Jules Verne is a 19th Century French novelist who has been dubbed "The Father of Science Fiction" along with H.G. Wells (The Invisible Man and The Time Machine) and Hugo Gernsback (Wonder Stories Magazine). While all of Verne's novels are of the adventure genre, from Around the World in Eighty Days to Journey to the Center of the Earth, they also have a very heavy relationship to science fiction, with a significant portion of them being called Science Fiction Adventure novels. One of his most significant and perhaps most well-known Sci-fi Adventure novel is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, published in 1870 and adapted numerous times into films and TV movies.
The premise of the novel is fairly simple: In the year 1866, French marine biologist Professor Pierre Aronnax (also the narrator of the story) partners with the United States navy and accompanied by his Belgian manservant Conseil, a naturalist, to find and destroy a mysterious sea monster (theorized by Aronnax to be giant narwhal) that have been sinking ships around the world. During the navy's confrontation with the monster, Aronnax, Conseil, and Canadian harpooner Ned Land (a worker on the naval vessel) is thrown off the U.S. ship. They are shocked to learn that the mysterious monster is in fact a submarine called the Nautilus, apparently built and piloted by a mysterious man named Captain Nemo and his crew of numerous men of various nationalities who all have a strong hatred for land. They plan to live out the remainder of their lives exploring the ocean, and Captain Nemo holds Aronnax, Conseil, and Ned prisoner to keep the truth from reaching land. For the next ten months, the three captives explore every inch of the ocean from the Antarctic seas to the lost city of the Atlantis, eventually escaping from the Nautilus and making their way the mainland.
The first thing I would like to say is that this novel was... okay. Personally, it was tolerable at the most for me. The novel spends pages dedicated to describing in extreme detail every single kind of fish Aronnax and his companions saw from their physical appearance to their genus, and as someone who really can't stand biology, these pages were excruciatingly dull to sit through, and I pretty much ended up skipping those parts of the novel, and apart from showing how much (admittedly impressive) knowledge Verne has of marine biology (especially more since he was a lawyer), it adds absolutely nothing to the overall narrative, although it could be argued that they are important in describing the wonders of underwater life to juxtapose the life on land. Furthermore, I didn't really understand the engineering aspects of how any of the machinery worked, apart from the general idea that those were very advanced for their time, but that most likely is due to my lack of familiarity with science, and I'm sure that lovers of marine biology or engineering will be able to appreciate it more then I.
Even though there are some excruciatingly dull moments, they do sort of make up for it with some genuinely interesting and exciting scenes like Atlantis, their entrapment in the Antarctic, and their attack on an unnamed naval vessel among other genuinely interesting scenes. My two personal favourites were Captain Nemo's fight with the shark, and the battle against the giant squids, because those scenes provided some much-needed action and were written in vivid detail. Verne's skill as a writer is very clear in the pages of this novel as he does describe everything in very vivid detail, so it's quite easy to get a mental image from these descriptions, which does work well in this specific novel as its purpose is to describe to the reader what was (at least during the time this book was written) shrouded in complete mystery, so while I'm not a fan of long descriptions of the location, I can appreciate Verne's prolific ability to describe things in such vivid detail.
So now in the next few paragraphs, I will be focusing on the four main characters in particular: Prof. Aronnax, Captain Nemo, Conseil, and Ned Land. I'm going to be dedicating most of the blog on the characters for me, the characters were easily the most interesting part of the novel, and the plot isn't anything groundbreaking, as it essentially describes the underwater travels of a group of people, and there really isn't anything I can really write here about the science aspects without sounding really awkward since I'm completely out of my depth here on that specific subject matter.
Professor Pierre Aronnax
Professor Pierre Aronnax, despite being the narrator of the novel, is very dull and unlikable. There's just nothing interesting to him in terms of actual character, and what little character he actually had did nothing to endear him to me. Aronnax is a very arrogant person who deems himself to be above most people. This is evident right at the beginning of the novel when Aronnax confidently claims that the mysterious creature is a giant narwhal, and essentially refuses to accept any other theories, calling the creature a narwhal throughout the rest of the novel. He completely dismisses the idea that it could be a submarine, and his argument against it has a strong jealous undertone to it as if he couldn't believe that an individual could build a submarine like that in secret. He is proven wrong as Captain Nemo was obviously able to build the Nautilus in secret, and while that quote is from earlier in the novel, it really shows that Aronnax is very much of an elitist who doesn't like to consider that someone else could have done something better then him. This wasn't a great start to the character, and Aronnax only got more annoying as the story progressed.
