A review by kurtwombat
20000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

 I peaked at some reviews before reading this book and quite a few referred to it as boring. I thought, how can a classic novel of undersea adventure be boring. Well, I found out. You do by choking your novel with information about the geography, animal and plant life of the aquatic world that modern folks are either already familiar with or thought they were until confronted with a myriad of Latin terms. I’m sure many of his 1800’s audiences were as mind blown by these descriptions as they were by the action—but that just doesn’t translate. I was inspired to condense the novel to one phrase: 
 
YOU CAN’T SEE THE STORY FOR THE SEAS! 
 
This would be a cracker jack novel if it were 150 pages shorter—or if the interesting segments that pass all too quickly were fleshed out. The potentially fascinating Captain Nemo is too often off the page, as is the entire crew of the Nautilus.  I appreciate not being told everything, but reading over 300 pages I deserve to be told something. Thinking of another equally vengeful sea captain, disappointed that Nemo didn’t get anywhere close the fleshing out of MOBY DICK’s Ahab. Of the other characters I most identified with the Canadian harpooner who almost from the start resents his captivity. Perhaps it’s the translation, but naming a character who longs to escape the sea Ned Land was a bit much. It’s his captivity I feel most keenly—after an interesting start the book really bogs down and I became captive myself. 
 
I did learn one thing. I was always puzzled by the title because 20,000 leagues equals over 60,000 miles. How can they be that far under the sea. But the title refers to the number of miles traveled by the Nautilus during the course of the novel. This mystery solved just became another disappointment.