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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Audiobook11 hours

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Written by Jules Verne

Narrated by Michael Prichard

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

About this audiobook

French professor Pierre Aronnax and his servant join the Abraham Lincoln, an American frigate, on a mission to find and destroy a "sea-unicorn of colossal dimensions, armed not with a halberd, but with a real spur, as the armored frigates." The undersea monster is thought to be responsible for the disappearance of over 200 ships. When they encounter the "gigantic cetacean," it disables the Abraham Lincoln and knocks Professor Aronnax, his servant, and the hot-tempered harpooner Ned Land overboard. The three must cling to the beast or drown; however, they soon realize that the "beast" is really a man-made underwater vehicle.

Captain Nemo captures the men and holds them prisoner on the Nautilus, his incredible submarine. The captain and his unwilling passengers thus embark on a deep-sea odyssey that stretches from the palm-strewn Indian Ocean to the frozen peril of the South Pole. But the enigmatic Nemo has a darker purpose for his voyage: revenge on humanity.

Not just a suspense-ridden drama, this classic novel, written in 1873, predicts with astonishing accuracy the advanced technology and inventions of the twentieth century, and it has inspired generations of science fiction writers.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJul 28, 2008
ISBN9781400178490
Author

Jules Verne

Jules Verne (1828-1905) used a combination of scientific facts and his imagination to take readers on extraordinary imaginative journeys to fantastic places. In such books as Around the World in Eighty Days, From the Earth to the Moon, and Journey to the Center of the Earth, he predicted many technological advances of the twentieth century, including the invention of the automobile, telephone, and nuclear submarines, as well as atomic power and travel to the moon by rocket.

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Reviews for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Rating: 3.4910714285714284 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

