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The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
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Summary: Five passengers in a balloon are caught in a hurricane over the Pacific in 1865 and trown onto the coast of an unknown island. This is the story of their adventures.
  hgcslibrary | Nov 29, 2009 |
The adventure novel written by Jules Verne depicting the survival techniques employed by ordinary men who beat back nature and held themselves in semblances of civilization reminiscent of a world they had lost. However climatic and enticing, this page-turner’s plot was woefully boring unlike many of Verne’s other books.
The exploits of Cyrus Harding and the other men on Lincoln Island were sheer, unadulterated adventure yet achievable by any other men placed on the same island with naught but companions. That was perhaps the underlying intrigue of the book to me as I have spent many an hour contemplating the means I would need to accomplish to survive in the wilderness.
Ultimately, I was dismayed by the lack of wit and mental acuity that Verne often imparts to her other characters. I found the verbal bantering and conversations dull and lacking in even the most simple of intellect. If I was to survive among such fellows whose chief concerns where often superfluous goods like tobacco, I would almost undoubtedly go insane just for sheer want of solitude. Perhaps that is where Harding succeeded and I would not.
Perhaps the most disappointing part of the book was the end. Not wishing to discourage those who are yet reading from finishing rather warning them of impending disappoint. I thought there was some higher purpose to the almost magical happenings of the Mysterious Island, yet the climax’s lack of substance enraged me to the point that I was ready to fly in balloon to my own island intent in providing a better explanation of the mysteries of the island than Verne’s advertising campaign that filled the last pages of a disappointing work of literature. ( )
  bcjunior13 | Apr 2, 2009 |
I love this book, and I've read it 6 times! ( )
  dandv | Feb 4, 2009 |
What a fascinating story. As attractive now as when I read it as a teenager. This doesn't read as an old story, but rather as a modern story about an old subject. ( )
  jastbrown | Jan 21, 2009 |
Two men and a boy reach the misterious island which anyone don't live in.
And strange things happen around their. ( )
  gaki.sas | Dec 22, 2008 |
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"Are we rising again?" "No. On the contrary."
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Book description
The Mysterious Island is set in 1874 during the American Civil War. The characters were Confederate prisoners who had the idea of escaping the doomed city of Richmond in a hot air balloon. Among those is an engineer named Cyrus Harding, his servant named Neb, a reporter named Gideon Spillett, his friend Herbert, and a sailor named Pencroft. The only way they could avoid detection was to during in a hurricane. As they depart Cyrus' dog Top follows him into the balloon. After five days flying, they crash into a deserted island and to their surprise, Harding is not among them. They now start searching for him.OCT.25 After attempting to search for Harding, they decide to find a shelter. Neb decides to continue his search while Pencroft and Herbert try to find a suitable shelter. They then find a natural laborinth made of giant rocks. After, they look for utensils to start a fire. Since there is a river nearby, they decide to follow it upstream. When they find wood, they float it downstream to their shelter. Spillett returns with Neb without Harding, much to their dismay. After finding a match in his pocket, Spillett trys to light a fire. He gives it to Herbert who successfully lights a fire.

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0812972120, Mass Market Paperback)

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.

(retrieved from Amazon Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:52:09 -0500)

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