Aronnax develops some sort of Stockholm Syndrome as the novel progresses, and he definitely doesn't want to leave the Nautilus, and while perhaps his desire to explore the seas for the rest of his life is technically understandable since he is a marine biologist, his main reason for wanting to return to land is a desire motivated by arrogance, as the reason he has to return to land is so that he can get famous off of all the discoveries he made, even though they are technically Captain Nemo's discovery more then anything. Apart from his arrogance, Aronnax is just a dull character. He really doesn't have much personality apart from "Captain Nemo is great!" and "I love fish!". He is also very weak (physically and mentally) and is just very inactive. When the crew is fighting the giant squids, while he describes everyone else fighting heroically, he doesn't describe himself fighting once, meaning that he probably just stood there in fear the entire time, as I doubt he would have had the courage to fight. His arrogance is clear even in the final page as he writes about how only him and Captain Nemo have walked the depths of sea, quoting a biblical passage to emphasize the point. ONLY him and Nemo? He fails to mention any of Nemo's crew OR Conseil, OR Ned, bringing the attention to only himself and Captain Nemo, his "hero". The only vaguely positive thing I can say about Aronnax is that he's kind enough to his friends, but even then, he refuses to run away when they wish to, forcing them to stay behind with him (because they are good people who won't abandon him).
Captain Nemo
Captain Nemo is shrouded in complete mystery, and this is evident from his name Nemo, which literally means No Man in Latin. And true to his name, Captain Nemo really is "no one". We know absolutely nothing of him other then the vaguest hints we get from him throughout the novel. He is very scientifically-minded, as he built the Nautilus himself, very heroic and strong as we see during the shark attack and the battle with the squids, and he is a learned man, keeping many books of different matters and languages in his library, and is apparently able to speak and understand four or five different languages. As for his backstory, all the readers really get from the novel is that he for sure had a wife and two kids who seemed to have been killed by some people, which drove him to hate all men on land (or land in general) and for some reason, the concept of imperialism. Captain Nemo is very reserved and private for the most part, often shutting himself away for days, and barely showing any emotions. However, Nemo also seems to be a rather broken and caring man, as he is noted weeping when his crew members died and in front of a portrait of a young woman and two children (assumed to be his wife and children).
Character wise, he's more likable then Aronnax. While he can't be said to be the villain of the novel, he certainly is no saint. He does capture Aronnax, Ned, and Conseil and refuses to let them go out of what is essentially paranoia that his secret will be known to other people. He is also rather temperamental, refusing to discuss the topic further just because he doesn't like it. He is also bit of an megalomaniac, and is very prideful, much like Aronnax. But on the other side of the coin, there is a very emotional, courageous man and a surprisingly kind heart. He puts his own life on the line to defend a random fisherman from a shark, leads the group in fighting the giant squids, and is generally composed. However, Captain Nemo's kind, soft-hearted nature is also evident on multiple occasions. The first sign that Nemo was not a completely cruel tyrant was the fact that he saved Aronnax, Ned, and Conseil from drowning in the sea, even if it was to keep them prisoner on board. But even as prisoners, the three were basically given the license to do whatever they wanted, as long as they didn't ask to or attempted to escape he Nautilus, and were treated like guests of honour. Furthermore, the captain shows great care for his crew members. He weeps like a father who has lost his son when one of his crew members die. This shows that he really does care for these people like family, despite his stone-cold exterior. There is also further evidence to show his soft-hearted nature towards the conclusion of the novel. Captain Nemo's true self as a very broken man who buries himself in the depths of the sea to try and forget his tragic past. So while Captain Nemo is a rather antagonistic character, he somehow manages to be MUCH more likable then Aronnax, as what little backstory he does get enables us to understand his actions and motives and perhaps even sympathize with him, while his positive, heroic traits also balances out the negative portions quite nicely.
Ned Land
Ned is easily my favourite character in the entire novel, even though he clearly isn't the central character and doesn't feature in the story as much as you'd think. His name essentially characterizes this man quite nicely. His last name "Land" is an obvious representation of his constant hatred of being on the Nautilus and his desire to return home. Out of the three "protagonists" (Aronnax, Ned, and Conseil), Ned, I feel, is the most realistic character out of them all, but that may be simply because I can relate with him so easily. Ned is a very down-to-earth man and the only one out of the three castaways who sees their situation as something other then a wondrous opportunity. While the other two are fawning over the sea life, Ned constantly thinks only of escaping the submarine and returning to land, and he is the only one who seems to actually see the situation for what it is in its entirety: Captain Nemo is a cruel tyrant that has held them captive indefinitely in a prison. While Aronnax and Conseil eventually do entertain this notion, Aronnax, at least, is never fully on board with the idea, it seems, making Ned probably the most clear-headed person out of the three, and he is more or less solely responsible for organizing the escape.
