Product Description

Based on the true story of Alexander Selkirk, who survived alone for almost five years on an uninhabited island off the coast of Chile, The Mysterious Island is considered by many to be Jules Verne’s masterpiece. “Wide-eyed mid-nineteenth-century humanistic optimism in a breezy, blissfully readable translation by Stump” (Kirkus Reviews), here is the enthralling tale of five men and a dog who land in a balloon on a faraway, fantastic island of bewildering goings-on and their struggle to survive as they uncover the island’s secret.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14591 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-27
• Released on: 2004-04-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 768 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780812972122
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
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Review
?The reason Verne is still read by millions today is simply that he was one of the best storytellers who ever lived.? ?Arthur C. Clarke


From the Trade Paperback edition. -- Review

Review
“The reason Verne is still read by millions today is simply that he was one of the best storytellers who ever lived.” —Arthur C. Clarke


From the Trade Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap
Based on the true story of Alexander Selkirk, who survived alone for almost five years on an uninhabited island off the coast of Chile, The Mysterious Island is considered by many to be Jules Verne?s masterpiece. ?Wide-eyed mid-nineteenth-century humanistic optimism in a breezy, blissfully readable translation by Stump? (Kirkus Reviews), here is the enthralling tale of five men and a dog who land in a balloon on a faraway, fantastic island of bewildering goings-on and their struggle to survive as they uncover the island?s secret.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews

A testament to humanity
Mysterious Island is the third book in a trilogy by Verne (the 1st being In Search of the Castaways and the 2nd the famous 20000 Leagues Under the Sea). I think it's by far the best of the three - it's one of my favourites of Verne and makes the other 2 look completely superficial. It was one of my favourites as a child but now I really want to read it as an adult as I think it will be even better.

A bunch of people fighting on the side of the abolisionists in the US Civil War escape a siege on a hot air balloon. They're blown off course and are shipwrecked on a deserted island on the Pacific. However, Verne takes an optimistic approach to the story (of course it helps that the 5 or so people are all quite good at one thing or another). Over the period of their stay, they "conquer" the island as they build what is literally a civilisation with their bare hands. What follows is a story of redemption, struggle and the amazing parts of the human spirit (ones most people never get to see outside of extreme circumstances), as well as the heroes' hunt for the secret of the island.

In many other books, Verne describes scenery or nature for pages and pages which can get tiresome. But never here, for here he is singing a sublime ode to inventiveness as our heroes' knowledge of everything from chemistry to astronomy to the humanities is turned to use. This is an adventure book but it's much more deep than most adventure books - you can really tell that Verne was writing in an era of the belief in progress (the modern reader will probably have a very different attitude to nature than the author) and this book is the immortal tale of the best human nature has to offer, all against a backdrop of action.

Remarkable Novel even for Verne
This new translation lifts the book to a higher level - there is very little about Verne's writing that can be described as dated or boring. Even that redoutable master of brilliant and modern-reading prose, Wilkie Collins, cannot keep up with Verne at his best. How so much seemingly tedious description is lifted to this level of fluidity - flat out amazing.
Verne's genius for what we today call Science Fiction sometimes obscures his even greater gift, for pure narrative. And with the Mysterious Island in this new translation his talent is on full display. Verne creates with this island an entire new world, a sort of Eden, and within this landscape plays out an entirely breathtaking story. Lingering in the backdrop, Verne's embittered alter ego Nemo balances the one-sided idealism of the castaways. On a scale with the Count of Monte Cristo, and the literary culmination of the enlightenment/scientific shipwrecked theme,(versus the 'humans are animals Lord of the Flies alternative), the Mysterious Island builds steadily to a tremendous finish.
When we read 19th century fiction much of the time phrases and scenes are flat, stale; even the best writers, Dickens, or Trollope, Balzac or Hawthorne, have streches of writing that just doesn't read as anything but dated. But Verne's best books, and this certainly is one of them, are as remarkable for their uncluttered fine prose writing as they are for their famous plots and explorations.
If Verne was no great creator of character, he makes up for it by some of the most eminently readable works ever penned.
A wonderful book for reading during a cold long winter weekend.

great book
I had never heard of this book before I stumbled onto it on the library bookshelf. As slow as it was, yet it was immensely enjoyable. Lots of details, lots of information. The premise: A group of men get in a balloon to escape from prison, circa 1860 (civil war unrest, etc). bad weather causes their balloon to blow way off course, and they end up about 5,000 miles away from the U.S. on an uninhabited island, so they have to start from scratch. From there, interesting developments occur as they work to establish some semblance of civilized life from the ground up.