20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Title: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Author: Jules Verne
Major Themes: Classics, Submarines, Sci-Fi, Adventure
Synopsis: The classic sci-fi adventure story of three men who were taken aboard a secret submarine and went on a journey around the world.

I’ve been intrigued by Jules Verne’s books for years, but aside from Mom reading Around the World in Eighty Days aloud to me in school, I never took the time to read any of his books. At some stage, I listened to a radio drama based on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but my impression from that story was that the book ended with a suicide, and I wasn’t very excited about reading this book because of that. Still, I knew that I would want to try it sometime—if I could force myself to do it—and I’m so glad I took the chance and read the story! Much to my delight, it doesn’t end with suicide, and the journey these characters went on was a whole lot of fun to read about.

Publisher’s description:

My thoughts:

Verne’s adventure stories are largely unmatched in today’s literary world. I feel a bit funny saying that, because at this stage, I’ve only read or heard two of his books, but these two have both been excellent. Do I agree with everything the characters do? No, but the depth of characters, diversity of settings, and brilliance of imagination more than make up for it. Besides that, there’s a humorous thread that permeates the story, which gives spice to otherwise dire circumstances.

It’s hard to know exactly how to quantify this book, because not only is it rich in language usage, but it’s also a landmark when it comes to forward-thinking and the study of human nature. This is science fiction, and yes, some of the things described in this book have since been disproven by science (take the descriptions about Antarctica, for example—at the time this book was written, that region of the world was as yet unexplored). I loved the descriptions of the diving suits—that sounded fairly similar to what divers use today, although ours have some decided improvements. I also enjoyed the scientific aspects of the book—seeing Prof. Aronnax’s excitement about different animals and plants that he saw was pretty fun (even if not completely accurate!).

From a human nature perspective, it was interesting to see what Verne thought people would be like who were driven to such extremities, such as in the case of Captain Nemo. It was a good illustration to me that when our lives are not submitted to Christ, we as humans can justify doing some pretty awful things. Prof. Aronnax and his companions were equally fascinating, thrust into this unusual situation; I could relate to Ned Land quite a bit!

If you enjoy science fiction and stories with a good amount of adventure, and don’t mind slightly slower-paced reads, I’d recommend 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I found it fascinating, and never got to the place where I felt like I’d lost interest in the story—it was much easier to read than, say, most of Dickens’ works. I’m looking forward to reading other Verne books if I can get my hands on them eventually. This is a good story!

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