The Thing in the Sea

Episode One of Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne (‘A Shifting Reef’ to ‘Ned Land’)

Jules Verne published Vingt mille lieues sous les mers in 1870. This reader follows the English translation made by Lewis Mercier in 1873, which is the version most English readers have met and which a good deal of this episode reproduces directly. Verne built his opening out of what reads like a stack of real shipping intelligence — the Scotia was a genuine Cunard liner, the positions are given to the minute — and the effect is to make the impossible arrive as news. Worth watching as you read: the professor is the narrator, he is intelligent, he reasons carefully in public, and he is wrong. Verne gives the correct answer to a harpooner. The illustrations are the engravings of Alphonse de Neuville and Edouard Riou for the 1871 Hetzel edition.

Band

Blue · Independent readers, confident, about 10 to 12

Length

long · about 1011 words in 4 sections · 2 pictures

Source

Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, Verne, Jules · Project Gutenberg

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (10 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script

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