Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Seas

Along with such names as H.G. Wells, Mary Shelly, and Bram Stoker, Jules Verne is considered one of the great masters of 19th Century fantastic literature --- a genre which includes science-fiction, fantasy, horror, adventure. By the time Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Seas was published, Verne has already become famous as a writer, and his work had been translated to English for nearly two decades. Verne wrote over 140 books in his days, mostly adventure stories of one type or another, and is considered one of the fathers of modern science-fiction --- a claim he denied, suggesting that science or invention were incidental to his stories, which were about people and places. The original title, restored for this edition, was Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas – plural for the seven seas, not singular. Many readers think of 20,000 leagues as a depth; this is not only inaccurate, but impossible since a league, as used in the book, is about the same as a kilometer. Leagues were used as a measure of distance around the world. Jules Verne has been translated hundreds of time; he is the second most translated author since 1979 (behind Agatha Christie) and has at times been the most translated into English. Each translation provides a slightly different book, as the article which follows the novel “A Collector and His Jules Verne” illustrates. It is possible to find both minor and drastic differences in style from one translation to the next, so reading Jules Verne a second or third time may create a new experience. Since publication Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Seas has become an icon of adventure, and its influence is felt all through literature and popular culture. The book has spawned films, from the silent movie days forward, sequels and derivative novels, musicals, television programs, cartoons, comic books and more. The names Nautilus and Nemo are inextricably linked to underwater adventures. Verne's classic novel of the oceans is immortal.