Customer Reviews

The Castle of the Carpathians

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a big fan of Jules Verne, and while it is difficult to find some of the more obscure titles. "The Castle of the Carpathians" is one of the harder to find titles, but that should not cause it to be considered a sub-standard title. In fact, I would rank it as one of my 5 or 6 favorite Verne titles.

The plot is much more of a Victorian style romance than the typical Verne novel. It focuses more on strong bond between a fiance and his soon-to-be-wife. Another unusual aspect is that Verne allows the supernatural to take on a central theme of the story. The ending is true to Verne form showing that science can explain the mysteries of man.

The story is well told with Verne's typical descriptive flair and is well paced to boot. My only complaint is that like some of Verne's later novels it seems more like two novels pasted together. In fact, the central character is not even introduced until the novel is over 50% finished. In this regard it seems like the novel is a little too short. I think that Verne could have easily added another 100 pages in order to better develop the plot and the characters.

Final tally - Not quite Verne's best, but certainly one of the better of Verne's hard-to-find novels. Recommended to all those who enjoy the Victorian style, however I would strongly encourage it to those who have a particular fondness of Verne.

4 1/2 stars.

This book is apparently a lasergraphic reproduction of the edition published in 1900 by the Saalfield Publishing Company of New York and Chicago. The text reproduces fairly well as it is digitally enhanced but the illustrations in low resoloution gray scale leave much to be desired. They do however give the general idea of the original. The text is identical to that published by the Merriam Company in 1894 and Sampson and Low (London, 1893). Given that there have been no republications of this early work, this Fredonia edition makes the original historical text available at a reasonable price to a wide audience. Using print-on-demand technology it is now possible to offer these books without the expense of a maintaining a large inventory. Given the current interest in Jules Verne these Fredonia titles will undoubtedly find a good following among both amateur and professional Verne scholars. Unfortunately the scanty information provided by the publisher about the sources for these books leaves it up to outside reviewers to provide this historical information as best they can.

I would rate it 3.5 STARS.

I was merely 14 when I read the book in Roumanian. The plot was quite interesting, even Sherlock Holmes-like. The read feels very Jules Verne, but the plot nay. I remember at the beginning of the book, the descriptive details of the Transylvanian country and mountain side were very close to reality (Transylvania is a region in Roumania). Even for a young lad, who found the story captivating, the story was quite un-believable from early on. The spooky, mysterious, and metaphysical events that take place are all demystified at the end of the novel.

Enjoy the read!

The Castle of the Carpathians is a difficult story to read as the situations created are foreign to modern day experience. Jules Verne has a way of describing people, places, and events which makes a reader want to tell him to "Get on with it!" The build-up to set the stage before each significant event appears to wander off aimlessly. Each time it eventually becomes clear what Verne was getting at and the story gets back on track.

Verne's descriptions of wanderings through the castle may make sense to someone who has been in a similarly constructed castle, however to anyone else it is impossible to follow the descriptions, and it becomes a jumble of places with vaguely familiar names. Perhaps this is due to the writing style changes of 100+ years and a lack (on my part) of familiarity with late 19th century literary style. But for me this was a difficult story to finish. I persevered and completed it, but my book list does not contain a recommendation for The Castle of the Carpathians.