Viaggi fantastici: Viaggio al centro della Terra, Dalla Terra alla Luna, Intorno alla Luna, Ventimila leghe sotto i mari, Il Giro del mondo in ottanta giorni

by Jules Verne, Piero Gondolo della Riva (Preface), Maria Gallone (Translator)

Se all'avventura e al fascino della scoperta si decidesse di dare un altro nome, allora la scelta sarebbe tanto naturale quanto inevitabile. Il nome che racchiude al proprio interno quel caos di sentimenti diversi eppure simili tra loro è Verne. Jules Verne. Il grande scrittore francese autore di romanzi nei quali viene raccontata la pulsione umana a cercare e a conoscere, a raggiungere luoghi inesplorati e a decifrarli. Con il Capitano Nemo o Phileas Fogg, immersi nelle profondità sottomarine o in volo su una mongolfiera, un viaggio nei mondi immaginati e raccontati dal grande Jules Verne. Un'opera che ci permette di scoprire che molte volte esplorazione e narrazione significano la stessa cosa.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Science Fiction

1257 pages, Hardcover

Published May 7, 2008

About the author

Novels of French writer Jules Gabriel Verne, considered the founder of modern science fiction, include Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).

This author who pioneered the genre. People best know him for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870).

Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before people invented navigable aircraft and practical submarines and devised any means of spacecraft. He ranks behind Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie as the second most translated author of all time. People made his prominent films. People often refer to Verne alongside Herbert George Wells as the "father of science fiction."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_V...

Reviews

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frederick Paul Walter (or Rick as I know him) has done a great job providing fresh translations for some timeless Verne classics. In addition to the four of the standard titles that are often found, he has also included "Circling the Moon," which Verne wrote as a sequel to "From the Earth to the Moon" but more often than not, is not usually included with any of those editions. This additional text really helps to complete the story of the Baltimore Gun Club's attempt to reach the moon. It also includes a great introduction highlighting the translation problems of the editions from the 19th century.

[Sasha]

Here's a comparison of Walter's new translation with an older one I read a couple years back, by Quiet Vision Publishing. It describes early speculation on the nature of the thing that would turn out to be Nemo's Nautilus.

QV: "And in these disastrous times, when the ingenuity of man has multiplied the power of weapons of war, it was possible that, without the knowledge of others, a State might try to work such a formidable engine."

Walter: "In these catastrophic times when men tax their ingenuity ti build increasingly powerful aggressive weapons, it was possible that some nation, unbeknownst to the rest of the world, was testing out such a fearsome machine. The Chassepot rifle let to the torpedo, and the torpedo has led to this underwater battering ram, which in turn will lead to the world's putting its foot down. At least I hope so."

The first sentence is fairly close, though Walter reads marginally better. But that second sentence is missing altogether from the older translation. And it's good, isn't it? It adds character and makes the whole thing more fun. This is why translation is important, even for an author like Verne who isn't known for poetry. This Walter translation is less dry than the other.

[Tony Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

All stories are excellent!! They are ALL unabridged (which I feel is important in reading an author's complete work). Just good all around Science Fiction of the time, stories. There is a reason why he is considered by many to be the "Father Of Science Fiction". He came up with several ideas that seemed pure fantasy in his day. However, many inventions have been created to make his concepts a reality.

[Eustachio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finisco Verne con sentimenti contrastanti: da una parte ripongo volentieri sullo scaffale questo mattone di 1257 pagine, elemento portante della pila di libri da leggere entro l'anno; dall'altra potrei quasi sentirne la mancanza, se solo con questo libro non avessi soddisfatto la mia fame di romanzi d'avventura-fantastico-istruttivi da qui fino all'eternità.

Recensire un libro contenente cinque romanzi diversi comporta due cose:
1) Se ho chiaro in mente Il Giro del mondo in ottanta giorni, finito oggi pomeriggio, non si può dire lo stesso di Viaggio al centro della Terra, letto a gennaio.
2) È inevitabile che faccia paragoni. Potrei far notare, per esempio, che il trio protagonista di ogni romanzo ricopre sempre lo stesso ruolo: c'è chi è sicuro di quello che sta facendo, chi è scettico e chi segue fedelmente quello sicuro di sé.
Poco male, però, perché i pregi e i difetti di Verne sono sempre gli stessi, e il mio gradimento di ogni libro varia a seconda di quanto i pregi superino i difetti.

