Audiobook · read by volunteers
Mysterious Island
Jules Verne (1828–1905)
Read by Mark F. Smith · 62 chapters · 21 h 58
About the book
Richmond, Virginia, during the American Civil War. Five Northern prisoners seize their chance to escape in a balloon, and a hurricane carries them far across the world until they are deposited on a lonely, unknown island in the Pacific. They have only the clothes they stand in, and a single grain of wheat.
Led by the engineer Cyrus Smith, the castaways set about building a new life from nothing. With patience, science and teamwork, they find food, make tools, forge iron, and even construct a boat. But the island holds secrets, and someone, or something, seems to be watching over them.
Jules Verne wrote this novel as a celebration of reason and resourcefulness, in the tradition of Robinson Crusoe. In sixty-two chapters and twenty-two hours, this is a major adventure, ideal for long journeys and for anyone who enjoys watching problems being solved.
Introduction
Jules Verne (1828-1905) published The Mysterious Island in 1874 as part of his series of extraordinary voyages. It is the third part of a loose trilogy that begins with In Search of the Castaways and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and its story connects with the earlier books in ways that become clear toward the end. Verne wrote it at a time when he was at the height of his popularity.
The novel belongs to the tradition of the desert island story, which goes back to Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and the Swiss Family Robinson. What sets Verne’s version apart is its emphasis on technical knowledge. The castaways are practical, educated men, and the book shows in detail how they produce bricks, glass, soap and iron, and how they apply science to survive. This celebration of engineering and cooperation reflects the confidence of the nineteenth century in progress.
This recording uses the English translation by W. H. G. Kingston (1814-1880), himself a prolific author of adventure stories for boys. His version was widely read in Britain, though modern translators have pointed out places where it departs from the French. The book has sixty-two chapters, in three parts in the original, and the recording lasts about twenty-two hours, read by a LibriVox volunteer.
It is a long, absorbing story that suits listening over many days. Readers who enjoy problem-solving and the atmosphere of a small community isolated from the world will find a great deal to like.
Public domain
Jules Verne died in 1905: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text