The Lighthouse at the End of the World [Paperback]

Jules Verne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2001

In “The Lighthouse at the End of the World,” Jules Verne is seen at his simplest and best. No antecedent improbability here has to be made good. The remoteness of the scene where the drama is laid supplies an element of dread of which advantage is skillfully taken, and the shortness of the period over which the story is extended adds excitement to the race against time which the villains of the piece are compelled to make in their attempt to escape justice. The rest is pure action, courage and resourcefulness pitted against ferocity and power of numbers, with no merely invented complications to retard the issue. As a simple adventure story “The lighthouse at the End of the World” must be declared a little masterpiece.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fans of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in Eighty Days may find this work from Verne (1828–1905) austere. In 1859, three sailors arrive on an isolated island to man a new lighthouse at the wreck-prone tippy tip of South America. They soon discover a band of egregious criminals, led by dangerous evildoer Kongre, who have been tricking ships into running aground, killing the survivors and taking the loot. When two lighthouse men go to assist a ship and are killed, serious trouble ensues. Characters are cardboard; the action slight, though violent; the plot simple; and the encounter between decency and evil on an island one-dimensional. Posthumously published in 1905, the book was translated into English in 1923, but this is the first English translation from Verne's original manuscript. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"[W]e''re in the midst of a Verne renaissance brought on by new manuscripts, improved translations, and scholarly reassessments. . . . Thanks to efforts such as Mr. Butcher''s . . . it''s now possible for the rest of us to see Verne more clearly than ever before.”—John J. Miller, Wall Street Journal

(John J. Miller Wall Street Journal 20070923)

"Lighthouse at the End of the World might be best read under the covers, after bedtime, by flashlight. It is a wondrous, old-fashioned adventure story, likely to bring out the little boy, the castaway, the pirate and the lighthouse-keeper in every reader."—Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Book Review

(Susan Salter Reynolds Los Angeles Times Book Review 20080526)

“It’s a cracking good novel, and William Butcher’s commentary is superb.”—SFRA Review

(SFRA Review 20070402)

“William Butcher’s text has an easy, graceful rhythm; it preserves the allusive complexity of the original prose.” —Michael Crichton

(Michael Crichton 20070402)

“A lively modern translation of one of Verne’s tensest, tautest thrillers, a lean, ferocious, breakneck yarn readers will devour in a single evening. William Butcher renders action scenes with great color and dash, dialogues with sparkling fluency. . . . His research, commentaries, and analyses are riveting new contributions to our understanding of this Protean novelist. Outstanding entertainment, admirable scholarship.”—Frederick Paul Walter, Verne translator and specialist

(Frederick Paul Walter ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: International Law & Taxation (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1589630947
• ISBN-13: 978-1589630949
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,451,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Early thrill-a-minute novel, July 5, 2002

By 

Daniel "danielmabuse" (London Angleterre) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Lighthouse at the End of the World (Paperback)

Beware: I will give away some of the plot

The modern action novel has its English antecedents in the books of Robert Louis Stevenson, and, it turns out, its French antecedents in those of Jules Verne. This short and exciting novel could be described as Die Hard with pirates. On an Island on the southernmost tip of South America a lighthouse is built and three men are left behind to tend it. The island is also inhabited by pirates, who capture a damaged schooner, bring it into the port with the lighthouse, and immediately kill two of the lighthouse keepers. The third escapes and must survive on his wits and attempt to stop the pirates from leaving the island until a group of soldiers come to relieve him. Pretty gripping stuff.

I highly recommend this for those interested in seeing the roots of the modern action novel (who would have thought that the literary path to Alistair MacLean and Robert Ludlum would have passed through Jules Verne), as well as anyone interested in lighthouses (the descriptions of the island and the function of the lighthouse are great) and, of course, Jules Verne. It is also great to compare this to Robert Louis Stevenson's seafaring novels, especially Treasure Island, Ebb-Tide and The Wrecker.

The writing in this translation is a bit simple. I suspect that this is due to the translator, who was not an artist but a mechanic. Based on a brief comparison with a French text of the novel, however, the translation seems accurate, and it is definitely readable.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Survival and Suspense, July 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Lighthouse at the End of the World (Paperback)

Don't read this book execting all of the "good guys" to survive. It's too realistic for that, but it was great. It had a pleasing ending and the "bad guys" got their dues. If you like modern-day stories, don't read this. If you like classic adventures, you'll like it. Also, it made me feel what the main character was feeling.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of Verne's best books, January 3, 2008

By 

Andres C. Salama (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lighthouse at the End of the World: The First English Translation of Verne's Original Manuscript (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) (Paperback)

One of the greatest adventure books of all time, whose basic plot has been copied by many other books and movies (including the Die Hard films). In the 1850s, the Argentine navy erects a lighthouse at Isla de los Estados, in the southern tip of South America, near the Magellan Strait that connects the Atlantic and the Pacific and in the turbulent waters that had witnessed many shipwrecks throughout the centuries. Left behind in the lighthouse to guard it are three sailors, without knowing that in the island lie pirates with a plot to takeover the lighthouse in order to intentionally shipwreck the ships passing by and take over their treasures. A sailor escapes alive the seizure of the lighthouse by the pirates and a game of cat and mouse begins (if you seen Die Hard, you can imagine the plot, with the guard trying to hit back at the pirates). A great adventure book that you can read fast and easily.