Book Description

Customer Reviews (173)

This is a children's version of the original story
I was disappointed to find this was a children's version of the Jules Verne novel.Amazon's description of it doesn't make this clear.

Great Characters and Storyline but Descriptions Bog Down the Story
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was one of the best books of it's time and it's legacy still continues today. The author Jules Verne is able to create a world that is fantastic and believable at the same time. However there are moments in which the details become repetitive and rather insignificant.

The main character Captain Nemo, it is never obvious if he is the protagonist or antagonist, has a personality that is quite paradoxical. He believes that mankind has wrecked the earth and has given up on the human race as so decides to escape it by traveling the seas in his submarine. However, he is compassionate towards his crew members. At most times he is emotionless, but it is his emotional trauma that bothers him more than anything else. He is a complex character who is interesting, mysterious, and quite interesting to analyze.

The story line is intriguing and Verne's imagination adds to the impact of the plot. The story begins with a naturalist, his assistant, and a harpooner looking for a giant sea creature that has destroyed several ships. It turns out that this creature that they are looking for, and find, is Captain Nemo's submarine. Verne is also able to create a wonderful world full of different creature of the sea as well as the submarine it's self. At the time the book was written sea travel was common but submarines were unheard of. The description of the vessel and its ability must have wowed readers of the time.

However, it's Verne's over usage of description and unnecessary plot that tends to ruin the pace of the story. For pages on end there is a constant rambling of encyclopedia-like information. Is it really necessary to know the name, size, origin, composition, weight (etc) of some random mineral that naturalist happens to find?

Unfortunately these random occurrences make the book a little hard to follow, but in the end it is still a classic that everyone should end up reading.

Excellent, Updated Translation
For those rereading 20,000 Leagues under the Sea after many years of telling yourself it was time to read it again, you will find William Butcher' translation quite a surprise. Not only quite accurate but you find additional chapters, not found in earlier translations. The sixty pages of "Explanatory Notes" puts a whole new slant on the story.

Super Reader
A group of men come to misfortune at sea. They have the dubious misfortune to come to the attention of Captain Nemo and his highly advanced submarine, Nautilus. While this prevents them from drowning, they do get caught up with some of the odd Captain's other pursuits. Ned and company do certainly get some education in oceanography and marine biology along the way.

They do have to worry about what the antiheroic supergenius Nemo is actually up to, though.

Awesome!
I purchased this book to read to my five year old son. It is a great adaptation and there are pictures on every three to four pages which keeps him interested in the book. Great illustrations! We are loving every minute of it and read 2-3 chapters a night! ... Read more

Product Description
In the Year 2889 was first published in the Forum, February, 1889. It was published in France the next year. Although published under the name of Jules Verne, it is now believed to be chiefly if not entirely the work of Jules Verne's son, Michel Verne. In any event, many of the topics in the article echo Jules Verne's ideas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Yesterday's tomorrow
The recent publication of the short story "In the Year 2889" (Wildside Press, 2006) is a welcome addition to the Jules Verne library.I read it first back in my early college days in the late sixties, and I have been hoping for a new edition of the text.
At 32 pages, it is a slim volume, but nonetheless significant.There is some question as to whether the story was actually penned by Jules Verne or might be, at least in part, the work of Verne's son Michel.The story is in keeping with Jules Verne's optimistic view of future possibilities.
While the cover art by Sophie Martin is quite striking, I would have preferred the volume be illustrated throughout.That would have greatly enhanced the pamphlete-size volume.
Much of the story presented, a day in the life of a citizen of the 20th century, sounds like an episode of "The Jetsons," with a man being clothed by a mechanical dresser as he is whisked off to work.
It is quick and light reading, to be sure, but oh! the memories it rekindles of a vision gone by, a vision of life almost 1000 years into the future.
Thank you, Monsieur Verne.Thank you, Wildside Press. ... Read more

Book Description
The Underground City, by Jules Verne, is a novel about the fortunes of a mining community called Aberfoyle which is near Stirling, Scotland. Miner James Starr, after receiving a letter from an old friend, leaves for the Aberfoyle mine. Although believed to be mined out a decade earlier, James Starr finds a mine overman, Simon Ford, along with his family living deep inside the mine. Simon Ford has found a large vein of coal in the mine but the characters must deal with mysterious and unexplainable happenings in and around the mine.Download Description
A mysterious "Goblin" threatens a coal mine in Jules Verne adventure. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Typical Verne
I would like to start off by applauding Amazon and the publisher for printing this relatively obscure title. A reader looking for the mainstream works by Verne has multiple options - those of us who want to read a larger selection of his works ...must search!

"The Underground City" is a relatively short but entertaining novel. The first 100 pages read very fast - and reminded me strongly of "Journey to the Center of the Earth". The final 80 pages were a little more hoo-hum... and I was left disappointed in the ending. In fact, the novel was a little disjointed - and I wondered if this was one of the woks that was finished by Verne's son after his death (Which I still do not know).

Some reveiwers find the story unrealistic... well that is to be expected by Verne. While many think of his works as "Science Fiction" I think they have moved to the genre of fantasy. Verne transports you to a time and place where science was seen as having limitless possibilities... now in the 21st century we better understand what is possible and what is just our imagination.

"The Underground City" is a typical work by Verne. Certainly not his greatest work - it really doesn't compare to "The Mysterious Island". Yet, most fans will be satisified that they were able to find and read something that is just "typical" Verne.

A good book that no one's heard of
The story line is a little far-fetched, but somewhat plausible.It is a fun book to read.The characters are fun to read and the plot is pretty good, too.Not the best book in the world, but worth reading if you're bored some winter day. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Thoroughly researched, accurate, scholarly and engaging biography of Verne
William Butcher is probably the world's foremost scholarly authority on the life and literature of the French writer Jules Verne. Having written numerous articles and monographs on the life and literary output of the prodigious and often under-estimated and misunderstood French novelist, over many years, and having retranslated some of the best-known Verne novels such as 'Around the world in eighty days' in the last ten years or so, few are more qualified than Butcher to produce this detailed insight into Verne's life.

Butcher systematically demolishes the many misperceptions of Verne's life and of the quality of his writings. He corrects the errors of previous biographies and of previous truncated and erroneous translations of Verne's novels, and brings to light some hitherto undetected subtexts in Verne's works, notably the degree of sexual allusion and the ingenious narrative structures. Butcher highlights the way in which Verne's lifetime publisher, Hetzel, expurgated many of Verne's works prior to publication, thus denaturing, tragically, much of their literary worth: to remedy this situation somewhat, Butcher's scholarship is unique in having gone back to the original manuscripts in order to reveal the unpublished, true genius of Jules Verne's themes and in order to reinterpret his novels.

Butcher's meticulous research brings the reader right into the intimate spaces inhabited by Verne from childhood through to old age, and though his style is rigorously academic, he sometimes recounts episodes and physical surroundings in an almost novelistic fashion. This makes the reader's vantage point, as a fly on the wall observer of Verne's journeys through life, particularly close, realistic, intimate and fascinating.

What has most struck me about this biography is the seemingly bittersweet nature of Verne's life, in which his success and happiness was at all times tempered with sadness, disappointment and even tragedy. The iconic French novelist is revealed, by Butcher, in all his humanity: this biography brings Verne to life with extraordinary vividness and Butcher's knowledge and writing skills help us to empathise with Verne and to admire him.

As I am currently doing doctoral research on translations of Verne, this biography is proving to be an indispensable reference. In sum, I wholeheartedly recommend this text to a wide audience of readers, not merely scholars of Verne, but to anyone and everyone who has ever enjoyed Verne's works and wants to learn about the man behind the iconic novels and films. Butcher deservedly subtitles this tome the 'Definitive Biography'.

