Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

By: Jules Verne

Narrated by: Noel Gibilaro

Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's Summary

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne, is a classic science-fiction novel first published in 1870. Professor Pierre Aronnax boards an American frigate commissioned to investigate a rash of attacks on international shipping by what is thought to be an amphibious monster. The supposed sea creature, which is actually the submarine Nautilus, sinks Aronnax's vessel and imprisons him along with his devoted servant, Conseil, and Ned Land, a temperamental harpooner. The survivors meet Captain Nemo, an enigmatic misanthrope who leads them on a worldwide, year-long underwater adventure.

Public Domain (P)2009 Alpha DVD LLC

Gothic Sci Fi classic, narrated for kindergartners

This is a fun, gothic, nineteenth century sci fi novel with one of my favorite antagonists (Captain Nemo). Unfortunately, and somewhat inexplicably, the narrator seems to assume his audience is made up of 5 year olds. His silly, chirpy, "for kids" narration completely undermines this atmospheric story, so much so that I couldn't listen beyond the first thirty seconds. Audible is doing its readers a disservice by not clearly labeling this a children's edition.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Annoying Narrator Takes Away From A Great Book

I could have enjoyed reading this book, but I found the narrator to be annoying enough to take my concentration away from the words he was reading. He consistantly emphasized parts of sentences which shouldn't have been emphasized, and didn't emphasize parts which should have been. It was as if he was reading the book for the first time and just wasn't paying attention to what he was reading. It was especially annoying to listen to him end a sentence which hadn't ended, as if he thought the sentence ended on one line only to realize that it carried on the next line.

While I applaud any narrator who "acts" out the book by giving each character a different voice, this narrator's voices were annoying at best. He gives Aronnax's faithful assistant Conseil the mad scientist's Igor's voice, while Mr. Land gets an especially annoying version of Dirty Harry. And most annoying of all, he doesn't give Captain Nemo any of the strong impression that the character is described as having.

I cannot recommend this version to anyone. I feel this is one of the great adventure stories and it is impossible to get any enjoyment out of this version because you are constantly distracted and annoyed.

8 of 10 people found this review helpful

Good story, terrible narrator.

The narrator sounds like he is reading in parody. Get this book with some other narrator.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great book. Children's narration

I never thought of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as a children's book. Obviously Noel Gibilaro did. The narration is intolerable to anyone over the age of 12, and probably to most who are under. Fortunately I got this as added narration to the Kindle version so I can still read it for myself

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Narrator doesn't do justice to the story

The Jules Verne story is a classic I'd been looking forward to listening to. However, the narrator lacked the verbal skills I had expected, and I found listening to his narration so annoying that I didn't finish the book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Terrible Narrator

I listen to a lot of audiobooks and this is the worst narration that I have ever heard. While I eventually became accustomed to the narrator, he is still distracting. The Narrator also does not properly pronounce several words.

5 of 7 people found this review helpful

A delightful listening classic!

This audiobook is a delight for all ages to hear. Our grandson enjoys this audiobook, also, and eagerly anticipates the sea adventures as he listens to parts of the classic before bedtime each night. It inspires him to use new words in his everyday vocabulary and, as a beginning reader, sparks his interest in reading books aloud to family members. Perhaps one day he too may be an audio book's character's voice! The narrator's variations for the voices of the characters enhance the story. The narration is soothing to hear as well as captivating at the same time. Listeners should also try this same narrator's audiobook version of "Around the World in Eighty Days" on audible.com.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great listening

I can't believe what a great job the narrator did on this book. A lot of times the narrators put meet to sleep while listening to audio books but not this time. As many times as I read this book when I was younger, I couldn't stop listening to the story. I wish I could give six stars - Great job!!!!
Gene

1 of 4 people found this review helpful

Some good lightweight science fiction

I enjoyed this, but was not very keen on the narration as I found the reader put so much intonation into his voice that it was sometimes off-putting. Just my opinion, others may really like this style.