Verne, Jules. Vingt Mille Lieues Sous Les Mers [English: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas]. Illustre de 111 Dessins par de Neuville et Riou. Graves par Hildibrand. Paris, Bibliotheque D’Education et de Recreation J. Hetzel et Cie. ND [1877 or earlier]. 27 x 18 cm. Blank, Half-Title, Frontispiece, Title Page, 434 pages, (2) [Table des Matieres], (2) [Publisher’s Ads], Blank. Contemporary polished red calf. Gilt decorations and title on spine. Arms of ‘Collegium Sanct Petri’ (Radley College, Oxfordshire, England) in gilt on front and rear board.Marbled edges and end papers. Very good condition. Minor shelf wear, rubbing and bumping. Some age darkening to binding. Edges dust dulled. Front hinge started to crack, but binding remains sound. Prize Inscription on first blank, dated May 22, 1877. Internally mildly age darkened / foxed, otherwise clean. A very nice copy. Please review images provided.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (French: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.
The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre-Jules Hetzel’s fortnightly periodical, the Magasin d’éducation et de récréation. A deluxe octavo edition, published by Hetzel in November 1871, included 111 illustrations by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou. 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.
Jules Gabriel Verne (1828 – 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a series of bestselling adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872). His novels, always well documented, are generally set in the second half of the 19th century, taking into account the technological advances of the time.
Verne is considered to be an important author in France and most of Europe, where he has had a wide influence on the literary avant-garde and on surrealism. His reputation was markedly different in the Anglosphere where he had often been labeled a writer of genre fiction or children’s books, largely because of the highly abridged and altered translations in which his novels have often been printed. Since the 1980s, his literary reputation has improved.
Jules Verne has been the second most-translated author in the world since 1979, ranking below Agatha Christie and above William Shakespeare. He has sometimes been called the “father of science fiction”, a title that has also been given to H. G. Wells and Hugo Gernsback. In the 2010s, he was the most translated French author in the world. In France, 2005 was declared “Jules Verne Year” on the occasion of the centenary of the writer’s death.

• Keywords: Classical & Old Literature · Fine Bindings & Editions · Fine Bindings & Editions · Literature
• Language: French
• Inventory Number: 103714AB

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