Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea of the premiere adventure novels and one of Verne's greatest works, along with "Around the World in Eighty Days" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth". The description of Nemo's ship, the "Nautilus", was considered ahead of its time, as it accurately describes features on submarines, which at the time were very primitive vessels. A model of the French submarine "Plongeur" (launched in 1863) was displayed at the 1867 Exposition Universelle, where it was studied by Jules Verne, who used it as an inspiration for the novel. The title refers to the "distance traveled" while under the sea and
Journey Through the Impossible "The Children of Captain Grant" and "Michael Strogoff", as similarly spectacular plays. Verne began playing with the idea of bringing a mixed selection of "Voyages Extraordinaires" characters together on a new adventure in early 1875, when he considered writing a novel in which Samuel Fergusson from "Five Weeks in a Balloon", Pierre Aronnax from "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", Phileas Fogg from "Around the World in Eighty Days", Dr. Clawbonny from "The Adventures of Captain Hatteras", and other characters would go around the world together in a heavier-than-air flying machine. Another novel featuring a similar trip around the world