Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues: Divers Among Giant Mollusks, Riou 1870

Surprisingly intimate for a novel of oceanic terror, this engraving foregoes monster attacks in favor of quiet geological wonder — two diving-suited figures dwarfed by stratified rock walls and overshadowed by a magnificent giant clam or oyster, its frilled mantle splayed open like a grotesque flower. Smaller mollusks and shells scatter the seafloor foreground. The meticulous cross-hatching of Édouard Riou and Alphonse de Neuville renders the crushing deep-sea pressure almost palpable in monochrome Victorian line work.