The Mysterious Island
The Mysterious Island
[Île mystérieuse]
The book tells the adventures of five American prisoners of war on an uncharted island in the South Pacific. Begining in the American Civil War, as famine and death ravage the city of Richmond, Virginia, five northern POWs decide to escape in a rather unusual way – by hijacking a balloon! This is only the beginning of their adventures...
Book Excerpt
same day another important personage fell into the hands of the Southerners. This was no other than Gideon Spilen, a reporter for the New York Herald, who had been ordered to follow the changes of the war in the midst of the Northern armies.
Gideon Spilett was one of that race of indomitable English or American chroniclers, like Stanley and others, who stop at nothing to obtain exact information, and transmit it to their journal in the shortest possible time. The newspapers of the Union, such as the New York Herald, are genuine powers, and their reporters are men to be reckoned with. Gideon Spilett ranked among the first of those reporters: a man of great merit, energetic, prompt and ready for anything, full of ideas, having traveled over the whole world, soldier and artist, enthusiastic in council, resolute in action, caring neither for trouble, fatigue, nor danger, when in pursuit of information, for himself first, and then for his journal, a perfect treasury of knowledge on all sorts of curious subj
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This book was one of the most influential ones in my childhood. The practical approach by the people on the island, exemplified in the "watchglass-clay-seawater" approach to making fire, the descriptions, the no-nonsense way situations are dealt with - they all contributed to my desire to become an engineer later in my life. The fact that it is a sequel to "20,000 Leagues under the Sea" is a bonus.
This is a book I urge *everyone* to read. To this day, I always carry a copy of it on my PDA, and give a copy to anyone who shows interest.
This is a book I urge *everyone* to read. To this day, I always carry a copy of it on my PDA, and give a copy to anyone who shows interest.
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I must show my ignorance and say that I did not relize at all that this was a sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I found the story well told and very timely in light of such modern mysteries as "Lost."
03/10/2006