The Verne We Never Knew(But Now There's No Excuse!)
"One of the best storytellers that ever lived" is how Jules Verne is described by Arthur C. Clarke, no mean storyteller himself. He's right, although that will surprise anyone who knows Verne only by way of the rotten translations that have flooded the American and British markets in the past.

Mercifully, the situation is changing. Clarke's statement is a truism to readers who know any of the fine recent English renderings, e.g. those by William Butcher, Stanley Kravitz, Walter James Miller, Frederick Walter, or Jordan Stump, or those edited by Arthur Evans.

But with the publication of this biography, still more surprises emerge. It seems that Verne himself and the life he led are in many spots just about as gripping as his stories are. Indeed, it is almost incredible that we didn't know that until recently. Why the hell not?

Well, folks, it's like this: until recently, there was precious little way for the English-reading world to appreciate Verne, because most of the translations of his novels were so bad (often truncating the texts, changing the names of characters, censoring political content, and just plain mistranslating), and most of the biographical material on their author was so formulaic and just plain dull, that it has been simply impossible for Brits and Yanks to take him seriously on the basis of what was available.

But to repeat myself, the newer translations and Butcher's biography are the hopeful beginning of a new era.

Verne emerges from Butcher's biography as a person with hangups, to say the least: an abused child, a man uncertain about his sexuality (bisexual, it seems on the evidence), a seriously depressed ultra-loner, a talented liar and plagiarist, a right-wing anti-semitic extremist who nevertheless harbored anarchist and communist sympathies, the father of a very talented writer whom he imprisoned as insane, and a doting uncle whose favorite nephew tried to murder him. On the other hand, we also have in Verne a man who was as skilful at celebrating the human appetite for adventure, achievement, experimentation and discovery as any writer in any age, and who could write classics in conditions that one would expect to immobilize him with sadness. And perhaps his most awesome achievement was to produce his greatest works under the scrutiny of a clueless editor (his name was Jules Hetzel) who repeatedly forced him to make gratuitious changes in his writings, changes which often warped his plots and absurdly forced his heroes and villains to act out of character. By the same token, Butcher's greatest achievement has been his exhaustive study of the original manuscripts, so that he has been able to show Verne's intentions independently of their censorship by Hetzel. The result will delight and astound, for Verne's conceptions are almost universally superior to the crap imposed on him by his publisher.

As in any scholarly work, one can nitpick. A reviewer elsewhere does not scruple to mention Butcher's error on p. 188, where the abolitionist John Brown is described as "murdered in 1856". Well, yes, that's a mistake, and the same page contains a reference to "the George Sand", and there may be other trivial errors for all I know. So what? I personally wouldn't care if Butcher were caught saying "aint". If anyone is going to challenge Butcher's study, I would rather they challenged his conclusions, if only for the sake of argument.

For example: Is Butcher correct in his belief, stated and argued more than once in his book, that Verne was emphatically NOT a writer of science fiction, but rather a writer of adventure stories? There will be many who will disagree with this genre assignment, and will continue to regard Verne as "the father of science fiction".

I look forward to this friendly argument, which will help us all to decide what KIND of influence Verne's has been. Errors, schmerrors. Let's get into the meat of things.

In this respect as in others, Jules Verne: The Definitive Biography opens a box of goodies whose key should have been jimmied long ago. No one will finish reading this book and retain the patronizing view of Jules Verne that has plagued American and British literary studies. ... Read more

Book Description
As irascible scholar Professor Lidenbrock pores over a rare Icelandic tome, he discovers a scrap of parchment with cryptic writing tucked away between the ancient pages. And when his nephew, Axel, finally breaks the writing’s secret code, he learns of a hidden underground passageway that may lead deep into the center of the earth.

Despite Axel’s misgivings, he and the obsessed Lidenbrock travel to Iceland and, with a guide named Hans, set out on a perilous expedition in the course of which the trio will encounter an extraordinary new world of extinct yet living species, an underground sea, and gigantic, battling monsters.

