After sightings of an enormous sea monster are reported by numerous international ships, Professor Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologist, leads an expedition to search for it. After encountering and grappling unsuccessfully with the creature, Aronnax and his companions discover that it is not a monster at all, but the Nautilus, a technological marvel of a submarine. Its brilliant creator, the enigmatic Captain Nemo, is inspired equally by a thirst for scientific knowledge and by a hatred of civilization—and he refuses to let his "guests" leave. As they plot to escape, Arronax and his friends are taken on a whirlwind tour of the marvels that lie hidden beneath the world's oceans. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea has seized the imaginations of readers for generations and is as vivid and exciting now as when Jules Verne first imagined traveling beyond the bounds of the possible.