Mysterious Island

Author: (French) Jules Verne
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: When it comes to Jules Verne's science fiction novels, many readers in China are familiar with them. For example, "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," "The Mysterious Island," and "Around the World in Eighty Days," which are almost household names. From a young age, Verne loved to imagine and had a special interest in sailing. He grew up in Nantes, a port city in France, and the white sails under the blue sky often took his thoughts to the sea. At the age of 11, he hid on a large ship, intending to go to India, but his father found him before the ship set sail. For generations, Verne's family were lawyers, and he studied law in university. However, when he could choose his own career, he chose literature. This way, he could travel freely with a pen. "The Mysterious Island" is the third book in Verne's famous science fiction trilogy. The story tells of five people—engineer Smith, journalist Spilett, and others—who escape from a small town in the southern United States during the American Civil War by means of a hot air balloon but are blown to a deserted island in the Pacific by a strong wind. Like Robinson Crusoe, the five people rolled up their sleeves and got to work. The engineer made magnifying glasses from the glass lenses of two watches and focused the sunlight to ignite moss. They gathered clams and bird eggs, trapped wild turkeys, pheasants, and capybaras. They created various tools and utensils, dug out a shelter in the rock, and even built cars and boats. They sowed wheat and dreamed of one day developing the island and presenting it to the Union government!