In Search of the Castaways
Frontispiece of the original edition
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| Author | Jules Verne |
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| Original title | Les Enfants du capitaine Grant |
| Illustrator | Édouard Riou |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Series | The Extraordinary Voyages #5 |
| Genre | Adventure novel |
| Publisher | Pierre-Jules Hetzel |
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Publication date
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1867–1868 |
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Published in English
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1873 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Preceded by | From the Earth to the Moon |
| Followed by | Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea |
In Search of the Castaways (French: Les Enfants du capitaine Grant, lit. The Children of Captain Grant) is a novel by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1867–1868. The original edition, published by Hetzel, contains a number of illustrations by Édouard Riou. In 1876 it was republished by George Routledge & Sons as a three volume set titled "A Voyage Round The World". The three volumes were subtitled "South America", "Australia", and "New Zealand". (As often with Verne, English translations have appeared under different names; another edition has the overall title "Captain Grant's Children" and has two volumes subtitled "The Mysterious Document" and "Among the Cannibals".)
The book tells the story of the quest for Captain Grant of the Britannia. After finding a bottle the captain had cast into the ocean after the Britannia is shipwrecked, Lord and Lady Glenarvan of Scotland contact Mary and Robert, the young daughter and son of Captain Grant, through an announcement in a newspaper. The government refuses to launch a rescue expedition, but Lord and Lady Glenarvan, moved by the children's condition, decide to do it by themselves. The main difficulty is that the coordinates of the wreckage are mostly erased, and only the latitude (37 degrees) is known; thus, the expedition would have to circumnavigate the 37th parallel south. The bottle was retrieved from a shark's stomach, so it is impossible to trace its origin by the currents. Remaining clues consist of a few words in three languages. They are re-interpreted several times throughout the novel to make various destinations seem likely.
Lord Glenarvan makes it his quest to find Grant; together with his wife, Grant's children and the crew of his yacht, the Duncan, they set off for South America. An unexpected passenger in the form of French geographer Jacques Paganel (he missed his steamer to India by accidentally boarding on the Duncan) joins the search. They explore Patagonia, Tristan da Cunha Island, Amsterdam Island, and Australia (a pretext to describe the flora, fauna, and geography of numerous places to the targeted audience).
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