Books like “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas”

What to read after “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas” by Jules Verne: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Sea-Wolf
Jack London · 1904
Same genre: “Adventure novel”
A literary critic survives a ferry collision in San Francisco Bay and is picked up by a sealing schooner commanded by Wolf Larsen, a brutal and brilliant captain. Thrown into the crew's rough life, the soft scholar must find his footing under a man who answers to no law but his own.
2
Moby-Dick
Herman Melville · 1851
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
A wandering sailor joins the whaling ship Pequod, whose captain is obsessed with hunting the white whale that took his leg. As the voyage stretches across the oceans, the crew is dragged toward a reckoning. A vast, digressive novel of obsession, the sea and human nature.
3
The Mysterious Island
Jules Verne · 1875
Same genre: “Adventure novel” and “Science fiction”
- Nautical Adventure
Five Union prisoners escape a siege in a hot-air balloon and are blown onto an uncharted island. There they rebuild a small civilization from its resources, aided by an unseen hand and threatened by a hidden danger.
4
Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson · 1883
Same genre: “Adventure novel”
Young Jim Hawkins finds a treasure map in a dead sailor's chest and sails for a distant island where a pirate's gold is buried. Among the crew is the one-legged cook Long John Silver, whose charm hides a plan to seize the hoard.
5
Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe · 1719
Same genre: “Adventure novel”
- Nautical Adventure
Shipwrecked alone on a deserted island, a castaway named Robinson Crusoe builds a life from nothing: shelter, crops and a canoe. Years of solitude end when he finds a footprint in the sand and rescues a man he names Friday.
6
The Long Ships
Frans G. Bengtsson · 1941
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
The Viking Red Orm sails from his Scandinavian home in the late tenth century and is carried through raids, courts and distant seas, from Andalusia to the Byzantine guard. A picaresque saga of raids, treasure and shifting faith, told with dry humour and a wide view of the Viking world.
7
Master and Commander
Patrick O'Brian · 1969
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
In 1800, Royal Navy captain Jack Aubrey takes command of a small brig and meets the ship's surgeon, Stephen Maturin, a naturalist and secret intelligence agent. Their friendship grows as the crew pursues a Spanish frigate across the Mediterranean and Atlantic.
8
To Kill a Kingdom
Alexandra Christo · 2018
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
Lira is a siren who takes the heart of a prince each year. When she is punished and turned human, the only way back is to deliver the heart of Prince Elian, a siren hunter who has no idea who she really is. Their journey across the sea turns enemies into something neither of them planned.
9
The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway · 1952
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
An aging Cuban fisherman, Santiago, has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish. When a huge marlin finally takes his line far out to sea, he must hold on through a long, painful contest of endurance and will.
10
Life of Pi
Yann Martel · 2001
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
After a shipwreck, a teenage boy shares a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. For months he struggles to survive at sea while holding on to his beliefs and his story. A fable about faith, storytelling and the versions of events we choose to believe.
11
Salt to the Sea
Ruta Sepetys · 2016
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Quest
Four young refugees cross a frozen East Prussia in the winter of 1945, each hiding a secret and hoping to reach a ship that will carry them west. Their paths merge among the crowds fleeing the advancing Soviet army, bound for a vessel whose fate none of them suspect.
12
The Terror
Dan Simmons · 2007
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Quest
In 1845 two Royal Navy ships sail to find the Northwest Passage and vanish into the Arctic ice. As the crews endure cold, scurvy and starvation, they are stalked across the frozen waste by a creature that should not exist.