The Mysterious Island

The Mysterious Island is a novel by Jules Verne, published in 1874. The original edition, published by Hetzel, contains a number of illustrations by Jules Férat. The novel is a crossover sequel to Verne's famous Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and In Search of the Castaways, though its themes are vastly different from those books. An early draft of the novel, initially rejected by Verne's publisher and wholly reconceived before publication, was titled Shipwrecked Family: Marooned With Uncle Robinson, seen as indicating the influence of the novels Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson. Verne developed a similar theme in his later novel, Godfrey Morgan (French: L'École des Robinsons, 1882).

Jules VERNE (1828 - 1905), translated by William Henry Giles KINGSTON (1814 - 1880)


01. 1-01 The Storm of 1865. Voices in the Air


02. 1-02 An Incident in the War of Secession


03. 1-03 Five O'Clock in the Evening


04. 1-04 Lithodomes. The River's Mouth. The Chimneys


05. 1-05 Arranging the Chimneys. How to Procure Fire


06. 1-06 The Inventory of the Castaways. Expedition to the Forest


07. 1-07 Neb Has Not Yet Returned. A Threatening Night


08. 1-08 Is Cyrus Harding Living? Neb's Recital


09. 1-09 Cyrus is Here. Pencroft's Attempts


10. 1-10 The Engineer's Invention. Volcanic Soil


11. 1-11 At the Summit of the Cone


12. 1-12 Regulating the Watches. Pencroft is Satisfied


13. 1-13 What is Found Upon Top


14. 1-14 Measuring the Cliff. Latitude of the Island


15. 1-15 It Is Decided to Winter on the Island


16. 1-16 The Question of a Dwelling is Again Discussed


17. 1-17 Visit to the Lake. The Indicating Current


18. 1-18 Pencroft Now Doubts Nothing


19. 1-19 Cyrus Harding's Project. The Rope Ladder


20. 1-20 The Rainy Season. The Question of Clothes


21. 1-21 Some Degrees Below Zero


22. 1-22 Traps. Foxes. Peccaries


23. 2-01 Conversation on the Subject of the Bullet


24. 2-02 First Trial of the Canoe. A Wreck on the Coast


25. 2-03 The Start. The Rising Tide


26. 2-04 Journey to the Coast. Troops of Monkeys


27. 2-05 Proposal to Return By the Southern Shore


28. 2-06 Pencroft's Halloos. A Night in the Chimneys


29. 2-07 Plans. A Bridge Over the Mercy


30. 2-08 Linen. Shoes of Seal-Leather


31. 2-09 Bad Weather. The Hydraulic Lift


32. 2-10 Boat-Building. Second Crop of Corn


33. 2-11 Winter. Felling Wood. The Mill


34. 2-12 The Rigging of the Vessel


35. 2-13 Departure Decided Upon. Conjectures


36. 2-14 The Inventory. Night. A Few Letters


37. 2-15 The Return. Discussion


38. 2-16 A Mystery to be Cleared Up


39. 2-17 Still Alone. The Stranger's Request


40. 2-18 Conversation. Cyrus Harding and Gideon Spilett


41. 2-19 Recollections of Their Native Land


42. 2-20 A Night at Sea. Shark Gulf. Confidences


43. 3-01 Lost or Saved? Ayrton Summoned


44. 3-02 Discussions. Presentiments


45. 3-03 The Mist Rises. The Engineer's Preparations


46. 3-04 The Colonists on the Beach


47. 3-05 The Engineer's Declaration


48. 3-06 Expeditions Planned. Ayrton at the Corral


49. 3-07 The Reporter and Pencroft in the Corral


50. 3-08 The Convicts in the Neighborhood of the Corral


51. 3-09 No news of Neb. A Proposal


52. 3-10 Herbert Carried to Granite House


53. 3-11 Inexplicable Mystery. Herbert's Convalescence


54. 3-12 Exploration on the Serpentine Peninsula


55. 3-13 Ayrton's Story. A Subterranean Volcano


56. 3-14 Three Years Have Passed. The New Vessel


57. 3-15 The Awakening of the Volcano. The Fine Season


58. 3-16 Captain Nemo. His First Words


59. 3-17 Last Moments of Captain Nemo


60. 3-18 Reflections of the Colonists


61. 3-19 Cyrus Harding's Account of His Exploration


62. 3-20 An Isolated Rock in the Pacific


The plot focuses on the adventures of five Americans on an uncharted island in the South Pacific. During the American Civil War, five northern prisoners of war decide to escape, during the siege of Richmond, Virginia, by hijacking a balloon.

