20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Sterling Unabridged Classics) [Hardcover]

Jules Verne (Author), Scott McKowen (Illustrator), Arthur Pober Ed.D (Afterword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2006 | Age Range: 10 and up | Series: Sterling Unabridged Classics | Lexile Measure: 1030L (What's this?)

Originally published in 1870, Verne’s amazing undersea adventure is one of the earliest science fiction novels ever written. Since that time, generations of readers have plunged below the ocean’s waves with Captain Nemo and his first-ever submarine, The Nautilus. It’s a voyage of exploration and the imagination.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 4-8-Performed in radio theatre style, this audio version is a fine retelling of the Jules Verne classic. The St. Charles Players, composed of four actors, play a variety of roles with hammy gusto, although the dialogue is a bit rushed in the opening sections. This adaptation by Jeff Rack does a good job of capturing the feel of Verne's sprawling epic tale. The story is told by Professor Aronnax, who agrees to investigate a series of attacks by a mysterious sea monster. He joins the crew of the ship Abraham Lincoln. The men encounter what they believe is the monster, but turns out to be a large, state-of-the-art submarine, the Nautilus. Aronnax and a hot tempered harpoonist, Ned Land, are imprisoned on this vessel, captained by the misanthropic recluse, Nemo. Nemo takes them around the world. Verne's descriptions of the underwater world, with its exotic creatures and sunken ships, shine thanks to clear narration and evocative sound effects. As the journey continues, becoming monotonous, the program's midsection sags a bit. It picks up steam again with sequences involving a monstrous octopus and a storm. While not an essential purchase, this is an impressive attempt to adapt a classic.

Brian E. Wilson, Oak Lawn Public Library, IL

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Review

Unbearably thrilling and romantic...full of Verne's gentle humour Daily Mail Among the deep-sea volcanoes, shoals of swirling fish, giant squid and sharks, Captain Nemo steers the Nautilus. Nemo is the renegade scientist par excellence, a man madly inventive in his quest for revenge Sunday Telegraph A tale of terror, suspense and wonder Guardian Fabulous...the pace is sharp and the story as dramatic and engaging as ever Daily Express Verne's imagination has given us some of the greatest adventure stories of all time Daily Mail

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Product Details

• Age Range: 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Sterling (October 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140272599X
• ISBN-13: 978-1402725999
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (448 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

288 of 310 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy this book! February 9, 2006

By J. M. Margot

Format:Mass Market Paperback

If you're going to read one of the great classics of literature-and you should-don't pick up this edition. It is a reprint of a version that dates back to the 1870s and was exposed more than 40 years ago for cutting nearly one-quarter of Verne's story and mistranslating much of the remainder. Its reappearance in this edition is all the more amazing considering Tor's status as a leading science fiction publisher, and the company's willingness to perpetrate this fraud on is many readers is truly stunning. If you want to truly get to know Verne's novel, pick up the elegant Naval Institute Press edition, in a modern, complete, updated translation, with commentary by the leading American Verne expert today, Walter James Miller. That book also comes with many of the artistic engravings that illustrated the original French first edition (no illustrations are to be found in the B&N Mercier reprint). Less attractive but more academic is the Oxford Classics version of Twenty Thousand Leagues. This review is posted on behalf of the North American Jules Verne Society by Jean-Michel Margot, president NAJVS.

79 of 84 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Translation Available -- accept no substitutes! June 9, 2004

By Claude Avary

Format:Paperback

This is without a doubt the best translation of Jules Verne's 1870 science fiction classic "Vingt mille lieues sous les mers" ("20,000 Leagues under the Sea"). This translation by two Verne scholars, Walter James Miller and Frederick Paul Walter, takes all the knowledge available on the book and its author to not only make an accurate and readable complete text (early versions often omit a full quarter of the French original) that fixes the many errors of earlier translators, but also purges the text of many mistakes that were made by the original French compositors. The research and work that went into this translations is really quite stunning, and the result is a text that really lets Verne's genius shine: "20,000 Leagues under the Sea" is not only a brilliant piece of scientific prophecy, but also a thrilling story with superb, subtle characterizations.

The plot is familiar: Captain Nemo, an enigmatic figure who has withdrawn himself from the world, tours the oceans in his submarine called the Nautilus. We see this journey of 20,000 leagues (approx. 43,200 miles) through the eyes of Professor Pierre Aronnax, a scientist who is both Nemo's guest and prisoner. Also aboard with Aronnax are his manservant Conseil and a gruff ship's harpooner, Ned Land. The Nautilus encounters many wonders and obstacles on its long voyage: underwater forests, giant clams, attacks by huge squid, imprisonment in ice at the South Pole, monster storms, a war with a pack of sperm whales, and the discovery of the lost continent of Atlantis. But as something deep and destructive gnaws away at Captain Nemo, his prisoners seek a way to escape from the miracle ship.

In the English-speaking world Jules Verne has rarely received in the praise he truly deserves as a writer. People applaud his scientific foresight (while criticizing him for errors that were usually the fault of the translators), but shrug off his writing as inconsequential, with cardboard characters and plotless stories. If only these critics would read this translation of Verne's best novel...they would have to re-think their position on the great French writer! His genius for blending adventure, comedy, and psychology burst through in this translation. The book does veer into lengthy descriptions of marine life in places, and modern readers are likely to skim these parts (Verne even provides clues in the text to indicate when he's about to digress), but as a whole the novel is absolutely engrossing, throwing one stupendous adventure after another at the characters, while developing a mystery around Captain Nemo and increasing tension onboard the Nautilus so that the many different incidents hold together as a single plot. Even though submarines are commonplace technology today, Verne infuses his story with such awe-inspiring wonder that you can't help but feel the same sense of amazement as Professor Aronnax when he finds himself cruising the depths of the world's oceans. Real wonder never gets stakes, and no one was better at creating wonder than Jules Verne.

Aside from the excellent translation, this edition contains numerous extras (if this were a DVD, it would be labeled as a Special Edition Director's Cut). The lengthy introduction explains Verne's background, education, the development of the novel, the many things that Verne accurately predicted, the book's unsung literary qualities, the different French texts, and the problems with earlier translations. All the original illustrations from the original French edition are reproduced in the text, and generous footnotes give the reader a guide through Verne's more obscure references and shed light on the author's scientific genius. As a bonus at the end of the book, the editors include a new translation of the relevant passages from "Mysterious Island" that discuss Captain Nemo's background (just in case you're too impatient to go read "Mysterious Island" for yourself to solve the Captain Nemo mystery). There's also a table of the measurements used in the novel for those readers who really want to test the author's scientific accuracy.

There really isn't any other choice when it comes to translations of the "20,000 Leagues under the Sea." Nothing comes close to this: it will appease hard science readers, and it will open people up to Jules Verne's overlooked literary talents. With the wealth of background information available, this edition does better by Jules Verne -- ANY Jules Verne -- than has ever been published in the English language.

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A vast improvement July 16, 2002

By Mark Pollock

Format:Paperback

Most of Jules Verne's works were hastily translated, with many "improvements" made in the process, such as deletion of scientific exposition, as well as deletion of many moments deemed by the translator as dull.

This, the Restored and Annotated version of 20,000 leagues, is a VAST improvement over previous English editions. The translation is very well done, and the annotations explain what has been changed and what previous translations accomplished.

Highly recommended!