I think its Science fictional since it tells about a submarine before they existed like in the book and they were in later times. What is more science fictional than speculating about future technology. Not like he wrote in times like today when the field is very established.
Hehe read the unbridged version and then compare to this novel. I have read some classics in children versions,abridged versions and i see it like i havent read the books yet. Like having read Dumas classic Monte Cristo in 300 pages is not as real as reading the real 1048 pages long version which i have not read yet.
I would have to agree, Conn... though it is sometimes difficult to find an unabridged version of this tale. (Modern Library, however, has such, iirc.; I understand, though, that the new Penguin translation reinstates material which was considered "unsuitable" for translation in earlier English translations....)
Speaking of which... Verne has also suffered badly at the hands of many of his translators. There was, in fact, a recent edition of that very novel which was the first accurate (save for one bit) translation from the French ever to be published in English. The story goes that the U.S. Naval Academy has that as part of the requried reading for one of its courses. There were some French students in that class, and during the reading of the novel, they approached the professor and more or less told him what they were reading was
not Jules Verne. He was flabbergasted when he took their advice and compared the original to various English translations, and this resulted in a totally new translation which, as noted, is the first to actually follow Verne's text faithfully, and which was published by the Naval Institute Press....
While I got my information during my stint working at a bookstore, when a new edition of that translation was issued, for more on this, see:
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
As for my own reading... it took me a ridiculously long time to get through Irving's book on Capt. Bonneville (which was really quite good, and remarkably balanced and sympathetic toward the Native Americans, especially given its time, the early 1840s); I've just had too bloody little time for reading lately. However, I also managed to squeeze in, one by one, an anthology of short ghostly tales from my childhood, which stood up rather well; even the lighter, frivolous pieces are well-written, while many of the pieces (light and dark) are quite folklorish in tone and manner, as well as it containing a few truly literary pieces of some note (such as a tale by "Q" and Stephen Vincent Benét's "The Devil and Daniel Webster"... which latter prompted me to dig out my copy of the film version as well, which also did not disappoint).
