The Mysterious Island
Ratings35
Average rating4
15
Ratings35
Average rating4
This sequel to "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" doesn't advertise itself as such. Most of the book concerns the efforts of a group of hot-air balloon castaways in the south Pacific ocean attempting to use modern knowledge in order to survive in near-desert-island conditions. "Robinson Crusoe" (Defoe, 1719) started a trend of survival tales that lasts in some respects to this day and "Island" (1874) is Verne's contribution to that body of work. In my estimate, no film so far has done this book justice.
Reviews with the most likes.
My all-time favorite book, which I haven't reread since high school. There's been an explosion in Verne studies and a raft of new translations. Most of the old translations were poor, cutting out large portions of the books. The standard Mysterious Island was 90,000 words; this new one is 190,000 words! Still holds up very well as the ultimate Desert Island book.
This was like a different author wrote it.
20K Leagues was so tedious and dull.
This was a pretty good and interesting lost on an island story.
Not very realistic but stuff was happening all the time and not just a list of the plant and animal life
on the island.
As always, Jules Verne shows his incredible talent. It's the longest book I remember reading from him, I was maybe about twelve or thirteen. I still recall when, mid-through reading, I thought I had already read half of the book but turned out I had most of the pages left! However, I never felt like putting it down, I kept on until I finished it and it felt like a huge accomplishment and it still is in memory.
I found this to be a little bit boring at times, but still a very good book.
Featured Series
3 primary books5 released booksCapitaine Nemo is a 5-book series with 3 primary works first released in 1865 with contributions by Jules Verne, Anthony Bonner, and 2 others.
