Five-minute digest

The Mysterious Island

Jules Verne

Summary

The Mysterious Island begins in March 1865, during the American Civil War, when five Union prisoners escape from besieged Richmond, Virginia, in a balloon. A hurricane carries them for days across the Pacific and drops them on an unknown volcanic island. The engineer Cyrus Harding, the leader, is lost in the surf and later found mysteriously saved; with him are the journalist Gideon Spilett, the sailor Pencroft, Pencroft's young ward Herbert Brown, the freed slave Neb, who is devoted to Harding, and Harding's dog Top. With almost nothing but a watch and a collar, the colonists name their island Lincoln Island and set out to rebuild civilization by knowledge and labor. Harding makes fire with lenses from the watches, finds iron and coal, makes bricks, pottery, glass, nitroglycerine and a telegraph, and drains a lake to reveal a cave they call Granite House. They tame an orangutan, Jup, plant wheat from a single grain, and build a boat. Strange events suggest a hidden helper: a box of tools washes ashore, a bullet is found in a wild pig, a pirate ship explodes as it attacks them, and medicine appears when Herbert is shot. Sailing to nearby Tabor Island, they find a half-wild man who proves to be Ayrton, marooned there years before in In Search of the Castaways; restored by kindness, he confesses his crimes and becomes a faithful companion. In the last part the convicts from the pirate ship attack the colony, and the hidden protector is revealed: Captain Nemo, now old and dying in his submarine Nautilus in a cavern beneath the island. He tells his story as a dispossessed Indian prince, blesses the colonists and dies. Soon after, the volcano erupts and destroys the island, leaving the settlers on a single rock, until the Duncan arrives to collect Ayrton and saves them all. They found a new colony in Iowa. The novel is a hymn to science, work, friendship and Providence, and Verne makes its engineer's practical knowledge the hero of the book.

Top Lessons

Knowledge and work
Harding shows that knowledge put to patient work can turn a wilderness into a home.
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- Number the Stars, Lesson: Friendship that costs something
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- The Island of Doctor Moreau, Lesson: Law and nature
  Law and nature. The Beast Folk obey a Law out of fear, but their natures do not change.
Redemption
Ayrton is restored by kindness and trust, not punishment alone.
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Providence
The colonists see their unseen helper as an image of Providence before they learn the truth.
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Verified Quotes

“Water will be the coal of the future.”

— Jules Verne, The Mysterious Island, Part II, Ch. 11, trans. W. H. G. Kingston (1875).Quote card

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Medical Lens

Herbert's gunshot wound and malarial fever are described in detail; quinine arrives mysteriously.

Fever Infection Physicians Doctors

Part III
Herbert suffers a pernicious fever and is saved by sulphate of quinine.

The Mysterious Island

Summary

Top Lessons

Knowledge and work

Redemption

Providence

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens