Twenty thousand leagues under the sea Free PDF novel by Jules Verne (1870)









Excerpt from Chapter One:In the year 1866, the whole maritime population of Europe and America was excited by an inexplicable phenomenon. This excitement was not confined to merchants, common sailors, sea-captains, shippers, and naval officers of all countries, but the governments of many states on the two continents were deeply interested. The excitement was caused by a long, spindle-shaped, and sometimes phosphorescent object, much larger than a whale.The different accounts that were written of this object in various log-books agreed generally as to its structure, wonderful speed, and the peculiar life with which it appeared endowed. If it was a cetacean it surpassed in bulk all those that had hitherto been classified; neither Cuvier, Lacepede, M. Dumeril, nor M. de Quatrefages would have admitted the existence of such a monster unless he had seen it with his own scientific eyes.By taking the average of observations made at different times rejecting the timid estimates that assigned to this object a length of 200 feet, as well as the exaggerated opinions which made it out to be a mile in width and three in length we may fairly affirm that it surpassed all the dimensions allowed by the ichthyologists of the day if it existed at all. It did exist, that was undeniable, and with that leaning towards the marvelous that characterizes humanity, we cannot wonder at the excitement it produced in the entire world.