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 public-domain translation, which is available from a number of sources, notably a recent edition with the title "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas" (). In 2010 Walter released a fully revised, newly researched translation with the title "20,000 Leagues Under the Seas" — part of an omnibus of five of his Verne translations titled "Amazing Journeys: Five Visionary Classics" and published by State University of New York Press. In 1998 William Butcher issued a new, annotated translation from the French original, published by Oxford University Press, , with the title "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas". He includes detailed notes,