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Save the Story
Denizler Altında Yirmi Bin Fersah
Bana Kaptan Nemo diyebilirsiniz.
Şu anda, benim keşfim olan Nautilus adlı deniz aracındasınız.
Peki ya bugünün büyük yazarları, tüm zamanların en büyük hikâyelerini sana yeniden anlatsa?
Şu anda, benim keşfim olan Nautilus adlı deniz aracındasınız.
Peki ya bugünün büyük yazarları, tüm zamanların en büyük hikâyelerini sana yeniden anlatsa?
104 pages, Paperback
First published October 24, 2013
6 people are currently reading
128 people want to read
About the author
Dave Eggers
339 books9,490 followersDave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is best known for his 2000 memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Eggers is also the founder of several notable literary and philanthropic ventures, including the literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, the literacy project 826 Valencia, and the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness. Additionally, he founded ScholarMatch, a program that connects donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in numerous prestigious publications, including The New Yorker, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
October 17, 2013
Save the Story is a new publishing initiative by Pushkin Children's Books to put out classic stories retold by contemporary writers in a shortened, more accessible manner to keep these tales alive in the 21st century. Jonathan Coe retells the story of Gulliver from Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Alessandro Baricco retells the story of Don Juan, Ali Smith retells the story of Antigone, and in this book Dave Eggers tackles Jules Vernes' world-famous Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in The Story of Captain Nemo.
It's a noble endeavour, to get kids reading classic stories, that joins other such efforts like Classics Illustrated where classic novels were retold in comics format, which was successful for a time, but I wonder at the name - Save the Story. Some of these stories are centuries old - will Gulliver's Travels ever be forgotten? I don't think so. No matter how much things like social media take over our day to day lives (the subject of Eggers' other new book The Circle), I can't believe that classic novels like this will ever one day be forgotten.
The story is that something that looks like a giant sea monster is sinking ships all around the world and a teenage boy called Consuelo and his eccentric oceanographer Pierre Arronax set sail on the Abraham Lincoln, "a cross between a fishing ship and a military destroyer". But after a fateful encounter, they discover that it isn't a sea monster that's sinking ships - it's a submarine called the Nautilus, captained by the mad Captain Nemo, and now Consuelo and Pierre are his guests - never to leave!
If you've read Verne's original book, you'll notice Eggers' retelling, while much shorter, is incredibly faithful to the source material - it really is a retelling as Eggers doesn't stray far from the core of the story. All of the characters are here - though in this version Consuelo is Arronax's nephew and not his assistant - including Captain Farragut and Ned Land, and the story follows the same pattern as the original.
Eggers deviates on two important points in the story - the first is Nemo's reasons for sinking ships, all of which are commercial fishing vessels, as he hates the way these ships are destroying uncountable ecosystems and decimating the world's sea life. Eggers turns him from an ambiguously exiled man, enraged at his isolation looking for revenge on civilisation, into a hardcore Greenpeace activist! The second is the removal of the giant squid from the story. As Eggers notes in his afterword, the main image readers take away from Verne's book (and indeed the equally famous film adaptations) is the scene where the giant squid attacks and he wanted people to take away more than this from the story - so he excised it entirely. It's an interesting choice that I think improves the story, at least in this version of it, making the focus of the book rightfully the doomed figure of Nemo as the title suggests.
Fabian Negrin illustrates the book, drawing vividly colourful images that bring to life some of the more exotic varieties of fish the characters encounter as well as the more dramatic scenes of ships sinking and Nemo hauntingly playing an organ. They do exactly what illustrations should do in a children's book and complements the story being told rather than overshadow or underplay it.
Eggers does a decent job of retelling a famous story for a younger audience, cutting through Vernes' admittedly laborious prose to present the heart of the story for a less patient readership without losing the spirit of the original. The Story of Captain Nemo is a fine, accessible book for younger readers looking to acquaint themselves with a classic novel.
It's a noble endeavour, to get kids reading classic stories, that joins other such efforts like Classics Illustrated where classic novels were retold in comics format, which was successful for a time, but I wonder at the name - Save the Story. Some of these stories are centuries old - will Gulliver's Travels ever be forgotten? I don't think so. No matter how much things like social media take over our day to day lives (the subject of Eggers' other new book The Circle), I can't believe that classic novels like this will ever one day be forgotten.
The story is that something that looks like a giant sea monster is sinking ships all around the world and a teenage boy called Consuelo and his eccentric oceanographer Pierre Arronax set sail on the Abraham Lincoln, "a cross between a fishing ship and a military destroyer". But after a fateful encounter, they discover that it isn't a sea monster that's sinking ships - it's a submarine called the Nautilus, captained by the mad Captain Nemo, and now Consuelo and Pierre are his guests - never to leave!
If you've read Verne's original book, you'll notice Eggers' retelling, while much shorter, is incredibly faithful to the source material - it really is a retelling as Eggers doesn't stray far from the core of the story. All of the characters are here - though in this version Consuelo is Arronax's nephew and not his assistant - including Captain Farragut and Ned Land, and the story follows the same pattern as the original.
