Customer Rating:  
Summary: Never received
Comment: I never received this item. The seller sent this item to my shipping address at my billing address. 2 different addresses as we do not receive mail at our house.
Customer Rating:
Summary: should have read this earlier
Comment: If you don't know the story, it's about a naturalist, Professor Arronax, and his assistant on a quest to find the giant sea creature that's been menacing the seas. But the sea creature turns out to be a submarine, the Nautilus, and they're joined by the harpooner Ned Land in being rescued/captured by its crew when their attack on it fails.
I definitely encountered this book far too late to fully enjoy it. Like when I tried re-reading Tolkein a couple of years ago, I found I lacked the patience to read through pages and pages of interminable description. There were several times when I just couldn't stand it any longer and I'd put the book down and go do something else. Only sheer stubbornness made me finish it.
The story itself was interesting, though the style of the times was a bit of an obstacle. The enigmatic Captain Nemo is never fully explained, nor are the professor and his two companions. It's left up to the reader to fill in the blanks. The professor's unconcern about his imprisonment on the submarine is partially explained by his fascination with the undersea worlds he encounters; the complacence of his assistant and Ned Land are less understandable. Ned Land does try to escape occasionally, but he's portrayed as narrow-mindedly violent because of that, which I found peculiar.
I do see why films were made from this--condensing those descriptive passages into scenery would make the action and adventure parts of the story stand out more. I've never seen one, but I'm thinking of adding one to the Netflix queue. Any suggestions of which version to try?
In short, I'm giving this 4 stars for the story, but 2 stars for the pain of reading it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Shows its age
Comment: Unfortunately, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" shows its age. While the story is, actually, quite good, the language is somewhat stilted and the book takes a while to really get going. I think many young readers will be puzzled by the vocabulary and will be bored. Eventually, the story picks up. However, I was bored in the 1950's and cannot imagine that today's youngsters will do much better. I think that the Walt Disney movie is a much better bet if you want to expose your child to a story that was a true classic. This is one of the few cases where a movie has an advantage over the written word.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wow
Comment: I read this book many years ago and still have the book. This is a thought-provoking book, and I can honestly say that it's one of the best books that I have ever read in my whole life. There is much to be thought about in this book, and I intend to reread this book so I can appreciate it all over again. Truly, this book is one of these classics that must be preserved always, for the wonderful writing and lessons contained therein.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Reading this with different eyes as an adult.
Comment: It is really a shame that Amazon pushes so many editions together in the same group of reviews. This review is of the complete edition (not the bowdlerised children's version) and references the translation by Mendor T. Brunetti.
This was a reread for me. I read most of the Verne books when I was quite young, and lately wanted to revisit some of my favorites. When I was younger, I was very much (like Captain Aronnax) taken with the catalogue of undersea marvels that Captain Nemo and his Nautilus enabled us to visit. Reading it this time around, I was quite struck with the political picture of Captain Nemo. As a man from an unknown country who has lost everything at the hands of men, Nemo becomes what we would today call a terrorist. He funds freedom fighters. He takes his revenge on the men from the countries who hurt him and his. The portraits on his wall: John Brown, Kosciusko, Daniel O'Connell. I think that I'm going to add The Mysterious Island to my list. I had never read the sequel in the past, and I understand that it provides more background about the mysterious captain.
Readers who aren't familiar with this book are encouraged by this reviewer to rapidly amend this sad condition. I also have to say that I first read this when I was nine (the full version, not a children's edition) and I can't imagine what really needs to be cut to make it suitable for younger folks. I'd hand them the whole thing with a confident heart.
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