This review is exclusively for the Barnes & Noble leatherbound omnibus collection of Verne's work. The actual work is astounding - Verne was one of the most imaginative writers of all time and his work is wonderful.

The problem with this omnibus edition, as nice as it is, is that the translation included for 20,000 Leagues is the absolutely awful, botched Lewis Page Mercier translation, probably included because it is public domain. This translation cuts almost a quarter of the book and is full of nonstop translation errors large and small. It's infamous for butchering the novel.

The rest of the translations are fine, but for 20,000 Leagues you'll want to separately get a better version of the book. F.P. Walter is generally a good choice, most recently in 2010 with newly revised version of his 1991 translation of 20,000 Leagues in a five-novel omnibus. An earlier version of Walter's translation is available in a very nice hardcover from Seawolf Press that also includes magazine illustrations from the early 1900s. ( )

Bought this book in order to read From the Earth to the Moon, and Round the Moon. Amazing stories. I'm so glad I had this translation. I looked at another translation and it seemed to lack the energy and language of the times, also was heavily abbreviated. I think this might be the full complete translation, very pleased with it.

Five Weeks in a Balloon; adventure across Africa, with mentions of famous explorers and missionaries, bird attacks, saving a missionary from the cannibals, running out of water in the desert, heroic actions of one of them jumping out to reduce ballast, fighting tigers, and men shooting at them, discovery of gold, and indeed the source of the Nile. I found it useful to have an atlas whilst reading this. I loved the science described in the making of the balloon itself, how it was powered, and the design using two skins.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth; eccentric scientist discovers a cryptic note, deciphered by his (soon to be) son-in-law, which sets them on a journey from France to Denmark, and then on to a volcano which they descend and traverse through underground tunnels, forests, seas, lands, until finally exciting another volcano in the Mediterranean.

From The Earth to the Moon and Round the Moon: mentions of influential fictitious lunar stories,
Francis Godwin's The Man in the Moone, Cyrano de Bergerac's Voyages To The Moon And The Sun
Fontanelle's The Plurality of Worlds, Locke's (American) brochure about Sir John Herschel who perceived caverns frequented by hippopotami through his telescope, looking at the moon. Verne describes the rocketry used to propel the men (and dogs) to the moon; the competition between two locations in America to host the launch, the ridiculous ejection of the dead dog from the spacecraft left floating beside the rocket, the geological descriptions of the landscape of the moon. Absolutely loved the way you could follow the journey on a map, Verne used the Mappa Selenographia, so some of the names were slightly different to today. Verne even mentioned some of the phenomena, including flashes of light, unusual colour patterns, etc. Conveniently, the journey around to the far side was also the dark side at the time, so Verne waited for his vessel to return to the near side before he continued the descriptions of the Moon. A happy ending too.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: the first Captain Nemo story, how his vessel was mistaken for a large whale and hunted until the ship in pursuit capsized, with Nemo rescuing three of the crew and showing them the marvels of the deep underwater seas, and of his own submarine, the Nautilus. After revealing some fantastic underwater forests, creatures, equipment, and a tunnel linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, the three plan to escape captivity and get caught in a maelstrom happily ending with them having been rescued to dry land, with no knowledge of the Nautilus.

Around the World in Eighty Days: Got the feeling Sherlock Holmes wouldn't have been out of place appearing in this story. Companions set off from London by train, boat, elephant, across the timelines surviving many disruptions but happy endings to arrive in time to win their bet.

The Mysterious Island: the second and final Captain Nemo story. Friends escape the American Civil war in a Balloon and end up on an island where a strange unknown benevolent force helps them with medicine, protection, and directing them to help each other. The friends ingeniously manufacture a home, a farm, a water supply, with Verne describing the chemistry behind it all. As it becomes apparent the island's inactive volcano is becoming active again, Nemo finally reveals himself, and the friends agree to help him at the end of his life. ( )