Eggers deviates on two important points in the story - the first is Nemo's reasons for sinking ships, all of which are commercial fishing vessels, as he hates the way these ships are destroying uncountable ecosystems and decimating the world's sea life. Eggers turns him from an ambiguously exiled man, enraged at his isolation looking for revenge on civilisation, into a hardcore Greenpeace activist! The second is the removal of the giant squid from the story. As Eggers notes in his afterword, the main image readers take away from Verne's book (and indeed the equally famous film adaptations) is the scene where the giant squid attacks and he wanted people to take away more than this from the story - so he excised it entirely. It's an interesting choice that I think improves the story, at least in this version of it, making the focus of the book rightfully the doomed figure of Nemo as the title suggests.
Fabian Negrin illustrates the book, drawing vividly colourful images that bring to life some of the more exotic varieties of fish the characters encounter as well as the more dramatic scenes of ships sinking and Nemo hauntingly playing an organ. They do exactly what illustrations should do in a children's book and complements the story being told rather than overshadow or underplay it.
Eggers does a decent job of retelling a famous story for a younger audience, cutting through Vernes' admittedly laborious prose to present the heart of the story for a less patient readership without losing the spirit of the original. The Story of Captain Nemo is a fine, accessible book for younger readers looking to acquaint themselves with a classic novel.
May 2, 2025
I read this to my nine year old. Was just the right length. It retells 20000 Leagues Under the Sea in modern times which does not exactly work. But it does pose a number of interesting ethical questions about environmental destruction from industrial scale fishing and the ethics of someone who is committed to preserving the sea while also living off it and losing all humanity in the process.
An enjoyable and relatively quick read. I can't compare it to the original because I haven't read it. Yet.
An enjoyable and relatively quick read. I can't compare it to the original because I haven't read it. Yet.
October 28, 2013
Captain Nemo’s giant squid is something that captured my imagination as child and so, of the series, this is the book that I was looking forward to the most. To be fair it is not the original novel by Jules Verne but the 1954 Disney film version of '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' that I primarily recall. Dave Eggers' 'Captain Nemo' features wonderfully ethereal illustrations by Fabian Negrin; the Nautilus itself is a lustrous, mollusk-like creature that shimmers in the gloom of an undersea world. As Dave Eggers rightly explains in his afterword, the book was never about the giant squid; the mysterious creature of the deep that they were hunting was in fact the Nautilus and its enigmatic captain—Nemo. The story is well told and well adapted to a contemporary context but I was still a bit sad that the giant squid did not feature as much as I’d hoped.
My full review of the 'Save the Story' series on the Writers' Hub:
http://www.writershub.co.uk/reviews-p...
My full review of the 'Save the Story' series on the Writers' Hub:
http://www.writershub.co.uk/reviews-p...
May 8, 2019
Nel riscrivere "Ventimila leghe sotto i mari", Dave Eggers ha dato uno sguardo personale sul capolavoro di Jules Verne: un'occhiata fulminea per intrigare il lettore al punto da indurlo alla lettura dell’ineguagliabile testo dello scrittore francese.
June 19, 2024
Easy listening, captivating, beginner science fiction I would say.
April 22, 2020
A boy and his uncle Pierre . Uncle Pierre was a Oceanographer in one dayThere was a mysterious creature who live in the ocean and have a horn that can pierce through 4 inches of iron.
I feel very awkward because I didn’t know there was a creature called a narwhal that is 40 feet long and it’s horn is 15 foot long!
I feel very awkward because I didn’t know there was a creature called a narwhal that is 40 feet long and it’s horn is 15 foot long!
October 27, 2019
Fabian Negrin's illustrations are some of the most beautiful I've seen. The illustrations are the only aspect of the book I enjoy. According to the publisher, "Save the Story is a mission in book form: saving great stories from oblivion by retelling them for a new, younger generation." Many retold classics editions exist for children in heavily abridged formats with easier vocabulary. I guess I buy in that there is value in that. However, I think this one mangles the novel. The writing mimics some of the trite, flat, and inept conversation or writings of young people: "I'm not the best swimmer in the world" and "I'm gonna kills the guys who did this." Young people actually think "gonna," "wanna," and "kinda" are words, not just the quick way we smoosh words together in conversation. Seeing it in print does nothing to negate that. The whole teach-me-a-lesson about commercial overfishing was clumsily done. Maybe some of the other Save the Story versions are better. But the illustrations! Love them.
May 11, 2024
Orijinal hikaye kesinlikle çok güzel ama bu serideki anlatımlı hâli de çok güzel olmuş.
