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  • Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

  • By: Jules Verne
  • Narrated by: Bill Homewood
  • Length: 18 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (105 ratings)
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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea cover art

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

By: Jules Verne
Narrated by: Bill Homewood
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Summary

The most exciting underwater adventure ever!

In 1866 a mysterious giant whale savagely attacks ships in international seas. A famous French marine biologist, Pierre Aronnax, joins the hunt to track down and incapacitate the creature. With him are his loyal servant, Conseil, and redoubtable Canadian harpooner Ned Land. They soon find that their enemy is no sea beast but a brilliantly designed submarine. They are captured and imprisoned by its master, the sinister Captain Nemo. The story is relentlessly thrilling while containing beautifully written observations of underwater life.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea has been hugely influential on popular culture, having inspired several stage and film adaptations, including a Walt Disney film with Kirk Douglas. Captain Nemo also appears as a main character in the graphic novel and film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Bill Homewood's distinctive voice is perfect for the French classics: He has previously read The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Three Musketeers for Naxos AudioBooks and is "...a narrator so perfectly matched to his material that you can't help but smile" (The Times).

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2016 Naxos AudioBooks

What listeners say about Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Pure adventure!

This is an outstanding piece of sci-fi. It is mind blowing to think Verne wrote it before a lot of the science and technology he describes in the book was invented. The guy came from the future. The story is great and entertaining. You also learn so much about science, philosophy, history and marine biology: it's an encyclopaedia inside a novel. I wanted to listen to it in French (in the language it was originally written) but the French narrator was just awful and I just couldn't see myself listening to this guy massacre this book for 17hrs. So I opted for this English version and it is definitively a good choice.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

Maybe I expected to much, or perhaps listening to an abridged version would have been a better option. It was a very long book, I must confess if your into marine biology then fabulous however I found myself getting a bit bored with the almost constant lists of aquatic life that they came across on their journey part of the story I know but it was hard to maintain your concentration on times. The narrator was very good and possible one of the reasons I continued with the book. I was disappointed with the ending, as I said at the beginning perhaps I expected to much.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not the most exciting story

There was way too much detail about fish and position. It seemed like whole chapters were about the fish they were seeing. There were some exciting parts but these were too few in number. I started listening to this because I really couldn't finish reading it. Had I put it down when I thought I should then that would have been fine and I could have used my credit on something better.

Also the ending was a bit lackluster... Hey, maybe it was just me. Many people before me have really enjoyed this book and I'm sure many people after me will too enjoy this book.

"Around the world in 80 days" is more fun. Or perhaps read "the lost world" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Both of these were good fun.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

very unsatisfying ending

the premise of the book is fascinating and the imagination gone into writing it, vivid. however, the author raises several questions about Captain Nemo throughout the book but fails to resolve them in a satisfactory manner.
another annoying aspect of the book is the inclusion of dozens of very long passages that simply inventory sea life or provide lessons in geography. because of that, the actual plot is very thin.
very well read by Bill Homewood, though.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fantastic narrator and fantastic story

The story is fantastic however the details can become tedious at times. Very enjoyable though

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Lists of fish

I know it's from a long time ago but my goodness, so many lists of fish! Also "in other words" is used so often I can help but think Jules was padding

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Sorry I had to admit defeat on this one

This is sadly a rare occasion when I haad to throw in the towel and abandon an Audible title half way through. I'm aware that it's a classic, but possibly more accessible to budding naturalists or people of a scientific leaning.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Classic

Tremendous story written such a long time ago. Ecological aspects surprising for the age of the book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

One of the classics. Still new things to discover.

Loved the book, reminded me of my childhood.
And the narrator is very nice, clastic diction, very appropriate for the book. And very nice pronunciation of all the names, especially the French ones.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A classic that never stops to amaze

An amazing journey, an incredible adventure that keeps making people dream today. Another great performance by Bill Homewood.

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