Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: An Underwater Tour of the World (Collector's Library) - Tapa dura

Science and adventure are electrifying accomplices in Jules Verne's classic Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. This epic and enduring tale anticipates not just wonders such as electric light and submarine navigation, but the obsession with technology and travel that today so shapes our lives. It is Verne's inspired foresight, combined with his extraordinary talent for storytelling, that continue to make this novel such a compelling read. The excitement this adventure caused around the world when it was first published 150 years ago can still be very easily imagined indeed in the 21st century. Illustrated by Edouard Riou, with an Afterword by David Stuart Davies.

Jules Gabriel Verne was born in the seaport of Nantes, France, in 1828 and was destined to follow his father into the legal profession. In Paris to train for the bar, he took more readily to literary life, befriending Alexander Dumas and Victor Hugo, and living by theatre managing and libretto-writing. His first science-based novel, Five Weeks in a Balloon, was issued by the influential publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel in 1862, and made him famous. Verne and Hetzel collaborated to write dozens more such adventures, including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 1869 and Around the World in 80 Days in 1872. In later life Verne entered local politics at Amiens, where had had a home. He also kept a house in Paris, in the street now named Boulevard Jules Verne, and a beloved yacht, the Saint Michel, named after his son. He died in 1905. David Stuart Davies is an author, playwright and editor and is regarded as an authority on Sherlock Holmes. His fiction includes novels featuring his wartime detective Johnny Hawke and several Sherlock Holmes novels - including Sherlock Holmes and the Devil's Promise. He is a committee member of the Crime Writers' Association, editing their monthly publication, Red Herrings, and is a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund.