, his ongoing negotiations with his publisher to get the book into shape, how the book fits into his overall body of work, etc., along with a literary analysis of the various themes. There’s lots of actual science in the book, and unfortunately I lacked the knowledge to know what was still considered true and what had been superseded since Verne’s day. I was a little disappointed that the notes didn’t do a bit more fact-checking, but there are so many facts it would have been a huge undertaking. However, the notes do explain many references to contemporary scientists and events that would otherwise have gone over my head.
Truthfully, if I factored in those endless fish-lists, I’d find it hard to rate the book as more than a 4-star read, but since I found it easy to skip them without missing anything essential to the story, they didn’t bother me (and fish enthusiasts might even enjoy them!). The descriptions of the wonders of the deeps, the glimpses of other civilisations, the mystery surrounding Captain Nemo and the thrilling adventure aspects all more than made up for the excessive fish-detail, making it a five-star read for me – a true classic!
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Oxford World’s Classics.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com