1870
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Jules Verne · 1828–1905 · France
Originally Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (French)
Why it matters
Captain Nemo's submarine Nautilus glides beneath every ocean, encountering giant squid and sunken civilizations. Verne's fusion of hard technical speculation with pure wonder essentially invented modern science fiction's method.
At a glance
speculative fiction
Difficulty 3/10medium pace400 pagesStraightforward adventure prose, slowed mainly by technical cataloguing.
Deep dive
A stateless genius builds a submarine to escape humanity entirely, and Verne spends the whole voyage asking whether that kind of freedom is actually a prison.
Where to go next
Jules Verne · 1864Journey to the Center of the EarthLvl 3Fast paced
Jules Verne · 1865From the Earth to the MoonLvl 3Medium pace
Jules Verne · 1868In Search of the CastawaysLvl 3Fast paced
Jules Verne · 1873Around the World in Eighty DaysLvl 2Fast paced
Jules Verne · 1874The Mysterious IslandLvl 4Fast paced
Raymond Queneau · 1959Zazie in the MetroLvl 5Fast paced