🎧 Emma's Library Audiobook cover: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Classical Stories · No. 91 — Captain Nemo's impossible submarine and the prisoners who ride it.

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About this audiobook

When ships begin to be attacked by what seems a giant sea-monster, a French professor, his loyal servant, and a Canadian harpooner join the hunt — only to be flung overboard and rescued (and captured) by the 'monster' itself: the Nautilus, a magnificent electric submarine built and captained by the mysterious Captain Nemo. Aboard, they become permanent guests who may explore but never leave, and Verne takes them on a wondrous underwater journey — through pearl-beds and coral forests, past the ruins of Atlantis, under polar ice, and into a nightmarish battle with a giant squid. Nemo is a genius and a generous host, but also a haunted, dangerous man carrying some old grief and rage against the surface world, and the professor comes to see his captor as both a marvel and a warning, longing to escape even as he never wants the wonders to end.

Why it's worth a listen

Sailors hunting a mysterious sea-monster that has been sinking ships discover it is no monster at all but the Nautilus — a marvelous submarine decades ahead of its time, commanded by the brilliant, bitter Captain Nemo, who takes them aboard as guests who may never leave. From Jules Verne's classic, a voyage through the wonders of the deep — coral forests, sunken ruins, a giant squid — steered by one of literature's most fascinating and troubling captains.

A question to keep

Can someone be both a genius and a danger, both a wonder and a warning?

Based on the book by A tale from France, published by Emma's Library original retelling

Chapters

  1. The Monster of the High Seas
  2. Captured by the Steel Monster
  3. The Wonders of the Deep
  4. The Shadow of the Captain
  5. Ice and Tentacles
  6. The Maelstrom and the Flight
  7. A Question to Keep