Benim okuma tarihimde bir milattır jules verne. Okumayı sevdiren ilk kitap diyebilirim. O zamanlar kitaba ulaşmak şimdiki kadar kolay değildi. Ve böyle güzel eserleri güzel çeviri ya da güzel çizimler diye ayrım yapma imkanımız olmadan hikayenin özüne odaklanmaya çalışıp elimize geçtiği ilk an okumaya çalışırdık. O dönem çeviriden ziyade Ömer Seyfettin Kemalettin Tuğcu gibi türk yazarlar daha çok tercih edilirdi, tavsiye edilirdi. Onlarda da hep kan hep gözyaşı olurdu. Bu kitabı orijinal versiyonu saçma sapan bir şekilde şans eseri elime geçince çok sevinmiştim. Çünkü hiç tecrübe etmediğim belki de edemeyeceğim bir dünyayı bana anlatıyordu.
Bu versiyonu daha da eğlenceli olmuş bence. Özellikle şimdiki çocuklar daha kısa süreli dikkate sahip olduklarından yazı stili, anlatım tarzı ve etkileyici çizimleriyle tam onların seveceği bir kitap olmuş diyebilirim.
Benim okuma tarihimde bir milattır jules verne. Okumayı sevdiren ilk kitap diyebilirim. O zamanlar kitaba ulaşmak şimdiki kadar kolay değildi. Ve böyle güzel eserleri güzel çeviri ya da güzel çizimler diye ayrım yapma imkanımız olmadan hikayenin özüne odaklanmaya çalışıp elimize geçtiği ilk an okumaya çalışırdık. O dönem çeviriden ziyade Ömer Seyfettin Kemalettin Tuğcu gibi türk yazarlar daha çok tercih edilirdi, tavsiye edilirdi. Onlarda da hep kan hep gözyaşı olurdu. Bu kitabı orijinal versiyonu saçma sapan bir şekilde şans eseri elime geçince çok sevinmiştim. Çünkü hiç tecrübe etmediğim belki de edemeyeceğim bir dünyayı bana anlatıyordu.
Bu versiyonu daha da eğlenceli olmuş bence. Özellikle şimdiki çocuklar daha kısa süreli dikkate sahip olduklarından yazı stili, anlatım tarzı ve etkileyici çizimleriyle tam onların seveceği bir kitap olmuş diyebilirim.
October 15, 2019
Two-and-a-half stars.
Updated for a modern audience, this version of the classic tale is set in the twenty-first century, going so far as to mention YouTube at one point. Conseil is replaced by Consuelo, Professor Aronnax's nephew. There are other changes, but the main thing is that the sense of wonder seems to be missing. While there isn't much forward action happening during the deep sea exploration parts of the original story, those moments give the story its magic...especially when this version is set after the invention of submarines. I'm guessing Eggers was given strict guidelines about length, because the character building isn't very strong either since the story just moves from action to action. We get the narrator Consuelo's reactions, but not those of the other characters. Still, this version probably works as an introduction to the tale vs. the bulky original.
Updated for a modern audience, this version of the classic tale is set in the twenty-first century, going so far as to mention YouTube at one point. Conseil is replaced by Consuelo, Professor Aronnax's nephew. There are other changes, but the main thing is that the sense of wonder seems to be missing. While there isn't much forward action happening during the deep sea exploration parts of the original story, those moments give the story its magic...especially when this version is set after the invention of submarines. I'm guessing Eggers was given strict guidelines about length, because the character building isn't very strong either since the story just moves from action to action. We get the narrator Consuelo's reactions, but not those of the other characters. Still, this version probably works as an introduction to the tale vs. the bulky original.
May 7, 2017
Çok basit ve güzel bir fikre dayanan, iyi işlenmiş bir serinin gayet hoş bir üyesi. Zaten çok sevdiğim(iz) Jules Verne'in en müthiş kitaplarından birini yorumlayan bu kitap, hem üstlendiği "save the story" misyonunun hakkını veriyor hem de gerçekten de Vernvari üslubu ve stilize çizimleri ile güzel bir nostalji yaşatıyor.
Want to read
April 18, 2021Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
Read
November 24, 2022Great illustrations
November 10, 2024
Çocuklar için romanın kısa ve kolay okunan, güzel bir anlatımı.
June 30, 2016
How not to love anything with the magnificent Nautilus on it? Her captain as well were always fascinating people for generations. It’s hard not to like this story. Dave Eggers write a fantastic story that allows us to get to know this mysterious and beloved captain more.
His style of writing is flawless, the story is well developed and keep you wanting more. Can’t wait to read more by this author.
disclaimer: I got a copy from netgalley for my honest review.
His style of writing is flawless, the story is well developed and keep you wanting more. Can’t wait to read more by this author.
disclaimer: I got a copy from netgalley for my honest review.
July 22, 2016
A snappy retelling of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, with unappealing illustrations, but one that brings a modern youthful voice to the narration, thus as the publishers' strand intends, keeping the story alive. It's not brilliant – it certainly ends too abruptly for its own good – but it has some character and some mystery. Three and a half stars.
July 9, 2016
A reimagining of the story of Captain Nemo, positioning him as a somewhat over-zealous eco-warrior, sinking ships and drowning sailors to preserve life beneath the waves. Wonderfully written by the ever-engaging Eggers, this is a great read for kids and grown-ups alike! Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews