Customer Reviews

The Mysterious Island

5 star:		(92)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have not had a chance to talk about any of the books that I have read recently, but I decided that today I would. Recently upon getting my Kindle 2 I downloaded for free a copy of Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island. One of the great things about owning a Kindle is that the second you own it you can download many classics for free and you already have a well stocked library full of classic novels that triumph over some of today's commercial attempts.

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.

Many of Verne's novels have become cultural icons for Americans though Verne was French and we read him in translation. Nevertheless, his philosophy that enlightened good will and scientific advancement would save society is so close to American idealism, he seems much more American than almost any of his contemporaries.

Everyone is familiar with Around the World in 80 Days and 20,000 Leagues. For some reason, The Mysterious Island is not read as widely. Yet, in my opinion, it is Verne's best and most rewarding novel.

The opening of Myserious Island reads a bit like a serious version of "Wizard of Oz." Cyrus, Pencroft, Herbert, Neb and Gideon, and a dog named Top make a daring escape from a Civil War prison in a balloon, but the balloon is blown way off course to an uncharted volcanic island. These men are worthy souls; Captain Cyrus is an inspiring leader, Pencroft, an earthy but hardworking sailor. Gideon is kind of a "everyman" -- observant, strong and resourceful and loving, and Herbert a young, knowlegeable naturalist. These men and their dog Top conquer the island's challenges and make the very best out of their isolation on the small island. But are they prepared for the surprises the island has for them--and the ultimate surprise in the second half of the book. The suspense keeps the reader turning the pages through a great deal of descriptive information about nature, chemistry, physics and engineering. This is classic Verne and what really put the Science in Science Fiction.

One reason Mysterious Island may not have developed the strong audience of the other Verne novels is that there is so much detail and scientific discussion. That is rough going if you have little interest in such subjects. There are abridged versions that cut a lot of the description, but frankly, the science is what I love best about the book. How Cyrus and company make nitroglycerin and use it to reshape their island home is one of my favorite chapters in sci-fi literature.

If you liked Swiss Family Robinson as a child, you would surely enjoy Mysterious Island. It's one of Verne's best works and deserves to be read.

I am trying to be the cheapest person who owns a Kindle. So I am searching out classics to read on the Kindle that cost $0. Came across Mysterious Island and I have been captivated by it. Very good read. Intelligent with adventure. After reading the book, I wondered about any movies made about this book. I saw one listed on Netflix that had giant sea monsters fighting the island inhabitants. The movie also had women on the island with the men. I guess whomever tried to sell the idea of the book to Hollywood was afraid of just presenting the book as is. No sea monsters and no women. I think the movie version would be "a little" like Castaway.
To sum up. The book is free and easy to read, and enjoyable. Thanks for your time.

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.

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.

I had never read Jules Verne's wonderful book, The Mysterious Island. I was delighted that there was a new translation available, so I happily bought a copy and dove into it.

Imagine my shock and disappointment to find, in reading Caleb Carr's introduction, that he tells me the secret of the island! I could have reached through the pages and slapped him silly! My heart just sank. It was like reading a movie review of the Sixth Sense that flat out tells you the twist in the story! Thus, all through the book, I knew what the colonists did not. I felt cheated. Even in the short introductory piece on Jules Verne there is vital information given that is best avoided unless you have already read the book. My advice to you is to go straight to Chapter 1 and skip all the preliminaries until you have finished the book.

With that caveat, I just loved the book. Jordan Stump's translation is breezy reading, which makes this 600+ page book just glide by. The colonists, which is what they become after crash landing on the island, are all "upright, energetic, and bound by brotherly affection". These are not a bunch of modern hunky narcissists or brooding, introspective hand-wringers, my friends. These are men of good cheer who, with faith in one another and a healthy respect for the Almighty, turn this most fascinating (and surely improbable) island into a new land.

This takes place in a time when the world itself still held mystery and adventure, and there was a boundless optimism in what man could achieve when honest and civilized men pooled their efforts and added a little scientific knowledge to their endeavors (well, a lot, actually). Most certainly, because of the time in which it was written, it is not politically correct. The "negro" Neb, though a free man, still calls Cyrus Smith "Master". However, there is every indication that Neb was given equal and fraternal treatment and was respected by all, blunting somewhat the inherent offensiveness of such a situation to modern readers.

In the end, this is a rich and wonderful story that, with this new translation, is a joy to read and a treasure to keep.

Caleb Carr does deserve a trip to the woodshed, however.

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.

I bet nobody would care about whatever I have to say about this book, but I just had to share my opinion. Around the age of 10 I started reading a lot - mostly adventure books. My grandparents had a huge library and I just loved digging in there and reading whatever looked interesting to me at the time. One day my grandfather came up to me with a smile, his hands behind his back, and just stood there, looking expectantly at me. So I asked "What?" He said, "Guess what I found?" Of course, I had no clue. "That Jules Verne book I was telling you about." And he pulled out a rather beat up copy of "The Mysterious Island" that he had thought long lost. I dumped whatever I was reading at the time and dove right into it. I believe I finished it in two or three days... It is definitely one of the most interesting books ever written. I reread it a couple of times since then and every time it was as interesting. Well, almost... It is just one of those books that hit you on the head like a ton of bricks the first time you read them. You want to get to the next page as fast as possible, eager to reach the end and see what happens to the characters and at the same time afraid that the book might, to your greatest distress, end. All in all, this is one of my favorite books of all time. It belongs to that category of adventure (I'm using the term somewhat loosely here) books that should be read by every teenager and all those adults who didn't read them as teenagers - Alexandre Dumas' "The Three Musketeers", Karl May's "Winnetou", Capt. Mayne Reid's "The Headless Horseman", Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe", Rafael Sabatini's "The Sea Hawk", Henryk Sienkiewicz's "In Desert & Wilderness", Rafaelo Giovagnoli's "Spartacus", Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Tarzan of the Apes", James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last Of The Mohicans", Liselotte Wellskopf-Henrich's "The Sons Of The Great Bear" (never seen this one in English and I'm not sure about the spelling of the author's name or the translation in English that the book would get...) - all of the above books that I have felt compelled to read between 3 and 15 (yep, count me crazy) times.

So, I have read about 10-15 Jules Verne books and this one is by far the best. By the way, those who haven't yet should check out "Captain Grant's Children" - one of the sort-of prequels to this book. I never see it mentioned among his works, but it is another gripping adventure. I have only seen a Russian edition of this book, though. Might not have been translated in English...

Anyway, I think I should read "The Mysterious Island" again these days...

I could easily be talked into giving this four stars for its high adventure, intriguing mystery and appealing characters. You've got to love a book that grabs you right from the beginning:

"Are we rising again?" "No on the contrary." "Are we descending?" "Worse than that, captain! We are falling!" "For heavens sake heave out the ballast!" "There! The last sack is empty!" "Does the balloon rise?" "No!" "I hear a noise like the dashing of waves! The sea is below the car. It cannot be more than 500 feet from us!" "Overboard with every weight!...everything!"

I must say, that listening to this (via the Kindle's speech feature while I was driving) was better than having to read all those exclamation points, but I was hooked and enjoyed the vicarious adventure.

Jules Verne's MYSTERIOUS ISLAND embraces the ever-popular story line of men surviving--even thriving--on a deserted island, but instead of getting there by shipwreck, these men have escaped from a Civil War Richmond under siege in a hot air balloon and are blown thousands of miles off course in the grip of a raging storm. Eventually, their balloon loses air and they fall into the sea and are washed up on an island. There they establish a settlement, and with remarkable know-how, tenacity, and courage, they make quite a nice life for themselves that lasts about four years, despite the challenges of tempest, wild animals, injuries, pirates, and, most intriguingly, a mysteriously benevolent but invisible presence that seems to defy the castaways' belief that they are alone on the island.

This book was written in 1874, and must surely have been influenced by SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON which was written in 1812. The similarities are striking in the remarkably clever things the castaways envisioned, built or fabricated to ensure their comfort and safety...everything from their lodging and outbuildings to a small sailing ship. Between them, they conveniently brought extensive knowledge of engineering, sailing, ship-building, astronomy, geography, botany, and chemistry.

The book does bog down occasionally, and the 19th century language is somewhat stilted. Every conversation seemed to include a "my boy" or "my man" or "my friend" (e.g., "'No doubt, my boy,' answered the engineer..."). The characters were ennobled by the author to be unrealistic paradigms of 19th century virtue: industrious, courageous, practical, and compassionate.

But these are quibbles in the face of the pleasure given by such a good story, and the way Jules Verne tied this book in with the story from 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA was an interesting and unexpected twist. This book is a classic for a reason.

A very difficult yet satisfying book to read, this build slowly from utter bleakness to an enthralling sense of wonder. Having seen the 1961 movie, I was astonished at how LITTLE of the book actually made it to the screen-- and there were NO monsters here! Ironically, the trained orangutan-butler that would have been at home in a Disney film was one of the things left out of the film version. Having been surprised that the book 20,000 LEAGUES actually left Captain Nemo's background a total mystery right to the end, Verne finally reveals his true identity here-- and one can tell nobody in Hollywood's been reading this book. While it basically stands on its own, Verne's MYSTERIOUS ISLAND is actually a sequel to 2 previous books: 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, and the more obscure CAPTAIN GRANT'S CHILDREN, the latter of which I believe served as the inspiration for the Disney film IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS! With Verne's interest in minute detail, I came away feeling this book could serve as not only a rousing adventure story, but as a wonderful manual for anyone wanting to start a new civilization completely from scratch.