20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (A Graphic Novel Audio): Illustrated Classics

Written by Jules Verne

Narrated by Saddleback Educational Publishing

When seamen were sailing only wooden ships, Captain Nemo was the master of his incredible, futuristic submarine, the Nautilus, which journeyed through many strange and adventurous voyages...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Saddleback Educational Publishing
• Release date: Jan 1, 2006
• ISBN: 9781612474625

Jules Verne

Jules Gabriel Verne was born in the seaport of Nantes, France, in 1828 and was destined to follow his father into the legal profession. In Paris to train for the bar, he took more readily to literary life, befriending Alexander Dumas and Victor Hugo, and living by theatre managing and libretto-writing. His first science-based novel, Five Weeks in a Balloon, was issued by the influential publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel in 1862, and made him famous. Verne and Hetzel collaborated to write dozens more such adventures, including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 1869 and Around the World in 80 Days in 1872. In later life Verne entered local politics at Amiens, where had had a home. He also kept a house in Paris, in the street now named Boulevard Jules Verne, and a beloved yacht, the Saint Michel, named after his son. He died in 1905.

Reviews for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (A Graphic Novel Audio)

[bookson23rd · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a wonderful amazing story!!
~Stephannie

[shimmin_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

 An interesting enough story to some extent, and an example of early "hard" sci-fi full of ideas and imagination. There are interesting and adventurous events in there, the kind I enjoyed as a lad in things like the X Adventure series by Willard Price. On the other hand, it's a bit of a slog. There are many, many sections where the protagonist simply lists the names of species - rarely saying anything about them, and even more rarely anything interesting, but simply listing them as though that should be interesting in its own right. There are little lectures here and there too, largely dry and unable to rouse my enthusiasm, and I say that as a biologist. On the other hand, I'll admit it's impressive that in 1870 Verne was already railing against the thoughtless havoc wrought on the natural world - and depressing to see how little effect it's had. I really do think, though, that it would have benefited from a kindly editor's hand to cut away some of the word-crust, leaving an interesting and adventurous book behind. As it is, I'm afraid I can't really recommend this book as the adventure story it seems to want to be, but only as a historical artefact for people with an interest in the genre. There are other books now that touch on similar content, lighter on the eye and the hand, and for most people I think they'd be a better option.

[aiufjcf · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I first read this book when i was about 12, and now it's all worn out. I love it!

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

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.

[mohi_11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Taken as a 19th century man's insight of the future, the book is amazing and oddly prophetic. But as a novel it plods on very slowly, and rarely captures the attention. I have only read the English version, so perhaps something is lost in the translation.

[leslie398 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I didn't like this translation.

[briandarvell_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've long wanted to read the story of Captain Nemo and the undersea adventures of 20000 Leagues Under the Sea. I'm now glad to have read it and overall enjoyed the story. I can understand how this story had such a large impression on society in the late 1800s and early 1900s where life under the oceans was almost a complete mystery. I found the novel a bit dry and slow at parts but it was still a pleasure to read. For those looking to read a novel which had such huge impact on the development of science fiction one needs not look further than this.

[armyangel1986 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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!

[bayardus-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[hredwards · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Awesome book!! I now understand why Verne is considered one of the Masters.One of my favorites in my collection, an old old copy.

[benuathanasia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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).

[bhabeck-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[carlar_82074 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have tried reading this book before and never finished it. I thought that I would sit down, read, and not pick up another book until I finished this one. I now understand why I couldn't finish it the first time.This book was by no means a bad book, in fact it is a wonderful book. The writing was pretty good and the story itself was pretty awesome. I am sure that if I had been able to read it in 1870 or even 1900 then it would have been a mind blower. Unfortunately I have not yet finished constructing my time machine, so here I am in 2007 reading it. What detracted from the story for me was the amount of description.. mainly because I have seen subs, I have seen what lays under the sea, and nothing is new to me (well that's not entirely true). It is quite remarkable that in the time that it was written that Verne would have so much insight though... truly remarkable.

[empress8411 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book intrigued me more than I expect, given the profoundly boring first few pages. Once the narrator finally was aboard the Nautilus, Verne's ability as a science fiction adventure write bloomed. He described dazzling underwater worlds, strange men and animals, and mysteries of the depth with excellent prose. I can see why this is a classic science fiction novel. Recommend for the ocean lover and the nerd alike.

[debnance_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[aneris-3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[jco123_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An excellent classic. Lots of stuff that I did not remember
about the book. Captain Nemo was way ahead of his time...

[reading_fox · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The bits without the sea/fish discriptions are quite good. Shame there are so many discriptive passages.

