AboutJean-Michel Margot Expertise I answer any question about JULES VERNE, the French novelist (1828-1905). As worldwide recognized JULES VERNE specialist, I`m able to answer any question about his life and his works, among them the most appreciated in the United States is Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas. Other well known titles are: Around the World in Eighty Days, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Five Weeks in a Balloon, Michael Strogoff, Mysterious Island.
Experience Collecting, reading and publishing. I own the most comprehensive reference material collection about JULES VERNE in America.
Organizations Societe Jules Verne, Paris (France)
Centre de Documentation Jules Verne, Amiens (France)
Club Jules Verne, Pazin (Croatia)
North American Jules Verne Society
Jules Verne Genotschaap (Netherlands)
Publications My publications are referenced in almost all modern and contemporary books by and about Jules Verne.
Education/Credentials Swiss maturity in Latin and Greek
Master in Geology of the University of Neuchatel (Switzerland)
Expert: Jean-Michel Margot Date: 11/14/2004 Subject: Setting 20K leagues under the sea
Question Bonjour Jean Michel,
I am working on the importance of the setting in 20K Leagues under the Sea. I understand that Nemo wanted out and away from the laws of "terra ferma" and that as captain of the Nautilus he is in control and free. The mysterious world of the ocean was perfect at the time of Vernes' novel, since not much was known about what lived under the ocean. But even today, it's still mysterious and hard to get to. But what really makes the setting important to the novel?
Thanks in advance,
Jo
Answer If you have read 20K in an old English translation, you did get only two thirds of the novel and in such a bad translation that puts you in a similar position as anybody who has seen Disney's 1954 movie.
To enjoy Verne's writing, and to get the answer (or answers) to your quest(ions), please go to the two following recent translations - with a lot of notes, comments, introductions, and afterwords:
1. Miller, Walter James & Walter, Frederick Paul - Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. Annapolis (Maryland), Naval Institute Press, 1993, XXIV + 400 p.
2. Butcher, William - Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas. Oxford & New York, Oxford University Press, 1998, XLVIII + 446 p.
