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In 1954, the first atomic-powered submarine was launched by the United States. This was a huge step in technology, since the limiting factor to a submarine staying underwater, before the Nautilus, was how long the charge on its batteries could last (days). With atomic power, the Nautilus could stay underwater as long as it could scrub carbon dioxide out of the air and add in new oxygen (months). The real submarine was named after Captain Nemo’s submarine in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne, which was first published in about 1870. It is still in print today. By the way, a league is about three miles, just so you know. Two versions of this classic book are reviewed here – the original version, and a picture-book format adaptation.
Jules Verne (1828 to 1905) was a French author from a devout Catholic family. He was intended for a law career but chose to write. He wrote many different things, with limited success, until he had the idea for a novel of science, a story based on science-based adventure. The first such that he wrote was called Five Weeks in a Balloon, which finally brought him success as a full-time writer. Since his later novels of science began to incorporate science and technology that had not yet been achieved, he became known as the father of science fiction.
The story of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is told by Prof. Arronax, who is accompanied by his assistant Conseil and a Canadian whaler named Ned Land. They are guests on the fabulous submarine Nautilus, designed, built, and operated by Captain Nemo, a scientific genius and a wronged man who lost his wife and children to a hostile country. It is implied in the book that he was a prince of India, and lost his family to the British, who ruled much of India at that time. The French guests and the crew of the submarine see many underwater wonders, including vast shipwrecks of treasure ships and the lost island of Atlantis. The book is an exciting story as well as a fabulous introduction to life under the oceans in many different parts of the world. There is even a voyage under a Southern polar ice cap, which was duplicated by the real Nautilus in the 1950s but under the Northern polar ice cap. A good middle school or a high school student can read this book.
This review also covers a picture-book format edition for younger children (elementary school level), either to be read by them or to them. This particular abridged/adapted version sparked my interest when I was a boy in Jules Verne, science fiction, and science in general, which became my career. I usually don’t like abridged and adapted versions of classic novels. The reason for my dislike is that most of the versions I have seen were not done well. Abridging and adapting a great book for a younger audience is not an easy task. Luckily, this abridged and adapted version of 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, written by Mary Cushing and Antonia Stone, was done very well. They included many of the most important events in the book and wove them together into a coherent story. In other words, they didn’t just chop and reword like so many other abridge/adapt efforts I have seen. The illustrations, by Robert Robison, are striking and add greatly to the text. Hopefully, this edition for younger children will lead them one day to the original book and then on to more of Jules Verne and on to a STEM career like me.
I’ll leave you with two tantalizing pieces of information: first, The Mysterious Island, also by Jules Verne, is not only a marvelous Robinson Crusoe-type book, with Americans, but also serves as a sequel to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Second, Jules Verne loved the book Swiss Family Robinson so much that he wrote two sequels to it – which should be easy to find for interested readers.