Filled with the authentic detail and startling immediacy Jules Verne labored to bring to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in Eighty Days, Journey to the Center of the Earth is the fantastic adventure that secured Verne’s reputation as the premier writer of speculative fiction.Download Description
The manuscript volume and the smaller document are written in different hands, he said, "the cryptograph is of much later date than the book; there is an undoubted proof of the correctness of my surmise. An irrefragable proof I took it to be. The first letter is a double M, which was only added to the Icelandic language in the twelfth century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (123)

Brilliant read if you can leave your knowledge behind
It had been many years since I had read a Jules Verne novel, and to be honest, I couldn't recall his skill as a writer at all.When I dug this book off of my bookshelf I admit, I was simply bored and looking for something mindless to read while the children fought over gluing cotton balls to construction paper.

I admit that it took my mind a while to re-acclimate to the writing style of the time, not that it was difficult to read, it was just far too easy to skim.So, bringing my mind to a screeching halt, I sat down and began to truly read this wonderful novel.Let me begin with saying that the science in the novel is extremely outdated but at the time of it's writing, was plausible.If you can get your mind past the huge hurtle of your current scientific knowledge, you can appreciate this book for what it is: a brilliant science fiction/adventure novel.The conventions of the time include misunderstandings of the makeup of the earth, and the propensity to marry one's own cousins.

The book is written in the form of a diary at times, and a retelling at times, of events that had passed previously.The voice of the book is the character Harry, nephew and assistant to Professor Von Hardwigg.The novel begins with the professor's discovery of a secret parchment which when decoded gives the location that a previous explorer used to enter the bowels of the earth.The immediately set out to follow in the footsteps of this great explorer of centuries before.Joining them is Hans, the apparent superman of Iceland.He never complains, rarely talks, and saves the lives of those around him on a regular basis.I cannot help but to believe that this is Verne's ideal man, his "Adonis" if you will.The Professor, though he loves Harry, is a closet ADHD case hidden behind a brilliant and stubborn mind.There is great adoration for his nephew, on those occasions when he stops moving or talking long enough to notice him.Harry, who is telling the story, is easily written off as a coward; however he is so much more than that if you take into account the beliefs of the time.He is following his uncle on a dangerous journey into the unknown to a place he does not even believe exists.(Harry's beliefs are far closer to the reality that we understand, however in this novel they are all completely incorrect)

Upon entering the depths of the earth many hardships and terrors await the three, ranging from dehydration, starvation, dinosaurs, many falls, getting separated, raging storms on underground seas and volcanic eruptions.I won't go into great detail suffice to say that the movie, though highly entertaining, does no justice to this story.Spray painted iguanas with horns are far from what is described in this book.If you have spare time on you hands, this is an excellent read and I would highly recommend it to anyone.There is a reason that this is considered "Literature."

4 of 5 stars.

Verne fails to reach his potential in this one
This book starts off strong with the Verne's classic style and wit.The initial pages are entertaining, fast-paced and set the premise for a potentially wonderful novel.However, the story quickly slows down as preparations for the trip take entirely too long.In the version I read, the actual journey doesn't begin until page 90.Then, once the journey begins, it is rather uneventful.Verne also puts in too much geological information for the average reader to appreciate.It becomes quite tedious reading about the content of various mineral deposits, composition of the substrata of the earth, etc.While some such material is interesting, Verne goes over the top.This novel fails to display the extent of Verne's talents.For a better taste of his writings, I would recommend "Around the World in 80 Days" or, if you can digest a much longer work, "The Mysterious Island."

