Turtle Reader

I just added Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under Sea. Since I’m a marine biologist (in [all-too-] long-term training), I figure I should have read this one years ago. I think I may have as a kid but as I was getting it ready to post I didn’t recognize large portions. Maybe I’m thinking of some dumbed-down kids book or perhaps vague childhood memories from Disneyworld. Anyway, it looks like there are a lot of scientific names of species thrown in there so it’ll be interesting to see how accurate the biology was back then. It’s a shame I can’t read the original French but the editor’s note on this translation say:

The present translation is a faithful yet communicative rendering of the original French texts published in Paris by J. Hetzel et Cie.– the hardcover first edition issued in the autumn of 1871, collated with the softcover editions of the First and Second Parts issued separately in the autumn of 1869 and the summer of 1870. Although prior English versions have often been heavily abridged, this new translation is complete to the smallest substantive detail.

Enjoy.