博物学家阿罗纳克斯教授接受邀请，参与追踪所谓的独角鲸的行动，不幸与随从孔塞伊和捕鲸手内德·兰德一起掉入海中，他们又幸运地游到一座浮动的“小岛”上，“小岛”正是他们追踪的“独角鲸”——鹦鹉螺号潜水艇。尼摩艇长许给他们在艇上的自由，但不允许他们离开。就这样，他们跟随着鹦鹉螺号开始了奇幻的海底探秘之旅。他们穿越了太平洋、印度洋、红海、地中海、大西洋、南极和北冰洋，看到了奇妙壮观的海底世界，经历了惊心动魄的种种险情，多次筹谋逃离未果，*后一次绝处逢生，回到陆地。鹦鹉螺号潜水艇却不知所踪。阿罗纳克斯教授将他十个月的冒险经历公之于世。

《床头灯英语·3000词读物（纯英文版）：海底两万里》：
“Sir，” I said， “I realize that because you have not had contact with the rest of the world， you do not know that the accidents between various ships and your submarine have caused a great deal of anxiety in America and Europe. People are now quite frightened to cross the oceans. The Abraham Lincoln was sent out to destroy some mysterious sea monster so the seas would be safe once again.”The captain showed a quick smile on his face before replying.“Professor Aronnax，” he replied， “that ship would have attempted to destroy my submarine if its captain had had the opportunity to. Therefore， I must treat you as my enemies.”I could say nothing.“Being that you were on that ship， intending to destroy me，” the captain continued， “I could leave you in the ocean to drown now， and forget that you ever existed， as you are my enemies， planning to do the same to me. That would be my right.”“Perhaps it is the right of a savage”， I answered，“but not that of a gentleman.”“Professor，” replied the captain， “I am not a typical gentleman! I have left human society forever. I do not follow its rules， and demand that you never speak of such things again in front of me!”He said this calmly， but I could see anger in his eyes as he spoke. I then realized that this man must have had experienced something terrible in his past， to force himself to escape to the bottoms of the ocean forever. On this submarine， he had created his own rules oflife. After a long silence， the captain spoke again.
……

PART ONE
Chapter 1 A Moving Island
Chapter 2 Support and Resistance
Chapter 3 My Decision
Chapter 4 Ned Land
Chapter 5 An Adventure
Chapter 6 The Speedy Hunt
Chapter 7 An Unknown Type of Whale
Chapter 8 Inside the Submarine
Chapter 9 Ned Land's Anger
Chapter 10 A Man of the Seas
Chapter 11 All by Electricity
Chapter 12 Explanations
Chapter 13 The Black River
Chapter 14 New Methods Introduced
Chapter 15 A Walk on the Bottom of the Sea
Chapter 16 A Sea Forest
Chapter 17 Four Thousand Leagues Under the Pacific Ocean
Chapter 18 Vanikoro
Chapter 19 Torres Straits
Chapter 20 A Few Days on Land
Chapter 21 Captain Nemo's Electric Shock
Chapter 22 Dreams
Chapter 23 The Sea Kingdom

PART TWO
Chapter 1 The Indian Ocean
Chapter 2 Captain Nemo's Offer
Chapter 3 Ten Millions of Pearls
Chapter 4 The Red Sea
Chapter 5 The Arabian Tunnel
Chapter 6 Captain Nemo's Fortune
Chapter 7 The Mediterranean in Forty-Eight Hours
Chapter 8 Vigo Bay
Chapter 9 A Continent Disappeared
Chapter 10 The Underwater Coal Mines
Chapter 11 The Sargasso Sea
Chapter 12 Whales
Chapter 13 The Iceberg
Chapter 14 The South Pole
Chapter 15 Accident or incident?
Chapter 16 Want of Air
Chapter 17 From Cape Horn to the Amazon
Chapter 18 The Squids
Chapter 19 The Gulf Stream