Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

I read everything by Jules Verne when I was young, 10 and so. I was already then seduced by the amount of information... he can really drop information, huge amounts, in the middle of the story, without it taking anything away from it, on the contrary.
This time, 4 decades later, I kept remembering that Jules Verne didn't write adventure novels, he wrote science fiction... in the purest meaning of the term. He loved geography, technology, scientific inventions and discoveries, everything about this planet of ours.
I thought that Jacques Cousteau must have loved this book, and it must have been what ignited his love of oceans and marine life... (and sure enough, Jacques Cousteau called this his “shipboard bible” :-D)

It is... so... contradictory though.

“Conseil was my servant, a true, devoted Flemish boy, who had accompanied me in all my travels. I liked him, and he returned the liking well. He was quiet by nature, regular from principle, zealous from habit, evincing little disturbance at the different surprises of life, very quick with his hands, and apt at any service required of him; and, despite his name, never giving advice—even when asked for it.

Conseil had followed me for the last ten years wherever science led. Never once did he complain of the length or fatigue of a journey, never make an objection to pack his portmanteau for whatever country it might be, or however far away, whether China or Congo. Besides all this, he had good health, which defied all sickness, and solid muscles, but no nerves; good morals are understood. This boy was thirty years old.”

sigh