Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: Part 1, Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

Captain Nemo leads Arronax into a library. Nemo boasts of the profound tranquility that can be found in there, adding that it contains a total of 12,000 volumes. He encourages Arronax to look through them. Arronax notices that, although a wide range of subjects are covered, political economy is a notable absence. Nemo offers Arronax an exceptionally delicious cigar, explaining it is made of a nicotine-rich type of seaweed. They then enter a “museum” filled with an extraordinary selection of artworks. Famous artists from across history are all represented. Nemo explains that while still lived on land, he was an art collector; now, these pieces are “souvenirs of a world which is dead to [him].” He also has a collection of musical scores by significant composers. 

Arronax is then astonished by a collection of animal and plant specimens from the sea, including a gigantic case of pearls. Arronax imagines that Nemo must have paid huge amounts of money for the collection, but Nemo says that he acquired them himself. Nemo takes Arronax to the room where he’ll be staying, explaining that it adjoins Nemo’s own. Looking at Nemo’s room, Arronax notices that it is austere and minimal.