Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

1. In 1866 the deep ocean was almost completely unexplored. What do you think people in that century imagined was down there, and how might that shape the way sailors in this book react to something strange in the water?
2. When several trustworthy people report seeing something impossible, how should the rest of us decide what to believe? What kind of evidence would convince you?
3. The novel's title promises a journey of twenty thousand leagues under the sea. What do you expect a story set almost entirely underwater will need in order to stay exciting?
4. Is a person who takes you aboard, feeds you, and treats you well, but will never let you leave, your host or your captor? Does the kindness change anything?
5. Think of an invention that gave one person or group enormous power over everyone else. What responsibilities, if any, come with holding a technology no one else has?
6. Can someone who has been badly wronged ever be justified in taking revenge on their own? Where would you draw the line?

• Freedom and captivity: watch how each of the three castaways defines being free, and notice that they never quite agree with one another.
• The scientist's dilemma: Aronnax is offered the discovery of a lifetime at the price of his liberty, and he must keep deciding whether the trade is worth it.
• Knowledge as power: the Nautilus exists because one man understood things nobody else did, so track what he chooses to do with that advantage.
• The sea as both wonder and threat: Verne's ocean is beautiful, generous, and completely indifferent to whether human beings survive it.
• The cost of cutting yourself off: notice what Captain Nemo has gained by leaving humanity behind, and what it appears to have cost him.
• Revenge and its limits: pay attention to the moments when the captain's grief and anger begin to steer the voyage.

Jules Verne (1828-1905) was a French novelist who was supposed to become a lawyer like his father and became a writer instead. Working with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel, he produced a long series of novels called the Voyages Extraordinaires, meant to carry readers into every corner of the known — and not-yet-known — world; among them are Journey to the Center of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon, and Around the World in Eighty Days. Verne was not a scientist, but he was a tireless researcher who filled notebooks with facts from journals, encyclopedias, and expedition reports, then built his stories on top of them, which is why his adventures feel so oddly plausible. He is one of the most translated authors who has ever lived, and he is often called a founder of science fiction.

Verne wrote this novel between 1869 and 1870, a moment when the deep ocean was as unknown as outer space. The first successful transatlantic telegraph cable had only just been laid, the Suez Canal opened in 1869, and the great scientific expeditions that would map the sea floor were still ahead. Working submarines existed but were small, dangerous, and hand-cranked; electricity was a laboratory marvel rather than a source of power for daily life. The 1860s were also a decade of empire and rebellion — Verne wrote against a background of European colonial rule and the uprisings against it, which shapes Captain Nemo's fury at the nations of the surface world more than a first reading may suggest. Note as well that most English editions of this book descend from an 1873 translation that shortened and altered Verne's French, so different editions can vary noticeably.