"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne (1828-1905)

 

Publisher: Crown Publishers, Inc.

Copyright: 1983

ISBN: 0517413736

This book is another classic in what would come to be known as science-fiction. It was originally written in 1869, and illustrates Verne's fascination with science. It is true that the science depicted in this and other of Verne's stories does not match what we consider to be science today, but for the most part it is accurate as far as the scientific knowledge of the time is concerned.

This is essentially a story of discovery, in that Professor Arronax is taken on a voyage under the sea, and being a naturalist is enamoured with the things he sees. It is true that the book is quite long, but the detail Verne goes into is excellent. He is one of a number of authors that I would have loved to have met.

I recently rewatched the Disney version of this book which came out in 1954. As is typical the director once again took huge liberties with Verne's story.  However, considering the year this was made they weren't all that bad as the movie would've had to be quite a bit longer to encompass the entire story. One major change they made however was to hint that Captain Nemo had discovered nuclear energy, and that the Nautilus was powered by it, this was also reinforced when at the end of the movie Nemo's base was destroyed, and a telltale mushroom cloud was evident. Neither of these things were part of Verne's story, and considering that the story is set in 1866, it seems rather silly to contemplate as atomic theory was definitely in its infancy, and Albert Einstein wouldn't be born for 13 years. Add to this that the nature of the atom was formulated in 1911, that electron surrounded the nucleus was discovered in 1897, etc. and we are once again confronted with age old puzzle of why Hollywood can't do basic research.

It would be nice to see some studio take on this and many other classic stories and do them as a miniseries, as the author intended.