Customer Reviews

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Great Illustrated Classics (Abdo))

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Verne,Jules. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. New York : Scholastic Inc. 2000 426 pp.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is an exciting and adventurous fiction book that will make you want a sequel.
I like this book because it has great detail and well told sentences. One of my favorite parts is when the Cachalots which are huge whale like creatures that attacked the whales and the the crew ran into the cachalots with the Nautilus and save the whales on pp. 319-322.
The main characters in the book are Mr. Arronox and his servant Conseil with a Canadian harpooner Mr. Nedland and the Captain of the Nautilus Captain Nemo who imprisons them on the Nautilus but lets them go about freely around the ship. How they got on the Nautilus was believed to be a sea monster that wrecked many ships all over the world . Mr. Arronox , Conseil ,and Mr. Nedland are chosen to go out on a ship called the Abraham Lincoln to track down the monster and bring it back but what they think is the sea monster but is really the Nautilus. When they try to attack it the ship sinks the Abraham and when they wake up they find themselves upon the Nautilus...
I would recommend this book for kids who can understand big words and are in grade 6-8.

This is such a good book I read it 3 times. This book is about 4 people who try to get back home. On the way there they encounter lots of challenges. It has so many thrills and suspense it feels like you are in the book. Around the middle of the book they find a giant sguid. If you want to find out if they get home read the book. Hope you like it.

The main character of the book is Captain Nemo. He had hard time obeying the laws. So he came up with the idea to hide in the sea where nobody could find him. He built a submarine with the help of his partners. In those days scientists only new about tiny sparks of electricity. Captain Nemo figured out how to use it for his submarine. Unfortunately his submarine was ruining other ships. People thought that the submarine was a sea monster with a horn that swam very fast.
Ned was a sailor on the explorer boat. When submarine went up for air it broke Ned's ship with its horn. Ned landed on emerging submarine right when Captain Nemo opened hatch to get air. Nemo took Ned and his friends inside of the submarine. Nemo showed them around the submarine and said he would not let them go, because he did not wont to spoil his secret. Ned's two friends had wonderful time on the submarine. They like to go under water in the suits Captain Nemo invented and search for pearls and animals. But Ned was nervous and he would not go anywhere. He wanted to go back home. He was afraid what he will be killed by the army ship which was searching for sea monster. He was able to signal for help to army ship with the flag.
I love this book because it has a lot of adventures.

PLOT: 19.5 / 25
Though often scientifically intriguing and educational, the plot of Jules Vernes 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is, at times, slightly dry. To the votary of marine biology, this fantastic tale would be a masterpiece of literature, but to the reader of relatively modest aquatic knowledge, the plot at times seems to come almost to a standstill. At times the storyline seems to branch off to situations which, though they are truly fascinating, do not seem to pertain very directly to the advancement of the plot.

INTEREST: 20 / 25
Much like the amazing journey of Captain Nemo and his companions, this tale is thoroughly unpredictable. Unfortunately, the interest pertaining to any given part of the tale is equally unpredictable. When the story is good, its great: beautiful undersea jungles, a myriad of aquatic creatures of every shape and description, the mysterious past of Captain Nemo and his crew. When the story is bad, it terrible: lengthy and dry descriptions of sea life, detailed measurements of various parts of the Nautilus, trivial descriptions of everyday life aboard the Nautilus.
In spite of this seemingly lukewarm review of such a renowned tale, none can deny that Jules Verne has a particular ability which is scarce at best among authors; that of mingling fact with fiction. This exceptional ability, possessed only by authors of advanced learning in a particular field, H.G. Wells or Isaac Asimov being such authors, can transform a seemingly ridiculous yarn into a convincing, credible document. This is illustrated effectively throughout 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, for at times the reader must remind themselves that this the story is fiction, not fact.

CHARACTERS: 18.5 / 20
The characters of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea are, obviously enough, deeply explored; they spend a good 230 pages together aboard the Nautilus. At first, they are seemingly simple, shallow characters but this is later disproved as the story progresses. Each have their own quirks and interests and traits, particularly the mysterious Captain Nemo, but these traits are variable and hence make the characters more realistic than the average story character. Their emotions change from day to day, their attitudes transform as the novel proceeds. This gives the characters and in turn the story a stunning realism; a trademark of Jules Vernes books.