A fine Jules Verne read.
Journey To the Center of the Earth was always one of my favorite movies and after all these years, I finally read the book.The book is not like the movie at all.Honestly, I liked the movie better however that is not to say I was in any way disappointed with the book.It moved along quickly and drew me in such that I couldn't put it down and so read it in one sitting.A geologist, his eager young nephew and an Icelandic guide make their way to the earth's core following the footsteps of a previous mysterious explorer into the dark subterranean world of weird plants, animals, rocks and unforeseen dangers. There was no woman with them as in the movie but a female companion might have spiced it up a bit.The Icelander didn't have a pet duck along as in the movie but he was an indispensible partner in the venture.All in all, it was adventurous and fun and worth my time.I enjoyed it very much. Sure glad I finally read the book!
Betsy

Another Wonderful Adventure by Jules Verne
Note: Some immature Mormon has been slamming my reviews because I wrote some negative reviews of books attempting to defend the Book of Mormon.

So your "helpful" votes are greatly appreciated. A short review is not necessarily a bad review if it leads you to a great novel. I've just noted the general theme. Thanks

A group of adventures with an old map travel to Iceland and find a cave.They enter the cave and follow a path to the center of the earth, where they find an inner world of strange creatures. Just suspend your belief, and sit back an enjoy this wonderful tale. I experience it first as a movie way back in 1960. Later, I read the novel. Don't miss it.

The concept of a hollow earth was not new in Jules Verne's day (mid-1800s). Its most prominent advocate was Capt. John Cleave Symmes, who advanced the theory in about 1818. Symmes was so convincing that in the 1820s he got twenty-five members of the United States Congress to vote to fund an expedition to the North Pole, where they would enter the center of the earth through a 4,000-mile-wide cavity in the earth.

It was then believed that the Lost Tribes of Israel lived on the North Pole behind a wall of ice. This theory found its way into the revelations of Joseph Smith, who in the Book of Mormon and later, said that the Lost Tribes would break down the ice and return from the "north countries."

Also, check out "At the Earth's Core," by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Land of Terror (Bison Frontiers of Imagination)

Maybe it was the translation...
The version of the Jules Verne classic I read was the very old English translation that transmogrifies the protagonist into Harry Lawson, I guess to appeal to English readers.

The idea is good, and the science very convincingly conveyed...but I was underwhelmed with the action, or lack thereof. Pages upon pages are devoted to the prosaic trek to the Icelandic volcano which serves as the ingress to the abyss, and, once inside, pages upon pages are devoted to the mundane exploration of rocky tunnels. ("Look at that magnificent feldspar, Uncle!")

The protagonist gets lost (and found), the water supply runs out, and sundry other non-exciting events occur. I wanted more ichthyosaur vs. plesiosaur-type happenings...which alas, were barely represented.

The treatment of Saknussemm defies credibility, and the fact that the main characters survived being erupted out of Mt. Etna beggars belief. I'll grant a lot of latitude when the premise is such an interesting and promising one. But don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining.

I wanted to enjoy the book more, but couldn't. Maybe it was the translation...I'd like to think so. ... Read more

