Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: A Tour of the Underwater World (, "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the "Seas": A Tour of the Underwater World") is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870. The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre-Jules Hetzel's periodical, the . The deluxe illustrated edition, published by Hetzel in November 1871, included 111 illustrations by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou. The book was highly acclaimed when it was released and still is; it is regarded as one
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea not to a "depth", as 20,000 leagues (80,000 km) is nearly twice the circumference of the Earth. The greatest depth mentioned in the book is four leagues. The book uses metric leagues, which are four kilometres each. During the year 1866, ships of several nations spot a mysterious sea monster, which some suggest to be a giant narwhal. The United States government assembles an expedition in New York City to find and destroy the monster. Professor Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologist and narrator of the story, who happens to be in New York at the time, receives a last-minute