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
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea he sees him one last time (although secretly), and hears him say "Almighty God! Enough! Enough!". Aronnax immediately goes to his companions and they are ready to escape. But while they loosen the dinghy, they discover that the "Nautilus" has wandered into the Moskenstraumen, more commonly known as the "Maelstrom". They manage to escape and find refuge on a nearby island off the coast of Norway, but the fate of the "Nautilus" is unknown. Captain Nemo's name is an allusion to Homer's "Odyssey", a Greek epic poem. In "The Odyssey", Odysseus meets the monstrous cyclops Polyphemus during the course of