Nowadays there are attempts to bring science to the masses by "dumbing down" - I suppose this is the 19th century equivalent. Science brought to the masses in a form to thrill and entertain as well as educate. Written in 1869 its really a book about sea life and its creatures with a thin back bone of a weird megalomaniac who inhabits the under sea world in a fabulous submarine the Nautilus. Captain Nemo has gone down in legend but I remember him as the Disney classic film - the book it self reads in many places like a scientific treatise on the then accepted knowledge of the sea and its creatures. Read in unabridged form the narrative goes into pages and pages of discussion about dactylopterae or the genus of macrocephalous cachalots - whatever they are - if I had the time I'd look them up but like Melville's "Moby Dick" one feels that Verne was pushing the envelope of scientific knowledge in 1869. How much of the science is correct I don't know but given the advances since 1869 I suspect a lot of it is probably wrong.
The science aside the sci - fi aspect of the story, a fantastic submarine with a charismatic Captain Nemo at its helm whizzing round the oceans having adventures is actually quite endearing and easy to read. It does seem tacked on in places and Nemos character is never really explored - there are more questions than answers but that’s all part of the fun and what jolly fun it is too - exploring the undersea with miraculous diving suits thousands of feet down, too far even for modern diving let alone large submarines! Sunken treasure, Atlantis, giant squids the whole lot - not a lot really happens but it is a great read if one avoids the inevitable "But what about?? " questions that crop up. For me the main one was where were Nemo's crew? There were meant to be hundreds of them yet the three main characters hardly seem to notice them. It would be easy to pick holes in the science but the novel appears to have stood the test of time at nearly 150yrs old so it's not all that bad. The thing that made me laugh (just like Robinson Crusoe) is the endless slaughtering of the sea life - they go on about a Dungong being rare and not being many left but kill and butcher it any way because it tastes nice, this is with the Nautilus dragging nets behind it all the time catching tons of fish every other day. Captain Nemo shuns the world of mankind though we don't really learn why and acts as though he is the guardian of the under sea yet it doesn't stop him killing sea otters or slaughtering whole herds of whales out of a misplaced sense of revenge. Large parts of the book appear to be what to kill and how it tastes!! How the world has changed thankfully. It’s a jolly read I think and well worth the time if not just to marvel at how Verne took the then infant technology of Submarines and built a whole story around it. Great fun!!
The science aside the sci - fi aspect of the story, a fantastic submarine with a charismatic Captain Nemo at its helm whizzing round the oceans having adventures is actually quite endearing and easy to read. It does seem tacked on in places and Nemos character is never really explored - there are more questions than answers but that’s all part of the fun and what jolly fun it is too - exploring the undersea with miraculous diving suits thousands of feet down, too far even for modern diving let alone large submarines! Sunken treasure, Atlantis, giant squids the whole lot - not a lot really happens but it is a great read if one avoids the inevitable "But what about?? " questions that crop up. For me the main one was where were Nemo's crew? There were meant to be hundreds of them yet the three main characters hardly seem to notice them. It would be easy to pick holes in the science but the novel appears to have stood the test of time at nearly 150yrs old so it's not all that bad. The thing that made me laugh (just like Robinson Crusoe) is the endless slaughtering of the sea life - they go on about a Dungong being rare and not being many left but kill and butcher it any way because it tastes nice, this is with the Nautilus dragging nets behind it all the time catching tons of fish every other day. Captain Nemo shuns the world of mankind though we don't really learn why and acts as though he is the guardian of the under sea yet it doesn't stop him killing sea otters or slaughtering whole herds of whales out of a misplaced sense of revenge. Large parts of the book appear to be what to kill and how it tastes!! How the world has changed thankfully. It’s a jolly read I think and well worth the time if not just to marvel at how Verne took the then infant technology of Submarines and built a whole story around it. Great fun!!