Furthermore, Ned is also the most fun character to read about. He is the most basic character in the novel (distinguishing fish by their taste and his desires to be on land and to hunt more or less), is actually quite funny, and also is an extremely strong, brave person who would put his life on the line for others. But you can also seriously sympathize with and feel for the character. Towards the end of the novel, Ned falls into a serious state of depression as he feels such a strong attachment to land and he feels no sense of purpose in the Nautilus, a vessel designed for scientific exploration, and therefore Ned, a born hunter, feels lost and out of place. This causes Ned to become deeply suicidal, and despite his characterization as a head-strong fighter, this shows that Ned is actually too sensitive of a person to enjoy the life under the sea, and it was his act of daring escape that allows him to break free from this pit of depression. Ned Land was a brave fighter until the very end of the novel, and you do feel a sense of happiness that he finally managed to return to land. Ned really was my favourite character in the entire novel, as he was the only one I found to be rather realistic and very much relatable.
Conseil
Conseil is a very bland character on the surface. He seems to exist in the novel largely only to make Aronnax more likable then he actually is. The name "Conseil" is French for "Counsel". Making this connection at the start of the novel, I began to wonder if Conseil, who was essentially Aronnax's manservant, would be advisory figure like Alfred to Bruce Wayne. However, it became soon apparent that Conseil's name was very ironic to his actual character. Conseil is literally just a yes-man. He's a LOYAL yes-man, but he's a yes-man nonetheless. Throughout the novel, whenever Aronnax asks for Conseil's second opinion, Conseil always answers with "I will do as the master wishes", making him seem like a sycophant who's desperately sucking up to his boss for some reason. He is also strangely dedicated to Aronnax for some reason, jumping into the sea after him after Aronnax is knocked overboard and risking his own life to keep Aronnax alive (during which Aronnax did nothing but complain). He also acts very robotic, as he has a very weird obsession with (to a concerning amount) classifying EVERY SINGLE CREATURE HE SEES, which is supposed to show off his abilities as a naturalist but came off to me as the author trying to boast his own intelligence (which, I must admit, is actually very impressive). However, he does strike up an interesting bromance-type relationship with Ned, and the two seems to become close friends.
While Conseil seems to be a one-dimensional character, he actually displays a few odd moments of personal autonomy where he acts out of character. At one point, after a fish stings him, he decides eat the thing out of spite even though it tastes horrible. At another point, he cannot believe that cod doesn't look like the filleted version he sees at the market. These are very out-of-character moments for the usually collected, logical, and intelligent Conseil, but his little quirks managed to endear me to the character quite a bit. Furthermore, he is shown to be quite forward-thinking for his times. When Aronnax states the island natives must be bad because they're cannibals, Conseil intelligently replies: "One can be a cannibal and a good man…just as one can be a glutton and honest. The one does not exclude the other.", which I really liked as it showed a fresh perspective to Conseil's character as someone who doesn't agree with his mater's every thoughts and is an independent human being. Even though Conseil definitely exists largely to be a loyal servant to Aronnax's biddings, his little moments of eccentricities show that Conseil is definitely not a one-dimensional character, and there is much to like about him.
Concluding Thoughts
Overall, while I personally would not look to read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea a second time, it's obvious that I am DEFINITELY not who the book is written for. I am not in any way interested in engineering or marine biology, so I would definitely be unable to fully appreciate the immense skill and intelligence that Verne shows in this novel. I do still understand however, that Verne really is an immensely talented writer, and some parts of the book really had me invested in the storyline. While I didn't find the book to be a masterpiece, I can definitely why other people would. Verne clearly either had a vast amount of knowledge in the fields of marine biology and engineering or did an equally impressive amount of research to be able to know the specific genus and family of all of the creatures in the novel. It's extremely clear just from reading the first ten pages or so of the novel that Verne was an extremely talented man, and I can really understand why people proclaim him as one of the Fathers of Science Fiction. If you have any interest in marine biology or engineering, I STRONGLY suggest that you check this novel out. Even if you aren't interested in the sciences, like me, Twenty Thousand Leagues is still a decently entertaining novel to read, the strongest part of the novel (that I found) being its diverse cast of characters and extremely well-written action scenes, so I would encourage those who are Sci-fi or Adventure fans to read it. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne gets a final rating of 3.5/5.
Despite my rating, this is not a reflection of the quality of the novel in ANY WAY. As someone who is not the intended audience of this novel, I wasn't a big fan of it, but I'm sure that other people who are more interested in science and such would rate it much higher.
I'm bringing focus onto this point because I wanted to make it clear that since the topics revolving around this book aren't in my field of interest, my review of this book is inevitably going to be less credible, so I would like all of my readers to take that into account before you make any judgments.
For my next post, I'm going to be doing a novel review of a dystopian novel many of you might remember from your school days. As always, thank you for reading my blog, and I always will enjoy hearing from all of you, so if you have any comments, feedbacks, opinions, suggestions, etc., please feel free to comment, and I WILL respond to ALL comments!
