Mysterious Island (Illustrated Edition)

Author: (French) Jules Verne
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: The protagonists in The Mysterious Island include an engineer, a journalist, a sailor, a Black person, and children, who represent various strata of human society. They encounter dangers while in a balloon. These aerial survivors are genuine victims of misfortune, having barely reached a deserted island where their entire livelihood depends solely on the island. Therefore, they can only rely on their own intelligence. They possess perseverance and a social concept that binds them closely together. This small group, struggling for basic necessities of life, thus regresses to the Stone Age. Fortunately, one of the survivors, the engineer Cyrus Smith,. He first made a lens from two watch glasses to start a fire. He systematically mapped the terrain of the deserted island and named it Lincoln Island. He made bows and arrows for hunting. After discovering clay, several metal ores, and coal, he built a furnace, then a blast furnace, and finally smelted steel, using this steel to manufacture the first set of tools. After extensive and repeated experiments, he successfully obtained several chemical products, especially nitroglycerin; he used this powerful explosive to blast open a granite hill to divert the lake water from the other side. After entering the old overflow channel of the lake, the engineer discovered a spacious cave, which was connected to the sea, with seawater constantly gushing out. The resourceful survivors transformed this cave into a quite comfortable and spacious dwelling; to reach the shore, they even set up a simple ladder. They planted crops and built corrals on the island to protect the tamed livestock. They also made a telegraph to establish communication between the settlement and the farmland.