Invasion of the Sea

infobox Book |
name = Invasion of the Sea
title_orig = L'Invasion de la mer
translator = Edward Baxter


image_caption =
author = Jules Verne
illustrator = Léon Benett
cover_artist =
country = France
language = French
series = Voyages Extraordinaires #54
genre = Adventure novel
publisher = Pierre-Jules Hetzel
release_date = 1905
english_pub_date = 2001
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages =
isbn =
preceded_by = Master of the World
followed_by =

"Invasion of the Sea" ( _fr. L'Invasion de la mer) is an adventure novel by Jules Verne describing the exploits of Arab nomads and European travelers in Saharan Africa. The purpose of the Westerners' visit is to study the feasibility of flooding a low-lying region of the Sahara desert to create an inland sea and open up the interior of Northern Africa to trade. In the end, however, the protagonists' pride in humanity's potential to control and reshape the world is humbled by a cataclysmic earthquake which results in the natural formation of just such a sea.

Translation history

Parts of the novel, under the title "Captain Hardizan", were serialized in "The American Weekly" (the Sunday Supplement to the Boston American newspaper) from August 6, 1905 to August 13, 1905. The first complete English translation was published by Wesleyan University Press in 2001.

Publication history

"Invasion of the Sea", Trans. Edward Baxter, Ed. Arthur Evans. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, c2001. ISBN 0819565458

External links