American sailors attempt to track down a monster that's sinking ships, when they discover that it's not a monster after all, but an incredible submarine commanded by villainous Captain Nemo. An explosion occurs, and the three survivors find themselves prisoner on Captain Nemo's underwater odyessy. A rivetting drama, and one of Verne's most famous books.

THE YEAR 1866 was marked by a bizarre development, an unexplained and downright inexplicable phenomenon that surely no one has forgotten. Without getting into those rumors that upset civilians in the seaports and deranged the public mind even far inland, it must be said that professional seamen were especially alarmed. Traders, shipowners, captains of vessels, skippers, and master mariners from Europe and America, naval officers from every country, and at their heels the various national governments on these two continents, were all extremely disturbed by the business. In essence, over a period of time several ships had encountered "an enormous thing" at sea, a long spindle-shaped object, sometimes giving off a phosphorescent glow, infinitely bigger and faster than any whale. The relevant data on this apparition, as recorded in various logbooks, agreed pretty closely as to the structure of the object or creature in question, its unprecedented speed of movement, its startling locomotive power, and the unique vitality with which it seemed to be gifted. If it was a cetacean, it exceeded in bulk any whale previously classified by science. No naturalist, neither Cuvier nor Lacépède, neither Professor Dumeril nor Professor de Quatrefages, would have accepted the existence of such a monster sight unseen-- specifically, unseen by their own scientific eyes.

 

American sailors attempt to track down a monster that's sinking ships, when they discover that it's not a monster after all, but an incredible submarine commanded by villainous Captain Nemo. An explosion occurs, and the three survivors find themselves prisoner on Captain Nemo's underwater odyessy. A rivetting drama, and one of Verne's most famous books.

VERNE'S TITLE 3 Introduction 4 Units of Measure 7 FIRST PART 8 CHAPTER 1 -- A Runaway Reef 8 CHAPTER 2 -- The Pros and Cons 13 CHAPTER 3 -- As Master Wishes 18 CHAPTER 4 -- Ned Land 23 CHAPTER 5 -- At Random! 28 CHAPTER 6 -- At Full Steam 33 CHAPTER 7 -- A Whale of Unknown Species 40 CHAPTER 8 -- "Mobilis in Mobili" 46 CHAPTER 9 -- The Tantrums of Ned Land 52 CHAPTER 10 -- The Man of the Waters 58 CHAPTER 11 -- The Nautilus 64 CHAPTER 12 -- Everything through Electricity 70 CHAPTER 13 -- Some Figures 75 CHAPTER 14 -- The Black Current 80 CHAPTER 15 -- An Invitation in Writing 89 CHAPTER 16 -- Strolling the Plains 96 CHAPTER 17 -- An Underwater Forest 101 CHAPTER 18 -- Four Thousand Leagues Under the Pacific 105 CHAPTER 19 -- Vanikoro 111 CHAPTER 20 -- The Torres Strait 118 CHAPTER 21 -- Some Days Ashore 124 CHAPTER 22 -- The Lightning Bolts of Captain Nemo 133 CHAPTER 23 -- Aegri Somnia"* 142 CHAPTER 24 -- The Coral Realm 147 Author's Note: 154 SECOND PART 155 CHAPTER 1 -- The Indian Ocean 155 CHAPTER 2 -- A New Proposition from Captain Nemo 161 CHAPTER 3 -- A Pearl Worth Ten Million 170 CHAPTER 4 -- The Red Sea 177 CHAPTER 5 -- Arabian Tunnel 187 CHAPTER 6 -- The Greek Islands 193 CHAPTER 7 -- The Mediterranean in Forty-Eight Hours 203 CHAPTER 8 -- The Bay of Vigo 209 CHAPTER 9 -- A Lost Continent 216 CHAPTER 10 -- The Underwater Coalfields 223 CHAPTER 11 -- The Sargasso Sea 231 CHAPTER 12 -- Sperm Whales and Baleen Whales 237 CHAPTER 13 -- The Ice Bank 245 CHAPTER 14 -- The South Pole 255 CHAPTER 15 -- Accident or Incident? 264 CHAPTER 16 -- Shortage of Air 270 CHAPTER 17 -- From Cape Horn to the Amazon 278 CHAPTER 18 -- The Devilfish 285 CHAPTER 19 -- The Gulf Stream 294 CHAPTER 20 -- In Latitude 47 degrees 24' and Longitude 17 degrees 28' 301 CHAPTER 21 -- A Mass Execution 307 CHAPTER 22 -- The Last Words of Captain Nemo 314 CHAPTER 23 -- Conclusion 319

Verne, Jules , 1828-1905, French novelist, originator of modern science fiction. After completing his studies at the Nantes lycée, he went to Paris to study law. He early became interested in the theater and wrote (1848-50) librettos for operettas. For some years his concerns alternated between business and the theater, but after 1863 he drew upon his interest in science and geography to write a series of romances of extraordinary journeys, in which he anticipated, with remarkable foresight, many scientific and technological achievements of the 20th cent.

Verne is especially known to English readers in translations of his Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863), A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), From the Earth to the Moon (1865), Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (1870), The Tour of the World in Eighty Days (1873), The Mysterious Island (1875), and Michael Strogoff (1876). Extremely popular, he wrote more than 50 books by the time he died. Plays and motion pictures have been made from many of his works, which are still widely read, particularly by the young. In 1989 the manuscript of Verne's long-lost 1863 novel Paris in the 20th Century was discovered; the pessimistic and prophetic futurist work was published in 1994.

 

20000 Leagues Under the Seas by Jules Verne
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