Monday, 23 April 2012


Jules VERNE (1869) 20000 Leagues Under the Sea
By Sergio J. Villanueva Tolosa, 1º Bachillerato A
This is a book narrated in first person by the French professor Pierre Aronnax, a biologist who is taken prisoner by Captain Nemo. They travel through the oceans aboard the submarine Nautilus, in company of servant Conseil and Canadian harpooner Ned Land.
The story begins with an American expedition searching for a supposed sea creature, a giant narwhale. Pierre receives an invitation to join this expedition and he accepts it. During the hunting, the protagonists are thrown overboard the ship as a result of an onslaught of the animal. They end up on top of the creature but they discover that it is not an animal, it's a perfect piece of engineering, the first submarine. Inside the mysterious artefact they meet Captain Nemo, who offers them the opportunity to live in the submarine in return for not saying anything about the existence of this secret machine. The story continues with the adventures of the main characters aboard the submarine, the magnificent Nautilus.
Chapter 8, “A lost continent”, is my favourite. It's a chapter in which the characters, after climbing a big seamount, discover Atlantis, a legendary island which, according to the legend, sank into the ocean "in a single day and night of misfortune". There, they see many incredible things such as Greek columns, statues, monuments…
This book is a classic. First I read an adaptation but after I finished reading it, I started to read the full version because it is an interesting story about sea adventures. Therefore, I would recommend it to anyone who has some spare time and likes reading, both children and adults, the age doesn´t matter.

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