I enjoyed Jules Verne classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas. The key role this novel played in All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony #Doerr motivated me to read this classic tale.
I found it fascinating to read what people imagined the undersea world
looked like in the 1870's. The descriptions of sea creatures and underwater formations never seen before but only theorized about showed what an amazing imagination Verne had.
However, this is also the one drawback I found in his
novel. His descriptions could been
overly long especially at the beginning when describing the Nautililus.
And like a classic
novel, there are many parts of lengthy introspection where you are
exploring the characters' feelings and emotions in depth, compared to modern novels which
breeze from action to action or drama to drama. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, it’s just
different. I really liked that style of prose
in A Tale of Two Cities. I find listening to audio books helps me stay engaged with the classics when my attention my start to wander in these longer sequences.
Michael Prichard's excellent reading of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea really brought the story to life, keeping me engaged and
helped me believe Professor Aronnax really did take a amazing submarine journey.