I pregi: il senso di avventura, l'idea di cimentarsi in imprese mai provate prima. Per parafrasare il discorso Rory Gilmore alla cerimonia del diploma, con Verne ho viaggiato al centro della Terra, ho girato attorno alla Luna, ho scandagliato i fondali marini e ho fatto il giro del mondo in ottanta giorni. How cool is that?
I difetti: il lato istruttivo e la ricerca di verosimiglianza. Mi basta scorgere le rovine di Atlante a bordo del Nautilus, non mi servono le liste di pesci, grazie. E se contiamo di andare sulla Luna, faccio a meno di un libro intero per la costruzione del "proiettile" e dei calcoli matematici per rendere plausibile ogni aspetto del viaggio.

Nessuna sorpresa che il mio preferito sia Il Giro del mondo in ottanta giorni, dove le spiegazioni sono ridotte all'osso per dare spazio alla corsa contro il tempo di Phileas Fogg e all'inseguimento infondato di Fix, che Dalla Terra alla Luna sia stato al limite della perdita di tempo e che Intorno alla Luna avesse il sapore di improbabile dimostrazione scientifica più che di giro nello spazio, con tutto che il momento in cui riescono a vedere per un attimo l'altra faccia della Luna è molto suggestivo.
Viaggio al centro della Terra si distingue dagli altri perché è raccontato dal punto di vista di Axel, il nipote dello scienziato che intraprende il viaggio. Axel è l'unico a riconoscere il rischio che stanno correndo e più volte propone di tornare indietro, il che — tra il suo tono isterico e il pericolo concreto di perdersi o finire le scorte — la rende la storia più spassosa e più realistica del libro (paradossalmente, il senso di pericolo manca del tutto ai personaggi del dittico lunare, convintissimi che a lanciarsi nello spazio dentro un "proiettile" si torni sicuro sani e salvi a casa).
Di Ventimila leghe sotto i mari come non citare il capitano Nemo oppure alcuni episodi, come il passaggio nel tunnel subacqueo? No, in realtà preferisco ritagliarmi un angolo per sfatare il mito del titolo. Per anni quelle ventimila leghe per me si riferivano alle profondità raggiunte dal Nautilus. Peccato che ventimila leghe equivalgano a 80.000 km, e se fate fatica quanto me ad associare numeri così alti a qualcosa di concreto, tenete presente che la Terra ha un raggio di circa 6.000 km e che persino Giove ha un "misero" raggio di circa 70.000 km. Verne è fiero e commosso per avermi insegnato almeno questo.

- Viaggio al centro della Terra: ***+ (19/01/14 - 26/01/14)
- Dalla Terra alla Luna: * (16/02/14 - 04/06/14)
- Intorno alla Luna: ** (05/06/14 - 08/06/14)
- Ventimila leghe sotto i mari: ***+ (22/07/14 - 26/07/14)
- Il Giro del mondo in ottanta giorni: **** (15/08/14 - 22/08/14)

[Gregg Wingo · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Amazing Journeys" is part of the New School of translations of Jules Verne that have come about since the 1990s. These new translations are not to just upgrade the nineteenth century English but also to overcome the fact that Verne was translated to appeal to juvenile audiences by the British and American publishers. The translator, Fredrick Paul Walter, is a member and former vice-president of North American Jules Verne Society which is dedicated to enshrining Verne in the Western Canon rather than the legacy of the Disney Company.

The volume contains five novels: "Journey to the Center of the Earth", "From the Earth to the Moon", "Circling the Moon", 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas", and "Around the World in 80 Days". It is a collection of firsts full of humor, satire, science, and adventure. In "Journey", Verne invents the classic nutty-professor character, in "Earth to the Moon" he satirizes the military-industrial complex - particularly America's, in "Circling" the author creates a hair-raising and realistic adventure and pokes fun at American seriousness and French frivolity, in "20,000" Jules creates the first hard science fiction novel and literally explores the depths of misanthropy, and the volume concludes with "80" the forerunner of William Gibson's near future Bigend trilogy by covering the impact of infrastructure, globalization, and capitalism on the West and indigenous cultures - and its dehumanizing effects.

Clearly Verne was a genius and exercises a variety of literary techniques to delivery a wealth of scientific knowledge while also generating entertaining action and surprisingly distinct characters who have very adult foibles. My only complaint about the translations is that much of the French feel I was hoping for is still missing even when the characters are actually French. This unfortunately makes you feel at times like you are watching a dubbed foreign film. However, it is very clear that Verne deserves his place in the Western Canon for more reasons than just inventing a genre but for both his vision and literary style.

