Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Jules VerneYilin Press2010

Rating 4.5
Chapters
40
ISBN
9787544710558

Tags

Literature Foreign Literature Undersea TunnelMarine Natural HistoryVerneNautilusTrilogyAdventure NovelClassic MasterpieceWorld Sci-FiCanadaYoung Adult Reading

Summary

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas is the signature work of the French writer Jules Verne. Together with The Children of Captain Grant and The Mysterious Island, it forms the "Verne Trilogy" and stands as one of the foundational works of world science fiction. The story is set in the nineteenth century, when a mysterious "narwhal" begins appearing on the seas of many nations, striking numerous ocean vessels. The French naturalist Professor Aronnax is invited aboard the Abraham Lincoln to join the hunt, accompanied by his loyal servant Conseil and the Canadian whaler Ned Land. During the pursuit the three men fall into the sea and are rescued by the very "monster," which turns out to be a giant submarine named the Nautilus, commanded by the enigmatic and elusive Captain Nemo. Held aboard, the three sail with the vessel from the Pacific, Indian, and Red Seas through the Mediterranean and Atlantic, ever southward, passing through an undersea tunnel to reach the Antarctic ice fields, surviving such perils as being trapped by pack ice, oxygen deprivation, giant octopuses, and sharks, and along the way visiting undersea forests, salvaging treasure from sunken ships, and paying homage to a drowned continent. With rigorous scientific knowledge, rich descriptions of marine natural history, and suspense that builds layer upon layer, Verne weaves an expedition that spans the oceans of the globe, while Captain Nemo's origins and motives lend this adventure novel a profound dimension in its pursuit of freedom and defiance of oppression. The book is divided into two parts and forty-seven chapters, and remains an essential text for understanding the origins of science fiction.

Editor's review

《海底两万里》诞生于十九世纪，却常读常新：它既是惊险的环球海底旅行记，也是一部“可以当科普读”的文学名著。凡尔纳没有潜艇可坐，却借助图书馆里的工程资料与海洋学成果，把“鹦鹉螺号”的电灯、储气、潜航、深海采光等细节写得像技术手册，连后来第一艘核动力潜艇都以“鹦鹉螺”命名。更难能可贵的是，这趟旅程并不只是猎奇：托雷斯海峡的搁浅、南极冰原的缺氧、巨型章鱼的缠斗，每一场险情都推动着人物关系与悬念；尼摩艇长这个亦正亦邪的角色，把复仇、自由与对人类的失望藏在冷峻的沉默里，使全书在少年冒险故事之外，多出一层成人式的复杂。译林版由沈国华、钱培鑫、曹德明依法语原貌译出，地名、人名、海洋生物名称较为准确，保留了章节题的旧译节奏，适合通读，也适合作为对照原文的读物。对于今天习惯了快节奏叙事的读者，前几章或许略显铺陈，但一旦随“鹦鹉螺号”潜入深水，那种让想象的读感便很难替代。

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Reading tips

  1. 先读上篇前六章，把“海怪—追捕—落海”的悬念抓住，再顺着航道对照地图阅读。
  2. 阅读时顺手在地图上标出航程：太平洋、托雷斯海峡、红海、地中海、南极，位置感会大幅提升体验。
  3. 留意尼摩艇长每次谈到陆地与人类时的语气变化，这是理解他与全书主题的关键线索。
  4. 若读译本语言略显隔膜，可先看一章译序，了解凡尔纳所处时代与创作背景后再进入正文。

About the publisher

Yilin Press China · Founded in 1988

Yilin Press focuses mainly on translated foreign literature. Its current catalogue of 318 titles covers common categories such as mystery and detective fiction, foreign literature, world classics, biography, and social novels. Representative books include The Complete Sherlock Holmes 2: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, To the Lighthouse, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, and Lives of the Artists: Michelangelo, often presented in bilingual or English-language editions that serve both original-text reading and language learning. Its author resources include foreign writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and Romain Rolland, as well as translators including Li Jiazhen, Gao Fen, and Ma Ye. The catalogue also includes Chinese works such as Li Jieren's Ripples Across Stagnant Water. The press shows a concentrated publishing strength in foreign classics and bilingual readers; given limited public information, this overview is based only on catalogue data.

