The Mysterious Island
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
The book tells the adventures of five American prisoners of war on an uncharted island in the South Pacific. Begining in the American Civil War, as famine and death ravage the city of Richmond, Virginia, five northern POWs decide to escape in a rather unusual way – by hijacking a balloon! This is only the beginning of their adventures.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The second title in Wesleyan's new Early Classics of Science Fiction series is Sidney Kravitz's translation (14 years in the making) of Jules Verne's castaway epic, The Mysterious Island. Like the new Modern Library edition (noted in Forecasts, Dec. 24), it boasts black-and-white illustrations and is unexpurgated; unlike it, this volume contains a Verne chronology and brief biography, endnotes, appendixes and information about previous translations.
Customer Reviews
Mysterious Island Is Fantastic
I first read this book in the early 1960s. It was then the best book I ever read. 45 years later it is still the best book I ever read. Jules Verne was
absolutely one of the greatest writers ever. The group of men who landed on
this island didn't only survive they survived well. The engineering that went on and the knowledge of Jules Verne is unbelievable. Verne did his homework. If you like survivor stories read this book. Verne puts Robinson Crusoe to shame.
The beauty of the story lies in its ability to transport you to this other place and time.
I really recommend reading this book. It starts off slowly, and there were times in the middle of the book that I began to get overwhelmed by the complex descriptions that Verne offers about how this band of Civil War escapees manage their life on a strange island. Verne goes into such depth that the reader can actually tell that Verne probably spent many hours in his own contemplation about what he would do if he were stranded on an island. And let me be the first to say that if I were stranded on an island I would want Jules Verne right beside me. His knowledge of the subject went further than you would expect it to and considering that the book was written in the 1870's. The type of information that was possessed by the characters given by Verne surpasses what most people would know today. It wasn't too far after being stranded that the band of men were making pottery, iron and planning to make guns. At one point they even knew to take small whale bones and hunt with them. These are things that are lost in today's world of luxury.
I think the beauty of the story lies in its ability to transport you to this other place and time. As I read the book I felt as if I was back in the 1800's trying to survive and thinking as I read, "what would I do?" It is an excellent book that could be read by young and old alike.