112 ratings91 reviews

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    A French marine biologist named Aronnax narrates his journey to capture a mythical sea creature called a narwhal. What he and his shipmates discover is that the creature doesn’t exist. Instead they find a submarine call the Nautilus, which has been created secretly and travels around the world beneath the surface of the water. The sub’s Captain, a man who calls himself Nemo, tells his new captives that they must remain on the Nautilus so they won’t have a chance to revel his secret to the world. I love the premise, but the execution didn’t work for me. There are so many details that’s the plot gets lost in the minutia. Verne was certainly a visionary, but he must have been on some oceanic kick while writing this one. The descriptions of each individual sea creature go on for pages and it was incredibly hard to stay interested. The amazing thing about the book is that it was published in 1870, long before submarines of the Nautilus’ stature were invented. I also thought it was interesting that the 20,000 leagues in the title refer to how far they travel in the sub. I always thought it was talking about how deep they went. Sadly these tidbits weren’t enough to really make the book work for me. I don’t regret reading it, because sometimes I’m just curious about classics, but I wouldn’t read it again.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book shows the true roots of science fiction. A story so fully of carefully researched facts about the various oceans of the world and the fish and plant life in them that you could almost believe that the nautilus and captain nemo did exist and the wonders they showed our narrator exsisted as well.
    Science fiction is about taking what we know and expanding it just that little bit more into the impossible. Or the one day maybe possible and then seeing what might happen.
    Quiet apart from that this is a story that brings home the massive change in attitude our society has had in regard to the environment and its study. Nemo himself is somewhat of a conservationist "this would be killing for the sake of killing" he tells Ned the harpooner. He kills willingly for food or in his search for revenge but will not be party to senseless destruction.
    We never learn what Nemo actually hopes to achieve or what happens to the nautilus in the end. In many ways I think this would have added to the believability of the story when it was first published.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    In 2000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne gives way too many details, about every thing; fishes, mollusks, machines, and more. Also, the book has very little excitement and loses your interest after about 5 minutes. I would not suggest this book for a pleasure read unless you are very interested in the sea and all of its inhabitants. However if you have to read it try to read it in small portions spread it out over time so you don’t get too bored.In 2000 Leagues Under the Sea, Professor Arronax goes on the Abraham Lincoln to figure out the mystery behind a sea beast that has recently started appearing all over the world. When the Abraham Lincoln finally finds this creature professor Arronax his faithful servant council and their new friend Ned land a whaler from Canada are knocked off their ship and are left to survive in the mysterious ocean with their fates controlled by the creature they had just been hunting.The only thing interesting in this book is when they actually do something like visit an under water forest of a drowned city. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen much, and you get bored between events. The rest is pointless and boring details that take up over two thirds of the uneventful book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    As a piece of proto science-fiction 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was more or less what I expected. There is some adventure here, but mostly Verne uses the book to discuss his imagined designs of a submarine, diving suits, and other nautical equipment. Also explored is Verne's knowledge of ocean life and the wrecks that have happened therein, as well as his speculation as to the nature of the South Pole and Antarctica. Most of this (besides Antarctica) is quite accurate for the time, though this stopped being so impressive to me when I did some research and found out that much of the equipment Verne described actually existed in at least the prototype stage when Verne was writing this. There is a degree of Verne foreseeing the future of marine technology here, but it is a lesser degree than you might expect. Otherwise the narrative takes the form of a travelogue, hitting a large number of underwater adventure scenarios, but these segments were not overly engaging. Anyway, this might be a good read for you if you are interested in early science fiction or submarine life as conceived in the 1800s, but be prepared for lots of mechanical specifications, discussions of sea currents, and catalogues of fish and not so much in the way of actual excitement.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The story showed promise and I can sympathise with Nemo. Unfortunately, the author uses the whole thing as a vehicle to tell the world (or just France; I forget who he's trying to impress) how smart he is. Verne should have read more Wells before trying to write.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Started off with a bang, but then got bogged down with endless description of the scenery. I guess no one ever told Verne to show rather than tell.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I loved all the descriptions of underwater life, and the different places the characters visit. I wanted to become a marine biologist after I finished reading!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A good honest adventure book. With lots of fish.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Given this tale's reputation, I was expecting a rip-roaring adventure of man against nature, technology versus beast, maybe even a bit of pirate-style swashbuckling excitement. Instead, I got a travelogue - the diary of a scientist classifying life below the ocean. The famed squid that seems to figure so heavily in every retelling of 20,000 Leagues factors into a single chapter out of forty-seven. That being said, I still enjoyed it. I just wish it wasn't so horribly mis-sold (kinda like when someone accustomed to Boris Karloff and Halloween costumes reads the original Frankenstein for the first time. It's still great, it's just...not what you've been told to expect).
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read this for the Steampunk category of the SF Reading Challenge on Shelfari.

    Although the story was very interesting and well-written, I found that it dragged at times due to the great amount of detail that Verne included. It often seemed that I was reading a natural history reference on the flora and fauna of the world's oceans.