So grab the book and rediscover the extraordinaire!

[jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

i've actually only read 20000 legues so far, but wanted to give credit to walter's translation, which i felt was true and complete. i started out by reading the book in french first. the numerous (sometimes tedious) lists of fish and other underwater life got to be confusing for me, so about halfway through i switched to the walter translation and was extremely happy with it. i loved everything about the book except for the lists. =)

[Jason Pettus · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

A couple of years ago, when I did a write-up of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for the "CCLaP 100" essay series, I heard from a number of his fans that part of the reason I found it rather lackluster was because of the free but ancient translation I had read, and that Verne is one of those cases where it really pays to seek out and even purchase the most recent translations that you can find. And that's because it's only been in literally the last 20 or 30 years, since genre work has really started gaining academic respect, that we've even wanted to go back and explore the beginnings of things like science-fiction or crime novels, and to apply a scholarly eye to such original material; but for a century before that, the dozens of fantastical titles put out by someone like Verne were considered by most to be the literary version of throwaway kiddie shows, pumped out quickly and cheaply to soon part an adolescent from his allowance money at the corner drugstore on a Saturday afternoon, and usually translated on the fly by overworked copyeditors who could care less if they were successfully capturing the subtleties of the original text.

So I was glad to recently come across Amazing Journeys: Five Visionary Classics by Jules Verne, a new collection of some of his most famous novels, edited and translated by the quite obvious slavish fan and full-time scholar Frederick Paul Walter, put out in a plain but professional oversized edition and containing all the books' original illustrations. And indeed, as I learned while reading through these 'Anglicized' new translations (i.e. they feature standard measurements and Fahrenheit temperatures), Verne's work at its best contained a kind of dry humor and political awareness that we in the English-speaking world rarely equate with the French speculative pioneer, with dialogue that's not nearly as histrionic as we've come to think of it in books like these, which to be fair really were pumped out originally on a fairly quick basis mostly for the amusement of children and the working class, a series of 54 novels known as the "Extraordinary Voyages" that publisher Jules Hetzel built an entire little commercial empire around, and just like today with most of the duo's revenue coming not from the books themselves but rather the lucrative traveling stage adaptations that were often made of them. And in fact, a full reading of Verne's entire oeuvre remains a personal challenge that I will only tackle much later in life if at all, so I decided not to read even the full five tales collected here, and especially like I said since I had already read 20,000 Leagues and didn't relish the thought of slogging through the entire thing again.

So instead I read just two of the titles in this collection, starting with 1864's Journey to the Center of the Earth, one of Verne's first speculative tales after first being an opera librettist for years, while lying to his father the whole time and claiming that he was establishing a fine career in Paris as a young urban lawyer. And indeed, this early thriller shows off what I consider one of the modern main weaknesses of Verne's work, no matter how good the translation; that many of the fanciful scientific theories he proposed in his books have turned out over the decades to be just flat-out wrong, which means that we no longer have the ability to enjoy his work in the same way his contemporary audience did. (Don't forget, readers in the 1800s thought of Verne not so much as a sci-fi author but more like Michael Crichton, a brilliant futurist writing day-after-tomorrow tales about what life would really be like for their children.) Essentially the tale of an eccentric German professor, his nephew assistant and their silent Icelandic guide, as they literally climb down a volcano and discover a vast continent-sized system of caves below the Earth's surface, complete with their own bodies of water and rainclouds, it's hard not to roll one's eyes when watching our heroes stumble across forgotten dinosaurs and house-sized mushrooms, or ride a lava eruption back out to the surface at the end as if they were Victorian surfers; although the story definitely has its charms as well, especially when thinking of it now as pure fairytale fantasy, and with there being lots to enjoy in the cartoonish stereotypes that come with each of our various characters.

Ah, but then after that, I skipped straight to the last story in this collection, and undoubtedly the most famous of Verne's career as well, 1873's Around the World in Eighty Days, which has been made into high-profile films several times now over the years, and which turned out to be a much better reading experience. Basically a gentle satire of British stiff-upper-lip determinism in the height of their Empire years, it starts with a group of upper-class gentlemen at a private London club discussing the latest innovations in world travel, with the reclusive and unflappable Phileas Fogg quietly insisting to his peers that a globe-spanning trip could now be realistically accomplished in a flat 80 days, even wagering what today would be two million dollars on the deal and agreeing to leave on such a journey that very night, armed with nothing but an overnight bag and his loyal French butler. And thus starts a rollicking adventure that indeed takes us around the world, spiced up by a British P.I. in Raj India who mistakes Fogg for a fugitive bank robber and tries to trip up his plans the whole rest of the way, and with the incredible journey involving such details as an elephant ride across central Asia, a sudden alliance with Chinese acrobats, a deliberately planned mutiny on a British sea vessel, a shootout with Native Americans on a train ride across the American Midwest, and a whole lot more. (Although let it be noted that the original book features no hot-air balloons, an invention of Hollywood that has become a famous trope of its own by now.)

