20,000 Leagues under the Sea

Jules Verne (1828-1905) is one of the most recognizable names in Western literature, coming to be known as one of the Fathers of Science-Fiction. Although he studied to be a lawyer and held stock trading jobs, he quickly learned that he had a knack for weaving adventurous stories of travels and expeditions. It didn’t hurt that one of his teachers may have been inventor Brutus de Villeroi, who created the first submarine for the U.S. Navy. Verne wrote about air travel and space travel 50 years before either was possible. One of his most famous works is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, published in 1870. The star of the book, the submarine Nautilus, was developed by Verne after a real sub named Nautilus, and Verne had access to models of the French submarine Plongeur in the late 1860s. The story is about the expedition of the Nautilus, captained by Captain Nemo and told from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax. Like Melville’s Moby Dick, the story is ostensibly about an expedition chasing down a large sea creature, but there are metaphors throughout the book that are meant to symbolize society and civilization. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea continues to be a widely read and globally popular classic.