20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

By: Jules Verne

Narrated by: David Case, Frederick Davidson

Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's Summary

The year 1866 was marked by a unique incident, a mysterious and inexplicable phenomenon, and rumors agitated the maritime population and excited the public mind, especially seafaring men. Merchants, common sailors, captains of vessels, skippers, both of Europe and America, naval officers of all countries, and the governments of several states on the two continents, were deeply interested in the matter.

For some time past, vessels had been threatened by "an enormous thing": a long object, spindle-shaped, occasionally phosphorescent, and infinitely larger and more rapid in its movements than a whale. Then, Captain Nemo decided to allow his submarine, the Nautilus, to be drafted into service on a hunt ahead of its time.

(P)1998 Blackstone Audiobooks

Lousy translation

(It should be noted, to begin with, that the narrator of this version is Frederick Davidson, NOT Alfred Molina.) It's not Frederick Davidson's fault, but the translation chosen here is the worst of many Victorian hatchet jobs that were done on Verne's prose. For example, in the second chapter, the narrator speaks of returning "from the disagreeable territory of Nebraska." What Verne really said was "from the Badlands of Nebraska." About 25% of the original novel is missing in this translation, sometimes suppressing Verne's politics; Verne's careful calculations are recalculated in slapdash fashion; and mistranslations abound. (In one chapter Captain Nemo refers to a small island which he "would have jumped over" if he could. In Verne's original, he says which he "would have blown up" if he could.) You will get a LITTLE something of Verne in this, and it may remain an entertaining story, but it's not the real thing. Unfortunately, all other unabridged recordings I'm aware of use the same translation.

A superb performance of this classic story

What did you like best about 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? What did you like least?

This is a visionary science fiction story - Verne's ability to imagine what could be done with an up-and-coming technology like electricity is brilliant. And I really like how he weaves that ultra-modern (at the time) technology into the old classic tale of the sea.
As for what I liked least, read on to the next question...

What was most disappointing about Jules Verne’s story?

The most disappointing part of this story is...the story. The vast majority of the story - excepting the first few chapters and the last few chapters - is completely bereft of a plot. It is one endless travelogue, listing the sights and wonders they see around the world. And that frequently descends into such tediously pedantic lists of plants and animals that I just want to yell "get on with it!"
Oh...and the other disappointing part is the characters. All of the characters in the story are cardboard cut-outs with no depth or humanity. Captain Nemo is the inscrutable loner. Arronax is the man of science. Conseil is his devoted servant. But none of them are anything more...interesting.
With no interesting characters, and little plot, to drive the story, I frequently found it dragging.

Which scene was your favorite?

My favorite part of the book is the beginning chapters, as Prof. Arronax speculates as to the nature of the creature that has been sighted, and then the chase aboard the Abraham Lincoln.

Do you think 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Certainly not. This book is a work of its time; it would not make sense to try to follow it up.

Any additional comments?

I purchased this audiobook because of the narrator, David Chase. He did not disappoint. His reading brought life to this book - even to some of the tedious lists of the types of fish and plants they saw on their journey. It is an excellent narration.

Fantastic! If You Like Lists

The narrator was fantastic, but this version is unabridged. I thought I could hack it since I'd read Moby Dick unabridged, but with audiobooks it's harder to glance over the unimportant parts.

Most chapters include incredibly long lists of fish in each ocean they visit with probably one sentence about the characters. (A reminder that authors back then were paid by the chapter.)

I still think it's worth a listen. Especially for people who like lists of fish.

The best book ever

this was one of my favorite books of all time it was amazing I loved it.

Good story, well worth it.

Finished it in just three days fantastic book. The voices are interesting and of course it's an incredible story

An oldie but not a goodie.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The story is extremely tedious. I guess I remembered some action in it, but no. If you are an oceanographer, plant or animal biologist it may be interesting.

wonderful story nothing like the movies.

naritive was very good and need say nothing about the author that has not been said already. My only regret is that I don't know very much marine biology which for this storyline would bring that much more appreciation.

A classic

My father had an admiration for the ocean and always talked about this book. I finally read it and it is truly a classic.

Decent book and narration, but might have preferred different version

This science fiction novel is classic, though I never realized how much description of sea creatures there were, which got a little tedious. The narration was decent to, but honestly the way he read it got on my nerves a little bit because he made the the main Professor character seem very pretentious in the way he read it. I did listen to it all the way through however and overall enjoyed the book. But I think I might have liked it more if a different person had narrated. Would recommend the story but maybe a different narrator.

A disappointing bore

Given it's reputation in classic scifi, I had high hopes for this, but was greatly disappointed. The narrators voice was annoying (gravelly and pompous) and the voices of the side characters were even more annoying and laughably fake. The story plodded along at a snail's pace and got bogged down in detailed descriptions that had no bearing on the plot. It took unnecessarily long to get to the "under the sea" portion, and once there, almost every chapter contained at least one 5 minute long listing of plants or fish. You could probably condense all of the interesting portions of the book into half an hour and the story would be just as coherent.

A classic

A wonderful story beautifully narrated. The un-abridge version is, however, not for the faint hearted as Jules Verne seems to list every fish plant or mollusc in the sea. If, however, you love biology you will love this book otherwise the abridged version may better suit!