STYLE: 13 / 15
Style, as any reader worth his own books knows, is as subjective an area as they come. Though certain aspects of style cant be denied as impressive - graphic imagery, apposite metaphors, etc. - style is, for the most part, an area of subjectivity. It is for this reason that I must confess to the reader of this article that though the style of this story is, for the majority, quite impressive and eloquent, there are times when it becomes slightly long-winded. Nonetheless, this book is skillfully written and thoroughly enjoyable.

ATMOSPHERE: 13 / 15
Though atmosphere is on offshoot of style, it is, in a sense, a completely different area. The atmosphere of
this story is quite impressive. This area, though, is once again unfortunately, and perhaps unfairly, marred by the constant variance of quality of this tale. At times, the atmosphere is awe-inspiring; Vernes style virtually places the reader among his undersea kingdom, its circumambient wonder and beauty surrounding them. At other times, though, the pages are dry and lifeless; they are dead to the reader.

TOTAL: 84 / 100

received book in perfect condition!! fast delivery!! would definitely order from you again :) thanks!

The main character of the book is Captain Nemo. He had hard time obeying the laws. So he came up with the idea to hide in the sea where nobody could find him. He built a submarine with the help of his partners. In those days scientists only new about tiny sparks of electricity. Captain Nemo figured out how to use it for his submarine. Unfortunately his submarine was ruining other ships. People thought that the submarine was a sea monster with a horn that swam very fast.
Ned was a sailor on the explorer boat. When submarine went up for air it broke Neds ship with its horn. Ned landed on emerging submarine right when Captain Nemo opened hatch to get air. Nemo took Ned and his friends inside of the submarine. Nemo showed them around the submarine and said he would not let them go, because he did not wont to spoil his secret. Neds two friends had wonderful time on the submarine. They like to go under water in the suits Captain Nemo invented and search for pearls and animals. But Ned was nervous and he would not go anywhere. He wanted to go back home. He was afraid what he will be killed by the army ship which was searching for sea monster. He was able to signal for help to army ship with the flag.
I love this book because it has a lot of adventures.

Sad to say, I expected a lot more from this much-renowned book. Yes, Verne's lenghty and detailed descriptions of marine life are amazing, and one can truly appreciate his brilliant imagination in having conjured up all those underwater scenes. However, it gets really redundant and dull after the first 30 pages of above said descriptions, and the plot just fails to really take off. I was torn between times when I was deeply curious as to why Captain Nemo was the way he was, and at other times, I just really didn't care. I still think this work is good considering it was written over a hundred years ago; however, for a better read and appreciation of Verne's work, check out his Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
By: Jules Verne

I read the book "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne. It was about a professor who is shipwrecked onto an under water submarine. On the submarine the professor figures out that the Captain uses the sub to destroy other ships. But also on the sub he goes on excellent adventures such as hunting sea otters in the middle of the ocean. He also gets to study fish from a wild under water view. Also they go on an island and get chased by savages back to the Nautilus just for hunting on the island. They also try to sail around the world and are successful after being stuck under ice for two days in the North Pole. And finally they killed a shark when it attacked them when they were searching for pearls. The professor and his comrades are told that they can't go back home so the professor and his friends try to escape and whether he does you're going to have to read the book.

I didn't like this book at all. I didn't think it was exciting at all. I almost fell asleep every time I read it. He didn't really use any hard vocabulary, it was all a lot of old time slang. The main conflict didn't interest me at all because this book wasn't exciting at all. The characters were very real because they seemed like they would be people that go to sea. The ending was stupid because it didn't really have an ending, it just ended.

The author used third person talk from two characters. The author uses vocabulary in an interesting way because he uses a lot of old slang. The author used a good amount of dialogue but he should have used a little more.

I would rate this book a 0/10 because it was so stupid that I pretty much fell asleep. I don't recommend this book to anyone because it was horrible and no one should have to read this garbage.

In conclusion the author used good writing technique but his book was terrible and was not interesting at all.