Yet another thing I like about 20,000 Leagues is that everyone and their cousin, prior to reading the book, thinks it’s an Epic Adventure Story
when in reality it is:
- An excuse for Jules Verne to infodump all his obscure Ocean Facts on everybody
- An excuse for Jules Verne to randomly stan Poe
- A tender and homoerotic Gothic Romance
- Gettin’ Kidnapped With The Lads
- Fucking hilarious
- A Science Textbook About Fish
God, I wish I could get away with publishing a big book of infodumping…Also this is just like Victor Hugo using Les Mis as an excuse to unload all his knowledge about Paris’ sewers.
I’ve heard a similar thing about Herman Melville and Moby Dick. Just a lot of boat and sailing info with a weird superstitious story interlaced in the middle.
A handy chart.