And in fact, I'm sure that a big reason why this succeeds so much more than Journey to the Center of the Earth is that, unlike the outdated speculative nature of the former, Eighty Days is a faithful and now historical look at just what it was like to really pull off world travel in the late 1800s, the first time in history it became commercially viable for anyone besides pirates and explorers to even do so. (And indeed, just a year before Verne wrote his novel, Thomas Cook led history's very first trip around the world designed specifically for tourists, only in their case taking seven months to complete instead of Verne's three.) And that makes the book charming and fascinating instead of eye-rolling, and especially when adding Verne's astutely funny comments regarding imperial aspirations, and of the self-satisfyingly civilized way the British liked to think of themselves during the height of the Victorian Age. (Unlike his reputation in later movies, much of the humor in the original book comes from the conservative, adventure-hating Fogg maintaining such complete composure in the face of such globetrotting chaos, spending the majority of his 80-day trip not enjoying the scenery but playing an endless series of card games with his fellow steamship and railroad passengers.) And that's a delight to read about even today, no matter how dated the actual mechanics of the story itself. (And in fact, gonzo journalists have been recreating the trip in a period-faithful way almost since the publication of the book itself, from an 1889 newspaper reporter to most recently comedian Michael Palin, just a few years ago for a BBC television mini-series.)

So it was nice, I admit, to see what all these Verne fans were talking about, as far as the surprising loveliness of his original texts, that for so long have been hidden from us English speakers by shoddy translations; but also like I said, I'm not sure just how much of a general interest I have in Verne even with the new translations, making a sampler like this nearly perfect for the casual fan. It comes highly recommended, but be prepared for it to be one of those volumes you read in little doses here and there for years to come.

Out of 10: 9.1

[Squire · Rating 5 out of 5]

New translations of 5 of Verne's best novels. Early English translations of these novels were made at the time of publication, usually by translators (with the publisher's blessing) who thought they knew what Americans wanted to (and could) read, playing up racist language and downplaying political context. Since most of these translations have fallen into the public domain, anybody can publish them. Verne never wrote in English; he could read a little English and write even less. In France, Verne's anti-slavery and anti-colonialist views were well known.

Since 1995, Verne scholars have made an effort to correct these missteps by publishing new translations that restore his works to their original glories. Also restored are Verne's cataloging of current geographical and scientific advances that show Verne to be a master of imagination in his creations of technological marvels.

No translation is perfect, but Walter does a fine job of translating these vital works and showing where the translations fall short. What is also revealed is that these are NOT children's books, though they continue to be enjoyed by children around the world.

Around the World in 80 Days, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (note the 's' on Seas), and the two extraordinary Moon novels (From Earth to the Moon and Circling the Moon) are all given new life and have motivated me to read more of the new translations of Verne's "Voyages Extraordinaire."

[Old Man Aries · Rating 3 out of 5]

Partiamo con una premessa: Jules Verne è, senza tema di smentita, il principale colpevole (assieme a zio Isaac) alla base della mia passione per la lettura. Se quando avevo 8 o 10 anni non mi fossero capitati tra le mani i suoi Viaggio al centro della terra e Ventimila leghe sotto i mari probabilmente non sarei il lettore che sono ora.

Si capirà, quindi, l’emozione che ho provato quando un paio di anni fa ho trovato in libreria una riedizione che pubblicava, in un unico volume, non solo i due romanzi che tanto avevo amato, ma anche “Dalla Terra alla Luna”, “Intorno alla Luna” e, soprattutto, “Il giro del mondo in 80 giorni”; si capirà anche come l’”occasione” di un ricovero di più giorni fosse perfetta per dedicarsi a divorare i cinque romanzi, già pregustando la magia che mi avrebbe riavvolto.

Magia che, invece, non è mai comparsa, con mia estrema delusione.