[snukes-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[osbaldistone · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the classic translation, which suffers from many shortcomings (hence the low rating). You MUST read Miller's translation (usually published in an annotated edition) to have a chance to appreciate Verne's works. The early English translations are slightly more than worthless; they make Verne look like a mediocre writer of juvenile adventure novels. Even with Miller's translation, however, you probably would have to enjoy and appreciate the technical aspects of his work as well to rate that edition (Miller's translation) as high as I have.

[m_k_m_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"At ten o'clock in the evening the sky was on fire. The atmosphere was streaked with vivid lightning. I could not bear the brightness of it; while the captain, looking at it, seemed to envy the spirit of the tempest."

A disappointment, albeit one with some treats. The book is slow and wilfully digressive (all those fish), but in its characterisation of Captain Nemo it is superb: a man who would shut himself off from the world but is too angry to leave it alone; frustrated by the fact his anger does not mean more, using his grief to justify a position of moral arbiter despite his obvious crimes. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a terrific character study entombed in an almost interminable record of imagined oceanography.

[geraldlange · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

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.

[ani_na_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

For reasons I cannot now comprehend, I checked this book out of my school library in second grade and read it all through class. Also for reasons I can't explain, I LOVED it. Which is why it has a five star rating, even though in all honest consideration it's probably not that great. I can't even be honest anymore; it's stuck to my memory like a twig between teeth, ever-present and slightly minty tasting. There are some very involved politics here, interesting from an anti-nuclear-war position. I was fascinated with the use of sea life for supplies as a child, and the imagined technology of the submarine has held up surprisingly well. If either of those things interest you, pick this book up. I'd also recommend it for anyone interested in older science-fiction, or for those reading through the Verne canon (of which I think this is the best). Otherwise, well, the five stars aren't as brilliant as they might appear.

[michael_rose-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Probably my biggest take away from this is that one must always watch out for the cult mentality. It's quite lethal.

[clurb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good honest adventure book. With lots of fish.

[aaronbaron_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

As often happens when I read a book that inspires countless movies, I found 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea much stranger than it’s legion of popular adaptations. Often cited as a pioneer of science fiction, it reads more like a brochure for underwater tourism. The book consists mainly of amazed sightseers following a rigorous underwater itinerary inside a steampunk submarine. I could sense Verne checking off his list as he devoted each chapter to a distinct marine trope: kelp forests, sunken ships, sunken cities, volcanoes, shark attacks, squid attacks, navel battles, deserted islands, swift currents, coral reefs, icebergs, whirlpools, and all the rest are represented. If I were considering an expensive vacation I would call Nautilus Adventures and book a seat. Yet this aquatic amusement ride makes frequent stops for doggedly educational lessons. The “halt and explain” technique appears endemic of marine fiction; Moby Dick uses it famously, but whereas Melville inserted discreet explanatory chapters in his own voice, Verne has his characters break into learned discourse right in the middle of the action. The effect is usually comic. The characters will plummet down a dark underwater chasm, stop, discuss at length how atmospheric pressure can be withstood by reinforced glass, then plummet down some more. It’s like the cartoons of my childhood, where the cat and mouse would, at the sound of a bell, immediately stop their violent antics, sit down to high tea and discuss the weather, then, when the bell rang again, immediately resume their war. If Verne intended to do this as an ironic distancing device then he would be a genius akin to Brecht, but such is not the case. He intended to show how the seemingly impossible is in fact plausible. A noble goal, but he did it very clumsily. In this maladroit oscillation between narrative and exposition, Verne is indeed a pioneer of science fiction, for it is common flaw of the genre. Verne had ideas galore, far, far more ideas than most mortals ever conceive, and he had a rich imagination that gave his ideas wonderful color, but like many an author of speculative fiction, he struggled to integrate his ideas smoothly into a story. His wooden characters do not help matters much: an officious professor, a deadpan manservant, a hothead whaler, and, most famously, the “enigmatic” Captain Nemo. The professor is mainly a vehicle for Verne’s lectures, the servant is a source of lame one-liners, the whaler is there solely to fight the sharks, and Captain Nemo behaves more or less like a brooding teenager throughout the story. These are not psychologically complex, well rounded characters. Nor are they, in the manner of Dickens, poignant caricatures. They are naught but empty narrative vehicles. A robot could have stood in for any of them, and perhaps should have done so, as it would have added yet another expository twist to the story.This novel is tremendously influential and choc-a-block with images and ideas, but all in all this is not a fantastic work unfairly obfuscated by subsequent cinematic adaptations. In fact, some of those movies may actually be better than the book.

