[dwig]

There's a good essay on the English translations of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_...h_translations .

I read a derivitive of the horrid Lewis Pager Mercier translation (read: bowlderization) when I was in grade school. I recently read the excellent annotated version edited by Walter James Miller. I've also read portions of the excellent modern translation by F.P.Walter which is derived from the work he did with Miller on the annotated print version and which he released as Public Domain.