Things I Read: Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under The Sea - Giant Squids and Long Descriptions of Aquamarine Life

I had what I thought would be a great idea recently when I decided to read books in the morning. 

I thought it'd be a reason to get up, start my day with something more edifying than an internet debate, and generally help achieve my never-ending goal to read all of the world’s classic novels. 

Unfortunately it didn't work very well. Turns out that I’m much too tired at that time of the morning but it did serve as my inspiration to buy and read Jules Verne’s classic tale of underwater adventure, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.

The novel was originally serialised and released in two parts, with the English translation arriving in 1872. The plot focuses on a mythic nautical submarine (the Nautilus) captained by one mister Captain Nemo. The main characters are the astute professor Aronnax, his loyal assistant Consul, and the ever-ready-with-a-harpoon Canadian Ned Land. 

The story focuses on their imprisonment aboard Nemo's submarine with the elliptical plot focusing on their many adventures across the seven seas. This includes them being attacked by giant squids in the Atlantic Ocean, through to their near-death by trapped ice caverns in the South Pole. It’s exceptionally well-detailed - almost encyclopedic - in its descriptions of the species and genus of underwater life. 

A very sexy thing if you want to be a Marine Biologist.

Personally this didn’t interest me much. My eyes tended to glaze over these sections simply because I haven’t the (Phileast) fog about science. Instead, I was taken aback by the whimsical nature of the narrative. It’s an extremely arresting book throughout, featuring a highly charismatic cast, especially the oft-heard-of-but-never-quite-understood Nemo. 

For me he’s the most interesting character in the book, both as a hero and villain. He leads staff aboard the Nautilus, being exiled from humanity; it's never fully clear what his motives are. In some ways he’s like an aqua-version of Robin Hood. Both work on the premise of extracting beautiful amounts of bounty for a greater good. Nemo’s intrepid adventures and inexhaustible knowledge of survival allow him to acquire no end of underwater, treasures, which he uses to finance both his life and share with impoverished folk across the world.

He's not quite this reverential all the time, though. He essentially imprisons Aronnax, Consul, and Ned Land much to their chagrin, who spend a great deal of the novel planning their escape (at least when they're not being wowed by Nemo's submarine).

Wiki suggests that the story has strong allusions to Homer’s Odyssey. It's been argued that the story reflects the ten years Odysseus was forced in torment to wander the seven seas. I can't say I know much about that myself but I did enjoy its moment of surprising tension.

It's a smart book, although not necessarily in terms of thematic ideas: a light, rip-roaring adventure through time and space water. 

It’s also a progenitor of the Steampunk genre apparently. 

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