20.000 Lieues sous les mers

French reading practice with side-by-side translation

 Reading comprehension: See the links at the bottom for lessons related to the phrases in italics.

20.000 Lieues sous les mers, de Jules Verne
Tour du monde sous marin (Premìère partie)
Un Ă©cueil fuyant
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne
Underwater Trip Around the World (Part I)
A Shifting Reef
L’annĂ©e 1866 fut marquĂ©e par un Ă©vĂ©nement bizarre, un phĂ©nomène inexpliquĂ© et inexplicable que personne n’a sans doute oubliĂ©. Sans parler des rumeurs qui agitaient les populations des ports et surexcitaient l’esprit public Ă  l’intĂ©rieur des continents, les gens de mer furent particulièrement Ă©mus. Les nĂ©gociants, armateurs, capitaines de navires, skippers et masters de l’Europe et de l’AmĂ©rique, officiers des marines militaires de tous pays, et, après eux, les gouvernements des divers États des deux continents, se prĂ©occupèrent de ce fait au plus haut point.
Translation

The year 1866 was marked by a bizarre event, an unexplained and inexplicable phenomenon that surely no one has forgetten. Leaving aside the rumors that troubled the people living in the ports and got the public living inland worked up, seafarers were particularly disturbed. Merchants, shipowners, captains, skippers, and master mariners from Europe and America, navy officers from every country, and, after them, governments from various nations on the two continents, all were extremely worried about this event.

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En effet, depuis quelque temps, plusieurs navires s’Ă©taient rencontrĂ©s sur mer avec « une chose Ă©norme Â», un objet long, fusiforme, parfois phosphorescent, infiniment plus vaste et plus rapide qu’une baleine.
Translation

Because, over a period of some time, several ships had encountered "an enormous thing" at sea, a long, spindle-shaped object which was sometimes luminous and was infinitely larger and faster than a whale.

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Les faits relatifs Ă  cette apparition, consignĂ©s aux divers livres de bord, s’accordaient assez exactement sur la structure de l’objet ou de l’ĂŞtre en question, la vitesse inouĂŻe de ses mouvements, la puissance surprenante de sa locomotion, la vie particulière dont il semblait douĂ©. Si c’Ă©tait un cĂ©tacĂ©, il surpassait en volume tous ceux que la science avait classĂ©s jusqu’alors. Ni Cuvier, ni LacĂ©pède, ni M. Dumeril, ni M. de Quatrefages n’eussent admis l’existence d’un tel monstre—à moins de l’avoir vu, ce qui s’appelle vu de leurs propres yeux de savants.
Translation

The details of this apparition, recorded in various log books, were almost identical regarding the structure of the object or being in question, the unprecedented speed of its movements, its surprising locomotive power, the distinctive life it seemed to be endowed with. If it was a cetacean, it was larger than any so far classified by science. Neither Cuvier, nor Lacépède, nor Mr. Dumeril, nor Mr. de Quatrefages would have admitted such a monster existed—at least, not without seeing it with their own scientific eyes.

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Ă€ prendre la moyenne des observations faites Ă  diverses reprises—en rejetant les Ă©valuations timides qui assignaient Ă  cet objet une longueur de deux cents pieds et en repoussant les opinions exagĂ©rĂ©es qui le disaient large d’un mille et long de trois—on pouvait affirmer, cependant, que cet ĂŞtre phĂ©nomĂ©nal dĂ©passait de beaucoup toutes les dimensions admises jusqu’Ă  ce jour par les ichtyologistes—s’il existait toutefois.
Translation

In considering only the reasonable observations of these repeated sightings—rejecting the tentative evaluations that stated the object was 200 feet long and dismissing the exaggerated opinions that said it was a mile wide and three long—one could assert, nevertheless, that this phenomenal being was much larger than all dimensions so far acknowledged by ichthyologists—if it existed, that is.

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Or, il existait, le fait en lui-mĂŞme n’Ă©tait plus niable, et, avec ce penchant qui pousse au merveilleux la cervelle humaine, on comprendra l’Ă©motion produite dans le monde entier par cette surnaturelle apparition. Quant Ă  la rejeter au rang des fables, il fallait y renoncer.
Translation

Now, it existed, that fact was no longer deniable, and, with the human brain’s propensity toward the fantastic, we can understand the excitement this supernatural apparition brought to the entire world. As for relegating it to fable, that idea had to be abandoned.

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  Translation by LKL
20.000 Lieues sous les mers est un roman français classique. Écrit en 1870, il est dans le domaine public. TĂ©lĂ©chargez l’original en format Ă©lectronique pour lire la suite gratuitement :

Amazon.com  |  Amazon.co.uk

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a classic French novel. It was written in 1870 and is now in the public domain. Download the translated ebook to read the rest for free:

Amazon.com  |  Amazon.co.uk

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Écouter : mini biographie de Jules Verne Listen: mini biography of Jules Verne

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Vocabulary

Grammar

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