Già, perché ciò che aveva rapito il ragazzino di 8/10 anni è diventato, agli occhi del lettore ben più smaliziato e carico di esperienza di 36, spesso e volentieri una nota negativa invece che positiva, rendendo buona parte di questi romanzi quanto meno noiosi, cosa che mai mi sarei aspettato di affermare.

Cerco di spiegarmi, prima di fare una panoramica dei singoli romanzi.

Verne era, senza ombra di dubbio, più che preparato, più che appassionato e più che fantasioso ma era anche, sempre senza ombra di dubbio, pesantemente didattico: per la precisione era un uomo del diciannovesimo secolo pesantemente didattico; tradotto in altri termini, l’autore ha, in quattro su cinque di questi romanzi, la pesante abitudine di indottrinare il lettore, di trasmettergli una marea di informazioni assolutamente inutili ai fini della vicenda che sta raccontando e spesso, addirittura, elencate a cascata peggio che in un’enciclopedia.

Se una cosa del genere è accettabile in un testo di divulgazione (e l’Origine delle specie di Darwin ancora mi aspetta per verificare se riesco a leggerlo) diventa veramente pesante in un romanzo: certo, il me stesso di 30 anni fa ne fu rapito perché amava imparare e scoprire cose nuove, ma il me stesso di oggi non solo quelle cose le sa già, ma spesso deve anche correggerle mentalmente agli occhi della scienza del 21mo secolo, il che può veramente stancare; è come farsi fare lezione di informatica da qualcuno che conosce solo il vecchio Basic, giusto per usare un paragone che altri informatici capiranno.

Per quanto riguarda le vicende vere e proprie è invece innegabile la meravigliosa fantasia che permise a Verne di creare tanti viaggi sconvolgenti, mentre i personaggi rimangono spesso e volentieri un po’ troppo bidimensionali: anche qui, però, è il lettore moderno che affronta un autore di due secoli prima su un campo un po’ ibrido.

Facciamo una panoramica.


Viaggio al centro della tera

In assoluto il primo romanzo che abbia mai letto e quello che ricordo con più affetto: se la vicenda mi era ancora piuttosto limpida in mente, quel che invece è stata nuova è la sensazione dell’eccessivo nozionismo di cui già parlavo: troppi, veramente troppi elenchi, affermazioni a sé stanti, citazioni inutili, che appesantiscono la storia senza arricchirla; il personaggio del professore è poi fin troppo cristallizzato, cosa che nei vari adattamenti più o meno riusciti che ne sono stati fatti è stata spesso ammorbidita, rendendolo più gradevole rispetto all’originale.


Dalla Terra alla Luna/Intorno alla Luna

Li cito insieme perché il primo, preso a sé stante, risulta praticamente incompiuto.

Qui le ingenuità di un autore del 1800 si fanno veramente pesanti e cose che in un romanzo di fantascienza sarebbero assolutamente giustificate e giustificabili qui diventano solo il segno di quanto poco si sapesse all’epoca della natura dello spazio e del nostro satellite, per non parlare poi dei mezzi di trasporto utilizzabili: il risultato è un qualcosa che vuole essere realistico e didattico ma che, per un lettore di 150 anni dopo, risulta quasi irritante.

E’ anche il romanzo coi personaggi più insulsi e monodimensionali dell’intero volume, per cui in sostanza si tratta sicuramente dell’opera meno “piacevole” tra quelle presenti nell’opera

Una curiosità: all’inizio di Intorno alla Luna si trova un riassunto di Dalla terra alla luna; il riassunto è di 3 pagine, il romanzo di 200; è la prima volta che mi capita che un riassunto riesca a descrivere un romanzo quasi alla perfezione.


20.000 leghe sotto i mari

E qui il nozionista si è davvero fatto prendere la mano: considerando che questo romanzo consta da solo 400 pagine e che ad ogni capitolo ci sono elenchi ed elenchi di pesci o alghe o rocce, ben si capirà cosa intendo.

In realtà, sopportando questa sfilza di elenchi, 20.000 leghe riesce sicuramente ad appassionare un po’ di più il lettore, merito degli ormai mitici Capitano Nemo e Nautilus e del mistero gravitante intorno al primo, mistero che non viene però svelato in questo romanzo.

Meno deludente di viaggio al centro della terra, in sostanza, ma poteva perdere 200 pagine senza alcun problema.