[n.t.embe · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is so close to my heart. It's the second time I've read this book, but it's as bold and beautiful, as memorable and deep as I felt it was the first time I read it. Nonetheless, I am filled with so many emotions right now upon completion of this book that I'm nearly at a loss for what to say. This story is one of adventure, indomitable and evoking so many sights of creation in your mind's fantasy! Your imagination is constantly at a whirl with this book! Half the time while reading it I wanted to be sitting near a computer to look up the fantastic and intricate names of the species of life found in this underwater world I've never before known possessed so many wonders! And the other half of the time, I chose not to because I was in awe, imagining the colors and designs of these wondrous creatures so very few of us ever think about, and could ever know. It is no fish tale, but a tale of wonder that makes any reader marvel, no matter how scientific it may seem. Though I did not myself understand many of the classifications and "fancy" names that were mentioned, it was all secondary to the amazing world that you were able to travel through for the first time on this journey beneath the oceans.

Yet while the greatest part of this tale is adventure and exploration of a world unknown, the other half is represented by its few, but remarkable main characters. Professor Aronnax, Conseil, Ned Land... and Captain Nemo, of the Nautilus. These first three characters create what you can fast see is a harmony between themselves that keeps the book flowing. Whenever one part may begin to get trying or dull, another one of the three comes in and will change the pace of the book, keeping it going. And while for some the classification and description of myriads of fish and plants may grow tiring, the infinite variety and pictures in my mind of these creatures are what make up a rainbow of realism and delight me in the more action-oriented parts of the tale. It is kept moving swiftly, and yet tells so many parts of a long story, that you are able to experience truly an entirely full realm of thoughts in a book so short for the many wonders it has certainly left out. After reading this, one can never look at the ocean the same way again, nor at the simplest of things that inhabit it. It brings a magnificence of life to something so taken for granted today by most of us, and the steady majesty with which it's presented gives one the sense that they have learned more than they ever could have before, once they come to the end of this seemingly "endless" tale.

For it does come to an end. And I assure those of you who may seem weary or tired by the informative and scientific aspect of the book that there is a... an ending like none you've ever seen. An ending with so many questions wrapped up in them, so much emotion... that your heart will be either pushed to the brink or torn and bursting with the violent, writhing feelings that come up in the last few chapters. It's as though every wonder, every beauty we saw was all just leading up to this ever growing mystery of who this captain is, of what submerged a man like Nemo under the waves and brought him to a point of no return like none other. There is deep meaning and feeling in him that lies so turbulent and inexpressible underneath the surface. He is more than just mystery: he is the jewel polished by every wave and crevasse, every turbulent instance, every wonder.... He is a conglomeration so complex and fascinating that I cannot imagine any heart could stand unmoved by him and his story. For every greatness in him there are an infinite number of threads that lead down to his core that remains so very faintly unveiled for us throughout the story. And I must say, it is for him and to learn more and more about him that I read the novel half the time. For without Nemo, without his hidden and yet tangible self right there before us, we would never have gone to the places we did, either physically through the imagination, or emotionally through his unfolding story. He is a driving force unlike any other captured in a single character. It is no lie that countless people have been urged on solely for a love and fascination of this man. It is he who makes our adventures so vivid, and worth more than what they seem.

No one who reads to the end of this book will be disappointed, except by a will to know more. To follow Captain Nemo down once more to the depths. Not to leave him. Or will you be glad to? *Smiles* That is the question you will know the answer to once you have ventured deep under the lands we know, far closer to life and peace than you ever imagined, into a marvel unlike you've ever experienced, all tied back to a single man, and his extraordinary life; his extraordinary story.

For those with a love of adventure, for those who seek mystery in places unsought-for, this tale will fill you with so many things that you will be left forever the wiser and more experienced by the journey you take. For it is not the end, but the journey with this man that makes this book magnificent. It only reflects what admiration and wonder I have for everything else about this book. It is so silly... and yet, I will forever sit here and think of him, one of these greatest characters of all time. I will count the years and know that I have no chance of meeting him. But oh... Nemo. My heart goes out to you, in love and devotion. Find peace, good sir. You are worth it.

This is worth it.

[schmerguls · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[icefirestorm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A good story, a little slow at times but it never stops moving entirely. It was interesting to see how people viewed our ecology in the past. I would reccomend reading it with a dictionary at hand as the main character is a zoologist and uses terms not familiar to the common man. All in all, I'm glad I read it.

[chasegraham · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

this book is good but at times it can get boring.