The story begins with a rumor about an underwater sea monster. Many people aboard ships around the world are spectating this massive creature dash beneath the sea. They describe it as a monster like no one has ever known. This stirs up a debate about whether or not it exists. In the midst of all of the talk, Dr. Pierre Arronax, a French Marine Biologist, believes it could have existed. The American Government steps in to track it down after the sea creature does damage to many ships. They put forward Captain Farragut in charge of the important mission along with Dr. Arronax, his loyal assistant Conseil and Ned land, a famous whale hunter from Canada. Everyone part of the mission is anxious to discover the sea monster first. However, Ned isn’t sure that this monster could be real. The mission continues for three whole months through the Pacific Ocean and there is still no sign of the creature they are after. The crew begins to feel uneasy about the search and starts to revolt. But, Captain Farragut won’t stop the hunt. Then, one night as Ned starts his nightly watch, he spots the mythical creature. As the sun rises, the captain is chasing down the monster. Everyone aboard the ship tries everything to stop it. All of their tactics to try and capture it fail. All that they do is pointless and everything reflects off of the beast as if it were made out of metal. The creature fights back at their ship and causes everyone on board to fly into the water. After being stranded above the water, only using debris of the ship to float, they find Ned on the back of the sea creature. The crew joins Ned to find that the creature is actually a submarine. They are forced inside by crew members of the submarine and locked into a room. As the locked up men grow in anger, the Captain of the Submarine introduces himself as Captain Nemo and welcomes them to the grand submarine which he refers to as the Nautilus. He tells them that he cannot let them go because they know too much about the Nautilus. He also says that he built the wondrous machine himself to escape from the real world. The crew which set out to find the submarine, is now in for an adventurous voyage through the pacific ocean which brings them a new experience everyday. Their journey brings many dangers such as giant squids, massive icebergs and native tribes of lost islands. Finally, a great whirlpool distracts Captain Nemo as it allows Arronax, Ned, and Conseil to escape the Nautilus. As they swim to the shore, they watch the submarine as it sinks to the ocean floor and Arronax is knocked out in the middle of all the chaos. They were rescued and Arronax wakes up in an old fisherman's shed but the three never find out what happened to the Nautilus and its strange captain.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne is truly an interesting book that takes you along for the ride with Captain Nemo and immerses the reader. Overall, the book has many descriptive details that allow you to envision each scene as you are reading. An extremely adventurous story that I would recommend to other readers.
Comments