jules verne – ImoReads

ImoReads… ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea’ (1870) by Jules Verne

Blog Nº 36

“Nature’s creative power is far beyond man’s instinct of destruction.”

I am already a fan of Jules Verne after having read Around the World in Eighty Days last year. In terms of an adventure story, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea did not disappoint, and also happens to cover vast swathes of the globe (albeit exclusively by sea!). This novel is full of exciting moments and makes you marvel at the world below the surface.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is narrated by Professor Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologist, who happens to be in New York City when the story begins in 1866. Various ships coming in to port have reported sightings of a mysterious sea monster, thought by some to be a giant narwhal. When an expedition to find and kill the creature is authorised by the US government, Aronnax and his faithful assistant Conseil are invited along to offer their expertise. Master whaler and harpooner Ned Land is also among the invitees. When their ship the Abraham Lincoln eventually finds and faces off with the creature, Aronnax, Conseil and Ned Land are thrown from the ship. They hold onto the ‘monster’ for survival, which they shortly realise is in fact some sort of submarine vessel. They are taken within by its mysterious Captain Nemo, and then follows a five month adventure aboard the Nautilus. Verne portrays a world filled with marvellous sea creatures, lost cities, treasure, coral forests and more in this non-stop adventure novel.

What is staggering about this novel is the amount of research Verne must have done to make Aronnax and Conseil’s knowledge of marine biology seem accurate and to be able to describe the seabed and everything around it in such vivid detail, not to mention the geographical precision which is present throughout the book. Undoubtedly, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is as educational as it is adventurous. For example, when walking in scuba suits through the underwater forest of Crespo Island, Aronnax reels off names including zoophytes, fishflies, brain coral, ribbon kelp and more, not to mention technical species names like caryophillia and dactylopterae. I was consistently impressed by this throughout the book, and wonder how many hours Verne spent painstakingly researching this to make a fantastic novel.

The adventure in this novel has many layers. It is of course fascinating to see the group travelling across the world – at one point Aronnax muses over some of the things they have encountered during their stay on board the Nautilus: “the underwater hunting forays, the Torres Strait, the tribesmen of Papua, the time we ran aground, the coral cemetery, crossing under the Suez, the island of Santorini, the Cretan diver, the Bay of Vigo, Atlantis, the South Pole ice cap, being trapped under the ice, the battle with the squids, the hurricane in the Gulf Stream, the Vengeur, the horrific sinking of the warship with the loss of all hands!…” The mind boggles at the twists and turns faced by Aronnax, Conseil and Ned Land. The adventure goes deeper however, thanks in the main to mysterious Captain Nemo, who secretly built this ahead-of-its-time submarine and spends his time travelling the seas. Nemo lives in a self-imposed exile on board the Nautilus, both for the purpose of scientific discovery but also to escape human civilisation. Though the trio are afforded every privilege and unbelievable experiences on board the ship, there is always a sinister undercurrent running through the story, as Nemo says from the start that they can never leave the vessel for fear of discovery by the rest of the world. Eventually, an escape must be plotted so Aronnax, Conseil and Ned Land are not doomed to spend the rest of their lives on the Nautilus.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a fascinating and gripping tale of marine adventure, with a deeper exploration of the lengths to which people will go to overcome personal tragedy. I highly recommend diving in to this novel and immersing yourself in the wonderful world beneath the waves.

Happy reading,

Imo x

ImoReads… ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’ (1873) by Jules Verne

Blog Nº 10

“Everybody knows that England is the world of betting men, who are of a higher class than mere gamblers; to bet is in the English temperament”

Hooray, I’m back in the rollicking world of Victorian adventure thanks to Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). My parents bought me a lovely edition for Christmas and it took me all of a week to devour it and see if it was in fact possible to pull off such a feat.

Of course, this book was originally written in French (and perhaps I should have read it comme ça) but I thought the English translation worked really well, in part because London is the home setting and the main character is an English gentleman, Phileas Fogg.

Whose idea was it to take on this crazy trip I hear you cry, which brings me to the premise of the story. Our protagonist Mr Fogg has just taken on a new servant, a Frenchman named Passepartout (meaning ‘goes everywhere’ – oh the irony) who is looking for a quiet, easy life with little to do after a career in the circus. Luckily for Passepartout Mr Fogg is a very meticulous gentleman who schedules every minute of his life to a T, going nowhere else but between his house on Savile Row and the Reform Club. He takes lunch and dinner at the club and spends an awful lot of time playing a card game called Whist. This creature of habit is not someone you would suspect of undertaking a journey so foreign and full of unforeseen risk.

And yet, it transpires that after a conversation with some fellow club members, Mr Fogg has calmly bet £20,000 (half of all the money to his name no less!) that he can indeed travel around the world in 80 days, starting from that very moment. Much to the glee of the gentlemen and the dismay of Passepartout, the adventure had begun.

What follows is a rich and exciting journey around the world using every mode of transport available – including an elephant and a sledge. The nineteenth-century world, particularly the British or ex-British colonies is of particular historical interest to me, so I especially enjoyed being able to traverse through the likes of India, Singapore and America with the characters. Not that Mr Fogg shows any interest in anywhere for the duration of the trip, much to the astonishment of Passepartout and me the reader, however this does add a consistent element of humour to the novel. Indeed, this imperturbably cool-headed gentleman is quite remarkable, and his inexplicably calm nature comes in very useful in the many crises faced en route. He is the antidote to the chaos of Passepartout, who always seems to be getting himself into scrapes.

Towards the end of the voyage, Mr Fogg has got himself quite the motley crew of fellow travellers who have become as invested in this bet as if it were their own, including the conniving police inspector Mr Fix. Together they face a multitude of exciting incidents and mishaps, not least fighting off an attack by a tribe of Sioux native Americans in the middle of a train journey.

Verne’s novel is not only thrilling but witty. Even in English, all his wry comments on the nature of colonialism, stock markets, and Mr Fogg himself for example make for a drily amusing and engaging read alongside all the adventure.

The question now on your mind is probably – but did Mr Fogg and the gang manage to do it? That one I will leave up to you to find out in what is quite frankly a nail-biting and unexpected ending.

Bon voyage and happy reading,

Imo x