Review: Classic of science fiction, some minor flaws to a modern reader
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 8, 2010
This is Jules Verne's classic tale of undersea adventure, as best I can tell based on the 1873 translation by Lewis Mercier. Since that's been the standard English translation for over a hundred years, it's probably the one you remember reading way back when, and the edition you'll be familiar with.Re-reading this as an adult, and an adult who's spent twenty-plus years since then reading science fiction, I did have to remind myself more than once how amazing the then-future technologies Verne describes, like electric rifles, undersea diving suits, electric motors, etc., would have been to his contemporary readers; the book was first published in 1869, a mere five years after the Confederate submarine Hunley became the first submarine to sink an enemy warship (and sank itself in the process).  At times I found myself mentally substituting "outer space" for "under sea," just to help me analogize the situation. Despite that,  the plot and action were as riveting now as they were when I first read it twenty years ago. I did find myself, now as then, skimming over much of Verne's extensive scientific descriptions of undersea flora and fauna, etc., but that might be my own failing as a reader -- when I did take the time to read Verne's descriptions, I did sometimes catch the same sense of aquatic wonder I remember from watching films like _The Life Aquatic_.From what I've read, the Mercier translation this is based on contains a number of translation errors, cuts out about 20% of the text, etc. Corrected, completed, updated ebook editions of this classic are available on Amazon, but they cost money -- I've been unable to find an out-of-copyright, corrected, complete, and free edition. For readers on a budget, though, this is probably the version you remember, and if read in the right way -- keeping in mind the era in which it was written, and skimming whenever the science gets too dry or detailed for you -- it's still quite entertaining.Verne did write a sequel, _The Mysterious Island_, also available in the kindle free store; the better translation is available here:The Mysterious Island.