Cover page of The Mysterious Island
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Author | Jules Verne |
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Original title | L'Île mystérieuse |
Translator | Agnes Kinloch Kingston and W. H. G. Kingston (1875) Stephen W. White (1876) I. O. Evans (1959) Lowell Bair (1970) Sidney Kravitz (2001) Jordan Stump (2001) |
Illustrator | Jules Férat |
Country | France |
Language | French |
Series | The Extraordinary Voyages #12 |
Genre | Adventure novel |
Publisher | Pierre-Jules Hetzel |
Publication date
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1874 |
Published in English
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1874 |
Media type | Print (Hardback) |
Preceded by | Around the World in Eighty Days |
Followed by | The Survivors of the Chancellor |
Coordinates: 34°57′S 150°30′W / 34.950°S 150.500°W
The Mysterious Island (French: L'Île mystérieuse) 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 on the novel of Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson. Verne developed a similar theme in his later novel, Godfrey Morgan (French: L'École des Robinsons, 1882).
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.