Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Tapa blanda

'Immediately a long tentacle reached in through the opening like a snake, and a score of others waved about above it'

At first they think it is a giant sea monster - a vast black object, menacing the oceans and causing panic over the world. Yet when Professor Aronnax joins an expedition to hunt down the creature, he and his two companions discover it is a giant submarine, the Nautilus. Captured and held prisoner on board by its captain, Nemo - unpredictable, enigmatic, exiled from humanity - they have no choice but to travel the underwater depths with him, encountering coral reefs, polar ice, the city of Atlantis and a terrifying giant squid that tries to drag the Nautilus down into the deep. Combining thrilling adventure with scientific facts and a wonder at the natural world, Jules Verne's most enduringly popular novel is brought to life in David Coward's vivid new translation.

Translated with an introduction and notes by David Coward

'We are all, in one way or another, the children of Jules Verne' Ray Bradbury

Jules Verne was born in France in 1828 and died in 1905. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel was wildly successful, producing many brilliant novels in the burgeoning genre of science fiction: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Around the World in 80 Days, among others. Verne is the second most translated author in the world, after Agatha Christie and before Shakespeare.

David Coward is Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Leeds and has translated many books from French for Penguin Classics.