Contents

  1. Translator's Preface
  2. Part One 1 A Racing Reef
  3. 2 For and Against
  4. 3 As You Please, Sir
  5. 4 Ned Land
  6. 5 Wandering Aimlessly
  7. 6 Full Speed Ahead
  8. 7 A Whale of Unknown Species
  9. 8 Moving Within the Moving
  10. 9 Ned Land's Anger
  11. 10 The Man of the Sea
  12. 11 The Nautilus
  13. 12 The World of Electricity
  14. 13 Some Figures
  15. 14 The Black Current
  16. 15 An Invitation Letter
  17. 16 A Walk on the Undersea Plain
  18. 17 The Undersea Forest
  19. 18 Four Thousand Leagues Under the Pacific
  20. 19 Vanikoro Island
  21. 20 The Torres Strait
  22. 21 A Few Days on Land
  23. 22 Captain Nemo's Lightning
  24. 23 Forced Sleep
  25. 24 The Coral Kingdom
  26. Part Two 1 The Indian Ocean
  27. 2 Captain Nemo's New Proposal
  28. 3 The Pearl Worth Ten Million
  29. 4 The Red Sea
  30. 5 The Arabian Tunnel
  31. 6 The Greek Islands
  32. 7 Crossing the Mediterranean in Forty-Eight Hours
  33. 8 Vigo Bay
  34. 9 The Vanished Continent
  35. 10 The Undersea Coal Mine
  36. 11 The Sargasso Sea
  37. 12 Sperm Whales and Baleen Whales
  38. 13 The Great Ice Barrier
  39. 14 The South Pole
  40. 15 Accident or Incident

FAQ

《海底两万里》里的“两万里”是深度吗？ “里”是法文本的书名用法，指航行的里程而非下潜深度，书中“鹦鹉螺号”的潜深远不到两万里。中译本沿用旧译书名，容易让人误以为两万里的深度，其实讲的是在海底走了极长的路程。
这本书适合小学生直接读全本吗？ 可以读，但建议10岁以上。全书篇幅较长，且夹有大量海洋生物、地理与船舶术语，低龄读者容易卡住。可选择带注释的青少年版或先读缩写本，再回头读全译本。
尼摩艇长在书里到底是什么身份？ 书中刻意保留了他的来历与真名，只透露出他学识渊博、家国遭遇惨痛、对殖民与压迫者怀有深仇。他的完整身世在《神秘岛》中才被补出，因此两书对读更能看清这个人物。
译林版和其他译本差别大吗？ 主要差别在译者与用语。“鹦鹉螺号”“尼摩”“内德·兰德”等译名各版本不尽相同，章节划分基本一致。选版本时不必纠结优劣，优先选择标明法语直译、附译序与注释的版本。
读完这本书还可以读什么？ 可以接着读“凡尔纳三部曲”的另两部《格兰特船长的儿女》与《神秘岛》，后者会交代尼摩艇长的结局；也可以读《八十天环游地球》《地心游记》，感受凡尔纳不同方向的想象。

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About the author

Jules Verne Author · France · 1828–1905

Jules Verne (1828–1905) was a French novelist and playwright, regarded as one of the founders of modern science fiction. A prolific writer, he is represented on this site by 153 works spanning fine fiction, world classics, foreign literature, science fiction, and inspirational coming-of-age reading. His best-known books include Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, Around the World in Eighty Days, The Mysterious Island, and Journey to the Center of the Earth; Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas is especially widely read and appears here in an English original edition, an illustrated collector's edition, and several curriculum-oriented versions. Verne excelled at fusing scientific imagination with adventure narrative, grounding his voyages across the oceans, through the skies, and into the earth's core in solid scientific knowledge, with tightly plotted stories full of intellectual appeal. This style has deeply influenced later science fiction and has made him one of the most widely read classic authors in the world.