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A review by wouterk
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
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
4.0
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.