Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea

Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, serialised from 1869 to 1870, sends a French professor, his servant and a Canadian harpooner after a sea monster that turns out to be a submarine. Held aboard the Nautilus, they walk undersea forests and fight giant squid. Captain Nemo keeps the book alive: he saves a pearl diver from a shark, sinks a warship, and never fully explains his hatred. Its view of Papuan islanders carries the racial prejudice of its day.

In Vietnamese the tone is scientific and sombre. Chapters average about 3,800 syllables; the Conclusion is shortest, under 900, and The Man of the Seas, early on, is longest, over 7,500. Xưng hô tracks power. Nemo gives Aronnax a courteous ngài, but Ned Land gets anh. Conseil calls his master ngài until an electric ray's shock jolts out thầy. When Ned tries to signal a warship, Nemo drops to ta and ngươi, and curses the vessel as mi. Before God, he is con.