Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea - Title

Title

The title refers to the distance traveled while under the sea and not to a depth, as 20,000 leagues is over six times the diameter of Earth. The greatest depth mentioned in the book is four leagues. In the book, a league is equivalent to 4 kilometres. A literal translation of the French title would end in the plural "seas", thus implying the "seven seas" through which the characters of the novel travel; however, the early English translations of the title used "sea", meaning the ocean in general.

Read more about this topic:  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea

Famous quotes containing the word title:

    To revolutionize, at one effort, the universal world of human thought, human opinion, and human sentiment.... All that he has to do is to write and publish a very little book. Its title should be simple—a few plain words—”My Heart Laid Bare.” But—this little book must be true to its title.
    Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)

    In Goya’s greatest scenes we seem to see
    the people of the world
    exactly at the moment when
    they first attained the title of
    ‘suffering humanity’
    Lawrence Ferlinghetti (b. 1919)

    The title wise is, for the most part, falsely applied. How can one be a wise man, if he does not know any better how to live than other men?—if he is only more cunning and intellectually subtle?
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)