The escapees are Cyrus Smith, a railroad engineer in the Union army (named Cyrus Harding in Kingston's version); his ex-slave and loyal follower Neb (short for Nebuchadnezzar); Bonadventure Pencroff, a sailor (who is addressed only by his surname; in Kingston's translation, he is named Pencroft); his protégé and adopted son Harbert Brown (called Herbert in some translations); and the journalist Gedéon Spilett (Gideon Spilett in English versions). The company is completed by Cyrus' dog "Top".a

After flying in a great storm for several days, the group crash-lands on a cliff-bound, volcanic, unknown island, described as being located at 34°57′S 150°30′W, about 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi) east of New Zealand. They name it "Lincoln Island" in honor of their president, Abraham Lincoln. With the knowledge of the brilliant engineer Smith, the five are able to sustain themselves on the island, producing fire, pottery, bricks, nitroglycerin, iron, a simple electric telegraph, a home on a stony cliffside called "Granite House", and even a seaworthy ship, which they name the "Bonadventure" (in honor of Pencroff, the driving force behind its construction). They also manage to figure out their geographical location.

During their stay on the island, the group endures bad weather, and domesticates an orangutan, Jupiter, abbreviated to Jup (or Joop, in Jordan Stump's translation). There is a mystery on the island in the form of an unseen deus ex machina, responsible for Cyrus' survival after falling from the balloon, the mysterious rescue of Top from a dugong, the appearance of a box of equipment (guns and ammunition, tools, etc.), and other seemingly inexplicable occurrences.

The group finds a message in a bottle directing them to rescue a castaway on nearby Tabor Island, who is none other than Tom Ayrton (from In Search of the Castaways). On the return voyage to Lincoln Island, they lose their way in a tempest but are guided back to their course by a mysterious fire beacon.

Ayrton's former companions arrive by chance on Lincoln Island, and try to make it into their lair. After some fighting with the protagonists, the pirate ship is mysteriously destroyed by an explosion. Six of the pirates survive and kidnap Ayrton. When the colonists go to look for him, the pirates shoot Harbert, seriously injuring him. Harbert survives, but suffers from his injury, narrowly cheating death. The colonists at first assume Ayrton to have been killed, but later they find evidence that he was not instantly killed, leaving his fate uncertain. When the colonists rashly attempt to return to Granite House before Harbert fully recovers, Harbert contracts malaria and is saved by a box of quinine sulphate, which mysteriously appears on the table in Granite House. After Harbert recovers, they attempt to rescue Ayrton and destroy the pirates. They discover Ayrton at the sheepfold, and the pirates dead, without any visible wounds.

The secret of the island is revealed when it is discovered to be Captain Nemo's hideout, and home port of the Nautilus. Having escaped the Maelstrom at the end of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the Nautilus sailed the oceans of the world until all its crew except Nemo had died. Now an old man with a beard, Nemo returned the Nautilus to its secret port within Lincoln Island. Nemo had been the mysterious benefactor of the settlers, providing them with the box of equipment, sending the message revealing Ayrton, planting the torpedo that destroyed the pirate ship, and killing the pirates with an "electric gun". On his death bed Captain Nemo reveals his true identity as the lost Indian Prince Dakkar, son of a Raja of the then independent territory of Bundelkund and a nephew of the Indian hero Tippu-Sahib. After taking part in the failed Indian Rebellion of 1857, Prince Dakkar escaped to a desert island with twenty of his compatriots and commenced the building of the Nautilus and adopted the new name of "Captain Nemo". Nemo also tells his life story to Cyrus Smith and his friends. Before he dies, he gives them a box of diamonds and pearls as a keepsake. Afterwards, he dies, crying "God and my country!" ("Independence!", in Verne's original manuscript). The Nautilus is scuttled and serves as Captain Nemo's tomb.b

Afterward, the island's central volcano erupts, destroying the island. Jup the orangutan falls into a crack in the ground and dies. The colonists, forewarned of the eruption by Nemo, find themselves safe, but stranded on the last remaining piece of the island above sea level. They are rescued by the ship Duncan, which had come to rescue Ayrton, but were redirected by a message Nemo had previously left on Tabor Island. After they return to United States they form a new colony in Iowa with Nemo's gifts.

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