Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.

The book was widely acclaimed on its release and remains so; it is regarded as one of the premier adventure novels and one of Verne`s greatest works, along with Around the World in Eighty Days and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Its depiction of Captain Nemo`s underwater ship, the Nautilus, is regarded as ahead of its time, since it accurately describes many features of today`s submarines, which in the 1860s were comparatively primitive vessels.

During the year 1866, ships of various nationalities sight a mysterious sea monster, which, it is later suggested, might be a gigantic narwhal. The U.S. government assembles an expedition in New York City to find and destroy the monster. Professor Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologist and the story`s narrator, is in town at the time and receives a last-minute invitation to join the expedition; he accepts. Canadian whaler and master harpooner Ned Land and Aronnax`s faithful manservant Conseil are also among the participants.