Twenty Thousand Leagues

There’s not a lot that can be said about this book that hasn’t been said before. A true classic, well worth reading and getting lost in.

Almost gave this 3* but went for 4* in the end. Why?

Although it wasn’t as much of a page turner as I anticipated it was a good, solid science fiction story (now science fact wrt submarines voyaging long distances) with a strong cast of characters.

Almost 3* because it wasn’t a page turner and my enjoyment of the book waned towards the end so I didn’t finish as quickly as those I really enjoy.

Finally, I have to comment on some of the attitudes towards nature, particularly edible wildlife. The sentence below was typical of how humans largely thought about the world at that time:

“...and I could well understand that this mine was inexhaustible, for Nature's creative power is far beyond man’s instinct of destruction”.

Verne got the destructive nature of humans right but, like many of his time, thought that the world and its nature was so vast that we couldn’t impinge upon it to any great extent.

How arrogant we were and still are in some respects.