Book Description
'If ever a human foot is to tread the Pole, it must be a British one!'First Mate Shandon receives a mysterious letter asking him to construct a reinforced steamship in Liverpool. As he heads out for Melville Bay and the Arctic labyrinth, a crewman reveals himself to be John Hatteras, and his lifelong obsession, the Pole.Despite experiencing appalling cold and hunger, the captain treks across the frozen wastes in search of fuel.Abandoned by his crew,Hatteras remains without resources at the coldest spot on earth.How can he find food and explore the Polar Sea?And what will he find at the top of the world? This new translation by the father of Verne Studies brilliantly conveys the hypnotic mood and gripping authenticity of Verne's second novel.This edition also includes the original, censored ending, previously unpublished chapters, and evidence of Verne's plagiarism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A marvelous journey
For those of us of a certain age, not that we lived in the 19th Century,the name Jules Verne always conjures unforgettable images of people, places and things that remain indelibly etched in the mind long, long after we've turned the last page. Jules Verne is an endless adventure; we end one, then start another and another, until we realize that we've virtually traveled to almost every place on this planet and the heavenly bodies that surround it. The fifth of his magnificent Extraordinary Voyages, The Adventures of Captain Hatteras is a breathtaking novel set in the frigid regions of the Arctic Circle and the North Pole itself, though we know now that finding an active volcano there strains credulity. It was widely believed at the time that there was an opening at the top of the world which led to the very depths of the earth. A concept that inspired Verne'sJourney to the Center of the Earth. And Captain Hatteras is Jules Verne at his prime, at his most imaginative stage, at his thrilling best. Its plot is simple yet intriguing:In Liverpool, a seaman named Richard Shandon, First Mate, receives an anonymous letter asking him to construct a reinforced ship and assemble a reliable crew for a rough voyageto the Northern regions of North America, and everyone, Hatteras promises, will be richly rewarded. Once up in the Arctic labyrinth one of the crewman reveals himself as Captain John Hatteras, and his mission is to be the first man to reach the North Pole. So off they go into one of the most horrendous adventures imaginable, even by today's standards.
These are just a few of the images alluded to above: sailing and trekking through sub-zero temperatures amid gigantic icebergs; cutting wind; mutiny; near starvation; bold huskies; sudden storms; castaways wintering in an ice house; a floating iceberg packed with ravenous polar bears about to leap down onto the ship and devour the bold explorers, and a breathless ending to satisfy the fastidious reader. This Oxford University Press edition is a new translation with an introduction and notes by the Jules Verne scholar William Butcher, giving this particular Verne work all the attention and justice it merits.
... Read more

Book Description
An exploration of how Jules Verne used his writings to encrypt important Masonic and Rosicrucian secrets and sacred symbolism

• Investigates Verne’s connections to the prominent secret societies of his time: Freemasons, Golden Dawn, Angelic Society, and Rosicrucians

• Reveals how certain of Verne’s works hold the key to deciphering the Rennes-le-Château mystery

• Explores Verne’s relations with other authors whose works reveal similar esoteric influence: George Sand, Gaston Leroux, Bram Stoker, and Maurice Leblanc

Prolific author and pioneer of the science fiction novel, Jules Verne also possessed a hidden side that was encrypted into all his works--his active participation in the occult milieu of late-nineteenth-century France. Among the many esoteric secrets to be found are significant clues to the Rennes-le-Château mystery, including the location of a great treasure in the former Cathar region of France and the survival of the heirs to the Merovingian dynasty. Verne’s books also reveal Rosicrucian secrets of immortality, and some are constructed, like Mozart’s The Magic Flute, in accordance with Masonic initiation.

The passe-partout to Verne’s work (the skeleton key that is also the name of Phileas Fogg’s servant in Around the World in Eighty Days) lies in the initiatory language he employed to inscribe a second or even third layer of meaning beneath the main narrative, which is revealed in his skilled use of word play, homonyms, anagrams, and numerical combinations. The surface story itself is often a guide that tells the reader outright what he or she should be looking for. Far from innocuous stories for children, Verne’s work reveals itself to be rich with teachings on symbolism, esoteric traditions, sacred geography, and the secret history of humanity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Fascinating Journey into the Interior of Jules Verne
"I've a whale of a tale to tell you, lads," sings Kirk Douglas in the Walt Disney film adaptation of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. Most of us, reading Verne's novels for the first time, adored them and thought these whales of tales were simply fabulous adventure stories. Now French researcher/journalist Michel Lamy has come along to tell us that the late 19th century French author carefully structured his novels according to the stages of Masonic and Rosicrucian initiation and action-quest ritual---that, and much more, all of an occult nature. In Michael Strogoff, for example, the hero fights a bear, is tortured, is blinded, then recovers his sight; Mr. Lamy shows us that these acts are strangely consistent with vows made by higher-ranked Freemasons.

