20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

I haven't read many classics in my life. Since beginning my genre fiction immersion about seven years ago, I've read several of its classics. But this is my first Jules Verne read. I read it for the ad hoc online book club that's been replacing the Powell's Science Fiction Book Club which has been suspended due to the pandemic. I'm sorry to say that for the most part, I found it rather boring. It's told in an episodic manner featuring short scenes of action with lots of "wonder" filler in between. By that I mean that in between the action, the narrator spends enormous amounts of pages describing undersea life, both inside and outside the Nautilus, but mostly outside. The narrator is constantly describing the marine biology: fish, mammals, vegetation, crustaceans. In my opinion, I'd say this was exceedingly popular when it was first published because it was a relatively easy way for the general population to consume marine biology and engineering. As a novel reading this one hundred fifty years later, I have to say it's not as exciting as I expected it to be.

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