20,000 Leagues Under the Seas

Jules Verne was born in 1828 into a French lawyering family in the Atlantic coastal city of Nantes. Though his father sent him off to a Paris law school, young Jules had been writing on the side since his early teens, and his pet topics were the theater, travel, and science. Predictably enough, his legal studies led nowhere, so Verne took a day job with a stock brokerage, in his off-hours penning scripts for farces and musical comedies while also publishing short stories and novelettes of scientific exploration and adventure. His big breakthrough came when he combined his theatrical knack with his scientific bent and in 1863 published an African adventure yarn, Five Weeks in a Balloon. After that and until his death in 1905, Jules Verne was one of the planet's best-loved and best-selling novelists, publishing more than sixty books. Other imaginative favorites by him include The Mysterious Island, Hector Servadac, The Begum's Millions, Master of the World, and The Meteor Hunt. Verne ranks among the five most translated authors in history, along with Mark Twain and the Bible. Frederick Paul Walter is a scriptwriter, broadcaster, librarian, and amateur paleontologist. A long-standing member of the North American Jules Verne Society, he served as its vice president from 2000 to 2008. Walter has produced many media programs, articles, reviews, and papers on aspects of Jules Verne and has translated many Verne novels, including Amazing Journeys: Five Visionary Classics and The Sphinx of the Ice Realm, both also published by SUNY Press. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

• Translator’s PrefacePart I 1. A Runaway Reef2. The Pros and Cons3. As Master Wishes4. Ned Land5. At Random6. At Full Steam7. A Whale of Unknown Species8. Mobilis in Mobil9. Ned Land’s Temper10. The Man of the Waters11. The Nautilus12. E ntirely by Electricity13. A Few Figures14. The Black Tide15. An Invitation in Writing16. Strolling the Plains17. An Underwater Forest18. 4,000 Leagues Under the Pacific19. Vanikoro20. Torres Strait21. A Few Days Ashore22. Captain Nemo’s Lightning Bolts23. Ӕgri Somnia24. The Coral RealmPart II25. The Indian Ocean26. A New Proposition from Captain Nemo27. A Pearl Worth $2,000,00028. The Red Sea29. Arabian Tunnel30. The Greek Isles31. The Mediterranean in Forty-Eight Hours32. Vigo Bay33. A Lost Continent34. The Underwater Coalfields35. The Sargasso Sea36. Sperm Whales and Right Whales37. The Ice Barrier38. The South Pole39. Accident or Incident?40. Shortage of Air41. From Cape Horn to the Amazon42. The Devilfish43. The Gulf Stream44. In Latitude 47° 24' and Longitude 17° 28'45. A Mass Execution46. Captain Nemo’s Last Words47. ConclusionTextual NotesRecommended Reading