Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea

About the book

Reports of an extraordinary object at sea draw Professor Aronnax into an expedition to investigate and confront it. With Conseil and the harpooner Ned Land, he enters an experience that transforms the apparent monster into a different kind of marvel. Aboard Captain Nemo's Nautilus, the ocean becomes a place of exploration, technical achievement, and involuntary confinement. Aronnax's scientific curiosity does not cancel his companions' concern with freedom, and Nemo's extraordinary resources do not explain his purposes. Verne balances descriptive wonder with the tension of depending on someone who withholds essential knowledge. The voyage continually changes the scale of what the travellers can see, while keeping open the question of whether access to an astonishing world compensates for losing control over one's movements within it.

• Exploration
• Freedom and confinement
• Knowledge and power

Why read it

For an underwater voyage whose scientific wonders remain entangled with the unsettling authority of its host.

English translation