20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne 8.6/10
Pierre Aronnax’s journey to kill an elusive sea monster crosses paths with the enigmatic Captain Nemo and his wondrous submarine, the Nautilus. This fated meeting will lead Pierre and his two companions on a fantastic journey across the world’s oceans.
Plot: 9/10
The plot summary below says it all. There is a reason this book makes its way into so many “Top 10 books ever written” lists.
Pierre Aronnax, his manservant Conseil and legendary whaler Ned Land, set out on a hunting expedition to kill a mysterious sea monster. During a battle with the sea monster, it is revealed to be a technologically advanced submarine under the command of the enigmatic Captain Nemo. The trio is thrown overboard during the battle and captured by Captain Nemo. The Nautilus takes the men on an epic journey of the world’s oceans, where they will experience and see all the wonders the ocean offers.
Characters: 9/10
The narrator, Pierre Aronnax, is your classic intellectual guide. I find this type of protagonist in a lot of novels written during this period. You need a knowledgeable narrator for a novel like this, someone has to explain all the wondrous sea creatures. Ned Land, the harpooner and Conseil are more than auxiliary characters. At one point I thought the two men represented the two conflicting needs of the principal character; the desire to stay aboard the Nautilus and the yearning for freedom. This is the case, but the men also stand on their own as separate and self-aware individuals.
Then we come to Captain Nemo, the primary reason to read this book. This mysterious figure is a force of pure will and granite determination. I tried to figure out why this character is so exceptional… I could not. I try to learn from each new book I read to improve my own writing. This is one of those instances where I can not for the life of me figure out where the magic lives, it is brilliant, and I don’t know why.
Setting: 9/10
Have you seen one of those award-winning nature documentaries about the oceans? Take one of those documentaries, insert underwater battles, Atlantis, submarine volcanoes, and sea monsters.
Theme: 8/10
The all-consuming revenge that drives Captain Nemo, and his self-imposed exile, are dominant themes in the novel. The repercussions and inevitable conclusion of the Captain’s choices are a major source of distress for the protagonist.
I also get the impression that Jules Verne wanted the reader to consider the impact that industry and colonialism have on the environment and the “Third World”.
Style and Mood: 8/10
Brilliant, despite the epistolary format, the reader does not feel like a second-hand observer.
This book is the granddaddy of the Steampunk literary style, and it is plain to see why. Verne’s sense of wonder and his fascination with the technology used to construct the Nautilus is almost childlike. In the late 1800s technology reached a point where almost anything in the 20th and 21st century could be built given enough time, imagination and money. Computers the size of cities, made of glass, brass and copper, steam-powered cars and zeppelins, you could build our modern world but everything would be heavy, shiny, hissing and awesome.
When this novel was written it was fashionable for the educated upper classes to go on expeditions and see how many new species they could discover, kill, and stuff. Everyone was an amateur naturalist, and the intelligentsia was fascinated with the classification of animals. If I had one critique about this book it is the pages and pages filled with Latin whose sole purpose it is to distinguish one sea worm from another. To be fair, this isn’t a valid critique, this book was written in a different time, readers in the late 1800s would’ve found this very interesting.
Total Score: 8.6/10
Every fantasy, steampunk, sci-fi and adventure fan worth his salt must read this book. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a classic in each one of those genres.
Thanks for reading
JJ
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