The Mysterious Island Author:Jules Verne Based on the true story of Alexander Selkirk, a man who survived by himself for almost five years on an uninhabited Pacific Island off the coast of Chile, Jules Verne's page-turner is a tale of five men and a dog who escape Civil War Richmond in a balloon during a storm and land on a faraway and uncharted island where they must overcome nature's... more » harsh elements to create from scratch a civilization for themselves.
Currently available in an abridged 1970s translation and, in full, only in a dated nineteenth-century translation that is stuffy and limp, turning the muscular, breathless tone of the original into something overwrought and melodramatic, The Mysterious Island is restored here to its original robustness in Jordon Stump's striking new rendition. Includes eighty illustrations reprinted from the original 1875 French edition.« less
I picked up The Mysterious Island from a reference related to the TV series "LOST". Though a bit onerous to get my mind to accept the writing style and character descriptions, it became a joy to read and I happily read all 629 pages in no time. This would be a lot of fun as a discussion topic just in character development alone. All Verne's characters appear one-dimensional because everything he describes is so darn positive. And yet the true nature of the characters develop exactly as Verne probably intended - a really interesting difference from more modern writing styles. Definitely worth reading. I laughed out loud (though it is NOT a comedy) and shook my head many times throughout - particularly the surprise ending!