Il giro del mondo in 80 giorni

Qui invece c’è stata la sorpresa: per non so quale motivo era il romanzo che meno mi ispirava, che più temevo essere noioso e che più si prestava, a questo punto, al nozionismo dell’autore… Ed invece stavolta Verne ha “fatto giudizio” non abbandonando del tutto il suo vizio, ma rendendolo ben ridotto ed assolutamente sopportabile: il risultato è la storia che bene o male tutti conosciamo, ma ben ritmata, piuttosto gradevole da leggere e che svetta senza dubbio sugli altri romanzi.

Una bella sorpresa, insomma.

Concludendo, sono ancora legato a Verne? Sì, senza alcun dubbio, anche se a differenza di altri autori non lo ritengo “universalmente adatto”, ma perfetto per catturare nuovi lettori: nel mio caso fece scattare la scintilla e sono certo che tanti altri giovincelli potrebbero farsi rapire nei meandri del pianeta o a bordo del Nautilus senza storcere il naso come ho fatto io in età più matura.

[Wander Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oggi, ventun marzo milleottocentosessantotto, io, Nemo, ho raggiunto il Polo Sud al novantesimo grado e prendo possesso di questa parte del globo, pari a un sesto dei continenti conosciuti. - A nome di chi? - A nome mio. Così dicendo, il capitano Nemo spiegò una bandiera nera, che portava una "N" d'oro. Poi, rivolgendosi verso il sole, i cui ultimi raggi lambivano l'orizzonte sul mare, esclamò: - Addio sole! Sparisci, astro radioso! Tramonta su questo mare libero e lascia che una notte di sei mesi stenda le sue ombre sul mio nuovo dominio!

[Kitty Kestrel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great edition of Jules Verne's work-- all books were delightful. I am easily bored, and the only one that almost got on my nerves was Journey to the Center of the Earth; but the charm of Frederick's translation (as faithful an interpretation of Jules Verne as possible) saved the day. Highly recommend.

[Aika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Io AMO Verne da quand’ero bambina, per quanto non capissi proprio tutto ciò che leggevo cercavo sempre di immedesimarmi nelle ambientazioni e nelle situazioni descritte. Amavo l’avventura e quelle di Verne non ci hanno messo molto a diventare le mie preferite.
Verne ha il mio cuore, è in assoluto il mio preferito tra i “grandi”.

[just taurus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jule Vernes books usually are considered childish, but when I read it as an adult, I saw a lot of missed moments that are necessary important. So, I can confidently recommend to read his books in any time of your life.

[Stefano Scutti]

Ventimila leghe sotto i mari

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories may be 4.5 or 5 stars when considering in the context of how they have affected the world, but just reading them for enjoyment is a mixed experience. They are all stories of ill-prepared men getting incredibly lucky. They too often stray from didactic adventure to outright lecture - whether it is classifying every creature in the sea (and then murdering it) or recounting the height of every mountain on the moon. Verne also likes to save one last lesson for the end in a rather contrived manner that has the characters laughing over some oversight they made.

The best parts of the book are Nemo - a truly great enigma and all of From the Earth to the Moon. The way Verne plays up the artillery "Gun Club" and Americans is a delightful riot.

The worst parts are the bland portions of Circling the Moon and that Verne suddenly gets gun-shy about the moon in the same story. After Journey to the Center of the Earth and 20,000 Leagues, I was expecting something fantastic. But Verne strings together a series of excuses to keep the moon shrouded in mystery - as if he was scared to put down something wrong. It's a story about three guys shot into space in a hollow cannonball - everything about it is not only wrong, but ludicrous. I feel cheated not getting a ludicrous description of the moon as well.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm entering this instead of the individual books, because it's easier and faster. Now, about the stories... I thought From The Earth To The Moon was the lesser of these works, but still an interesting and fun read. The best, IMO, is Around The World In 80 Days; although a bit dated, both in terms of travel and the view of the rest of the world, it's a rollicking tale of the late 19th century. My favorite is Journey To The Center Of The Earth, but I'm more of a geologist than a tourist. Verne shows a good knowledge of the Earth's surface, but his story shows how little we knew about the inner workings of the Earth at the time. Still, all in good fun, and Verne used the best science he had access to.

[Karen Willis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It was not as good as I was expecting! Lots of filler with the types of fish, etc. But still, probably groundbreaking for its time - going about under the oceans and all...

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five great adventure novels from only one of my favourite authors: Jules Vene!!

[Chiaralletti]

"Ventimila leghe sotto i mari" 13 agosto 2015 -

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book. It is good to read if you like adventure stories or about sea life and submarine life.

[Liz Vega · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jules Verne was my best friend until the age of10. What an imagination.!!!!