    That said, I would recommend it since it was an enjoyable read. This would also qualify for the category of Work not originally published in English.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I love this book. Anyone who wants to write sci-fi must learn from Verne. He makes it what it should be: man and nature in conflict, and the technology he envisions to unite them. But an undercurrent in this book of rousing, scientific, seafaring adventure is one of tragedy and a deep bitterness. Yes,I have a fondness Captain Nemo. I still like to think, as he sat alone in the half-light, playing his organ, he played Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata...
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read this because it was on a list of Great Classics. I saw the movie long ago but did not remember much of it. I thought the title meant 20,000 leagues down! It seems Captain Nemo and Professor Aronnax (and Conneil and Ned land ) went on a submarine for 20,000 leagues, often under the sea's surfacce. It has some exciting things, especially when they almost die at the South Pole. This book is nnotated, and corrects some things in the standard English translation. The sequel is The Mysterius sland, but I don't think I have to read it. Verne wrote 65 books. I think I've read enough bny him.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this book. In the begining the author tells the reader that he, Mr Aronnax, studies the ocean and is quite famous for his work. te book takes place in the early 1800s, so their sciences are not very advanced. The author goes on to tell about the rumors and sighting of a giant sea monster the size of an island, being a man of science Mr Aronnax is very skepical at first but is swayed to believe that a giant moster does live. When he is invited to go hunt for this notorious beast he jumps at the chance and he also brings allong his servant Conciel. After voyaging for days they finally find thebeast, but to their surprize it is actully a submarine vessle, navigated by Captin Nemo who cut himself off from life above the water entirely and has a mysterious way of going about things . When they acciedently get thrown to mercy of Captin Nemo and his under water exporatory they find that there is no escape. While escape is on the mind they are taken around the globe, and to the depths of the sea. These captives are witnessing and experiencing things that normaly people would never even get a chance to see.The author is very descriptive when is comes to the bottom of the ocean, these places and animals are described to be SO magestic SO beautiful and SO breathtaking that I had dreams about these fictional places for DAYS. The men have wonderous and exciting adventures under the sea, yet are still taken captive. Should they choose to abandon shipp and flee to shore or should they take up this exciting and opportunistic, yet isolated lifestyle? I would recomend this book to anyone who enjoys science fiction novels or who really loves a good piece of literature. This book was very challenging because it inculded a lot of scientific vocabulary that I, as a freshman, am not used to. But since this book was so exciting i couldn't put it down. Out of five stars i would give it four and a half to five. I really loved this book and I hope you do to.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A crazy man guiding the ship who has given up on mankind and who refuses to stand on dry land. A coral cemetery. Passing through the Suez. Atlantis. An iceberg. The South Pole. Ice that almost traps the ship. A battle with poulps. A terrible storm. A ship with all her crew sunk. A maelstrom. These are just some of the adventures you will experience when you read this zany book. At times, you will feel like you are reading from an encyclopedia of the time and at times you may wonder whether Jules Verne just made up random creatures and random facts about the underwater world. But I think, in the end, you will be glad you made this voyage.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this story when I was a kid and my rating is based on those memories. I doubt I would rate it lower if I read it again.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The bits without the sea/fish discriptions are quite good. Shame there are so many discriptive passages.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I don’t know what I exactly expected from this book, but not exactly this. I think I anticipated more plot and action. And this book is very erudite.

    This is not really my thing. But still I’m amazed with the amount of information and knowledge contained in this book. Nowadays, we do not have a problem with access to detailed information on any topic, you can search virtually anything on the internet. But at a time when Verne wrote his book, this amount of information had to be impressive and required some serious research. All these curiosities included in the book were then completely unknown to the readers. I imagine that they had to ignite the imagination back then.

    Unfortunately, times have changed and now this accumulation of encyclopedic information is a bit boring. Enumeration of all kinds of fish and marine animals is simply uninteresting for today's reader who is looking for action and plot twists. And I am not an exception.

    Nevertheless, the book is a wonderful record of the scientific knowledge on the seas and oceans at the time. And this aspect is especially interesting for me. It's fascinating to catch a glimpse of how people saw the world 150 years ago. What interested them, what they were afraid of and how they imagined the future. And even more interesting is what they did not know then and what we already know now. Like the South Pole, which in Verne’s book looks very like Greenland which is very far from truth. And although the south pole is still studied by scientists, it is not a white patch on the map anymore.

    The same with regard to the use of electricity. The light bulb was not invented until around 1880. It was not until 1882 that factories in the United States began producing light bulbs. Verne published his book 10 years before this! The idea of an entire ship (and a submarine!) being electrically powered had to be something fantastic in the Verne era and beyond human imagination.

    Another aspect that I noticed reading this book is the perception of the world at the time. Even more valuable that it is not presented from the perspective of today's political correctness or an attempt to point out certain problems but shown in a way that was then quite natural. In the book we have a very well illustrated approach to colonialism and a way of thinking about the ‘savage’. And although today we have a completely different approach to these topics, contact with a report from the past helps us understand how our ancestors thought and how the world changed over years. Therefore, Captain Nemo who would be considered an ecologist and social activist even in more recent standards is an extremely interesting character.

    I’m glad I read this book even if it is not my favourite. It's fascinating to see how people imagined the future and what turned out to be true.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I liked the book because I AM fascinated by the sea, but everyone is right, the details of EVERYTHING are awful to sit through. You completely forget where you are in the "story" after pages and pages of detail on a fish, or a rock. A tough read, but a nice fantasy story. I personally don't think the details and monotony were NEARLY as awful as say Moby Dick, but they were pretty bad.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fascinating! A wonderful insight into the glories of marine life, and a comprehensive guide to world geography as well as a compelling story. Gratifyingly, it also leaves so many questions unanswered.Of course, everyone is broadly familiar with the story of Captain Nemo and his extraordinary submarine, but the detail that Verne offers is beguiling.The story is recounted by Professor Arronax, a leading marine biologist of the 1860s who had been approached by the US Navy to join their expedition to investigate a spate of sightings of a mysterious body at different sites all around the world. Most of Verne's central characters have an unswervingly loyal manservant and Arronax is no exception - wherever he goes, so goes Conseil.After a long voyage the navy boat does eventually encounter the strange form that has been causing such unrest around the maritime world. A cannon is discharged but the shell merely bounces off its target. In the ensuing melee Professor Arronax and Conseil are swept overboard and find themselves rescued initially by Ned Land, the legendary Canadian harpoonist. However, as they drift on the surface they gradually lose their strength and are on the verge of succumbing to a watery grave when the Nautilus surfaces, and they are gathered in by the crew of Captain Nemo.They are treated for the effects of their ordeal and then taken on a voyage all around the globe. Verne gives the most enticing descriptions of the wonders of the world beneath the waves, and the limitless beauty and undreamt splendour to be encountereed there. Nemo is fours us but distant, and rules his ship with unquestioned ardour, being rewarding with absolute and unquestioning loyalty from his crew, all of whom have turned their backs on life ashore.Arronax comes to respect Nemo but is left astounded by the harshness of many of his views, and with no insight at all into what has driven him to this self-imposed, underwater exile. Once the initial sense of relief at having been rescued, and the ensuing wonder at everything they can see, fades, the thoughts of the three captives turn to escape.I can't imagine how exciting this must have seemed when it was first published - even now it is instantly and comprehensively captivating.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I thoroughly enjoyed rereading this wonderful classic as an adult. The social commentary that Verne offered escaped me when I first read this book as a child. The Afterward provides a good discussion of the challenges to Verne that came about as a result of this work.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    To be upfront, I thought there would be a lot more action in this story. I never read it in school, so coming at it as an adult was intriguing. That being said, I was not let down. Verne is very versed in sea life (this book is chock full of jargon) and as a science nerd, it was fascinating. And somehow, through all the science and tech, he was able to create a story that is often exhilarating.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a wonderful amazing story!!
    ~Stephannie
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    "Among the molluscs and zoophytes, I found in the meshes of the net several species of alcyonarians, echini, hammers, spurs, dials, cerites, and hyalleae. The flora was represented by beautiful floating seaweeds, laminariae, and macrocystes, impregnated with the mucilage that transudes through their pores; and among which I gathered an admirable Nemastoma Geliniarois..."*flip flip flip*"...carpet of molluscs and zoophytes. Amongst the specimens of these branches I noticed some placenae, with thin unequal shells, a kind of ostracion peculiar to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean; some orange lucinae with rounded shells; rockfish three feet and a half long, which raised themselves under the waves like hands ready to seize one. There were also some panopyres, slightly luminous..."*flip flip flip*"...phyctallines, belonging to the actinidian family, and among other species the phyctalis protexta, peculiar to that part of the ocean, with a little cylindrical trunk, ornamented With vertical lines, speckled with red dots, crowning a marvellous blossoming of tentacles. As to the molluscs, they consisted of some I had already observed--turritellas, olive porphyras, with regular lines intercrossed, with red spots standing out plainly against the flesh; odd pteroceras, like petrified scorpions; translucid hyaleas, argonauts, cuttle-fish (excellent eating), and certain species of calmars that naturalists of antiquity have classed amongst the flying-fish, and that serve principally for bait for cod-fishing. I had now an opportunity of studying several species of fish on these shores. Amongst the cartilaginous ones, petromyzons-pricka, a sort of eel, fifteen inches long, with a greenish head, violet fins, grey-blue back, brown belly, silvered and sown with bright spots, the pupil of the eye encircled with gold--a curious animal, that the current of the Amazon had drawn to the sea, for they inhabit fresh waters--tuberculated streaks, with pointed snouts, and a long loose tail, armed with a long jagged sting; little sharks, a yard long, grey and whitish skin, and several rows of teeth, bent back, that are generally known by the name of pantouffles; vespertilios, a kind of red isosceles triangle, half a yard long, to which pectorals are attached by fleshy prolongations that make them look like bats, but that their horny appendage..."Zzzzzz....
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A classic that I had always meant to read . . .The first thing I learned was that I had always been in error in my expectations from the title. I had thought that the ship had descended 20,000 leagues under the ocean, but, of course, the submarine had merely undertaken a journey of 20,000 league while submerged. As a result, the speculative science basis for the book was much better grounded, and Verne gets many things right - along with a series of clangers.I had recently read Edgar Allan Poe, and found many similarities in their approach to early science fiction (to creating the genre of science fiction, really). A good read.Read March 2017
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really enjoyed the descriptions
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I loved all the descriptions of underwater life, and the different places the characters visit. I wanted to become a marine biologist after I finished reading!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This has to be near the sourcewaters of speculative fiction. As I read this book, I felt like I could feel Verne's mind working: "If I could travel under the sea, what sorts of marvelous things would I find?" Early chapters function as a kind of check-list for these imagined wonders: enormous underwater volcanoes, Atlantis, giant squids, the South Pole. And the wonders discovered really are the stars of the adventure. The technology is imaginative and interesting, but only to a point. Captain Nemo is mysterious and conflicted, but served more for me as background noise all all the delicious "what if?"s.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    It was Horrible u shouldnt read it i hated it! it was boring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The narrator has a habit of listing by genus and phylum every single plant and animal he sees and every shipwreck that has occurred in each region he travels to, but I skimed those and the rest was pretty good. I enjoyed the odd combination of 19th-century-style entitlement with surprisingly modern-sounding environmentalism (that species has been nearly hunted to extinction and this may be the last of its kind...let's eat it! or praising nature for creating new coal deposits in the sargasso sea for humanity to use when the land-bound deposits run out, or berating the harpooner for wanting to kill a whale needlessly, then slaughtering a huge group of other whales that came to hunt the first group....) And of course, an ambiguous villain(?) is often enjoyable.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
     There's some unknown sea monster and it's destroying ships by gouging giant punture marks in them. Surmise is that it is a giant narwhal type creature and so the US Navy sends a boat out to chase it down. They do indeed find the creature, but it's not flesh and blood, it's a giant electric submarine. In the chase, our narrator, the french professor of biology, his servant and the Canadian harpooner get swept off the small boat and land on the submarine, where they are taken in and treated as captives, at least initially.They meet the ships captain, the enigmatic Captain Nemo and so begins a circumnavigation of the globe by submarine. You could argue that the descriptions of the South Pole and the passage between the Red and Mediterranean seas are quite unrealistic - but this was 50 years before men went to the South pole, and so is nothing more than an amazing flight of fancy. The descriptions of the fish became slightly dull after a while, (seen one & you've seen them all) but the story rolls along. Who Nemo is and what drives him to escape under the sea remains a mystery to me. A good read, and shows a hugely inventive mind at work.