Twenty thousand miles under the seas

Twenty thousand miles under the seas is one of the Romance S most known of Jules Verne, published in 1869.

The intrigue

In this novel, the French scientist Pierre Aronnax, his faithful servant the Council and the Canadian harpooner Ned Land are captured by the Capitaine Nemo which sails in the Océan S of the sphere on board the Sous-marin Nautilus. The adventure gives the opportunity of epic descriptions (of which an underwater burial, a combat against Calamar S giants, etc).

Work of anticipation, Twenty thousand miles under the seas comprises several episodes which testify to the imagination of its author: Nautilus passes under the Suez Canal before its official opening, and under the the Antarctic, which one was unaware of at the time it was of a Continent and not about drift ice, like the Arctique.

One will note with curiosity that the mysterious Island (another novel of Jules Verne) constitutes one following the time at Twenty thousand Lieue S under the seas and with the Enfants of the captain Grant .

Topics approached in the novel

  • the praise of technology and the Fairy Electricity (in spite of the vapor) which makes it possible to actuate the machineries of the Nautilus
  • insulation in the depths of the oceans of a man put at the round of applause of the company for obscure reasons and which wants to hide secrecies (from where the name of “Nemo”)
  • the desire of freedom (which the character of Ned Land tests ardently)
  • the desire of conquest (which the Capitaine Nemo tests when it deploys his flag while unloading with the South pole)

Characters

The novel is interested in a relatively restricted number characters.

Pierre Aronnax

professor-substitute with the Natural history museum for natural history for Paris, it is the narrator novel. Quadragénaire, specialist in Mineralogy, Botanical and Zoology, it poses on the things an at the same time informed and curious glance which explains the many scientific digressions of the novel. Author of a work with success, the Mysteries of underwater deep seas , it will on the occasion, with Conseil, to make display of his knowledge in Ichtyologie.

the Council

its servant, at thirty years, according to Aronnax a honest Fleming a being phlegmatic by nature, regular by principle, dedicated by practice, being astonished little by is surprised life, very skilful of its hands, suited to any service, and, in spite of its name, never not giving councils. Through cotoyer the scientists of the museum, Conseil became a specialist in the classification of the species.

Ned Land

is a French Canadian, a coleric kind of giant, harpooner on board the Abraham Lincoln of the American navy, highly skilled hunter of whales and large storyteller (the narrator qualifies it Canadian Homère ). It sticks to Pierre Aronnax with whom it can speak French and brings practical competences which supplement theoretical knowledge of the scientist.
the captain Nemo
(whose name means in Latin anybody with the direction né gatif, allusion to Ulysses and Polyphème in the Odyssey ) is a character erudite, but dark and secrecy which says to have given up the company of the men, and cut any bond with the ground. It contributes for much to the scientific talks which enamel the narration. One sees it helping the insurgent crétois against the Ottoman Empire in 1866 - 1867 in their delivering the Trésor S absorbed which it finds. It also shows a Haine relentless for the Navire S carrying some house, which it runs systematically to avenge its family (but the nature of this house will never be specified in the work). Jules Verne wanted to make of them a Pole whose family would have been victim of Russian oppression, but its editor opposed it.

See also: Captain Nemo

The crew of Nautilus remains in the shade, so that only the second of the captain appears from time to time, which all the more adds mystery to the enigmatic vessel.

Complete listing of the characters

  • Captain Anderson
  • Professor Pierre Aronnax
  • the Council
  • Commander Farragut
  • Ned Land
  • Captain Nemo
  • the second of the captain Nemo

Science and science fiction

The novel serves as a pretext for the description of the seamen circle. Jules Verne is based on the scientific knowledge of his time, but it also makes work of anticipation by imagining the possibility of going down to still unexplored depths on this date.
  • the Oceanography, the Biologie marinades, the ichtylogy, whose Jules Verne provides to the wire pages some descriptions precise. Vision of the emptied oceans their fish and their mammals and " encumbered méduses" became a reality of the beginning of the 21e century.
the junction of the zoophytes offered very curious specimens of its two groups of the polyps and Echinodermata. In the first group, tubipores, gorgones laid out in range, soft sponges of Syria, isis of Molluques, sea pens, an admirable virgulaire of the seas of Norway, varied ombellulaires, alcyonnaires, a whole series of these madrepores which my Milne-Edwards Master so sagaciously classified in sections, and among which I noticed adorable flabellines, oculines of the island Bourbon, the " tank of Neptune " from the Antilles, superb varieties of corals, finally all species of these curious polypiers whose assembly forms whole islands which will become one day of the continents
  • the Sous-marin S: the novel is also pretext to be anticipated starting from the technology of the time by describing a submarine infinitely more powerful than the models which existed when Jule Verne written his novel. Thus named in homage to the Nautilus, developped at the point in 1797 by the American engineer Robert Fulton, it goes to the electricity, which it produces by using the mineral resources that the seamen circle liberally offers to the Némo captain. In reality, it will be necessary to wait thirty years after the publication of the novel to see appearing the Narval, first submarine operational which uses a mixed propulsion, steam engine and electricity. The first nuclear submarine is named US Nautilus (SSN-571) and is inaugurated in 1954.
  • the Plongée underwater, the Aqualung, the underwater Chasse: Jules Verne quotes in particular the names of Benoît Rouquayrol, Louis Denayrouse, Heinrich Daniel Ruhmkorff, Cowper Phipps Coles (which it names Philippe Coles ). The orthographical inaccuracy makes sometimes the task of the historians difficult, thus this Austrian chemist Leniebroek that the specialists and amateurs seek to identify.

Adaptations

The novel will give place to several film adaptations. cartoons were also inspired some.

With the cinema

As a cartoon and cartoon

Concerned video

  • 2002 : Jules Verne 20.000 miles under the seas: The secrecy of Nautilus , T-Club-footed play of adventure developed by and published by Cryo Interactive.

Illustrations

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