In general, Mr. Lamy's thesis is persuasive; but this reader would have liked to learn more about what kind of a queer duck Jules Verne was that he took the trouble of structuring his novels in this way in the first place. Verne doesn't really seem to be proselytizing; it's more like it's all something of a gigantic lark for him. But there surely is no simple answer, and Mr. Lamy introduces a somber note at the beginning of his book, stating that toward the end of his life Verne was "haunted by some incomprehensible mystery that he refused to share with anyone and which sometimes appeared to be suffocating him."

All in all, this beautifully translated book is quite a treat for all lovers of great literature, and especially for those fascinated by the rarer and more occult forms of expression that literature in all of its endless variations can take.

Jules Verne - Initiate and Initiator.
_The Secret Message of Jules Verne:Decoding His Masonic, Rosicrucian, and Occult Writings_ is the first English translation by Destiny Books of the French book _Jules Verne, Initie et initiateur_ by French writer on the occult and esoterism Michel Lamy.This book which attempts to uncover a hidden occult agenda behind the writings of the famous French father of science-fiction Jules Verne is certain to appeal to those who are fans of such books as the novel _Foucault's Pendulum_ of Umberto Eco or the occult writings of Joscelyn Godwin.The French edition of this book has been mentioned in many sources of the occult literature and thus this English edition provides an important work for English readers and students of the occult and the esoteric.Jules Verne (1828 - 1905) was a French author who played an important role in the development of the science-fiction novel.However, according to author Michel Lamy, Verne had another side to him and his stories were frequently meant to be works of initiation.Lamy contends that Verne was a student of the occult as were many of the French literary during his time and that he played an important part in the French occult scene at the turn of the century.This book provides a fascinating account of the freemasonic and Rosicrucian aspects of Verne's work as well as discussing such obscure topics as the Rennes-le-chateau mystery, vampirism, the Bavarian Illuminati, and esoteric Nazism, favored by occultists.This book is certainly a fascinating look into the deeper and hidden aspects of a favorite novelist whose works remain a source of interest, fascination, and entertainment to this day.

In the Introduction to this book, Lamy begins by setting the stage for his esoteric understanding of author Jules Verne, noting the influence of the Rennes-le-chateau mystery on Verne.Lamy next turns to Part 1, "Jules Verne, Initiate and Initiator:An Opus in Service of Freemasonry", where he explains the freemasonic background of Verne.Lamy contends that Verne made use of a secret language, emphasizing the so-called mysterious "language of the birds" of the troubadours, and the secret slang argot used in Verne's novels.Lamy also explains the role of cryptography in Verne's novels, the role of the ouroboros, and the secret message of the circle in Verne's work.Lamy maintains that "the treasure is in the circle", noting the role of the island symbolism and maintaining that this reveals a hidden message behind Verne's work.Following this, Lamy turns to Jules Verne as a freemason.Lamy notes the freemasonic influence on Jules Verne, emphasizing the role of masonic and initiatory symbolism in _The Journey to the Center of the Earth_ and comparing Verne's novel _The Underground City_ to Mozart's masonic _The Magic Flute_.Part 2 of this book is entitled "Jules Verne and the Royal Treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau" and discusses the role of the bizarre Rennes-le-chateau mystery on nineteenth century French occultists and Jules Verne.Lamy begins by discussing the treasure of Father Berenger Saunier and the church of St. Mary Magdelene at Rennes-le-chateau.Lamy explains the bizarre happenings at Rennes-le-chateau and the strange situation concerning Father Saunier and his relationship to the occult as well as the role of the Merovingian kings, the painter Poussin ("ET IN ARCADIA EGO"), and the alleged treasure at Rennes-le-chateau and links to the treasure of Solomon (complete with infiltration by the Israeli secret service in an attempt to uncover this treasure).Lamy then explains how this mystery relates to Verne's novel _Clovis Dardentur_, relating this to the treasure, the Holy Grail, and such heretical groups as the medieval Cathars.Lamy next explains how Jules Verne relates to the mysterious Father Boudet, author of the bizarre _The True Celtic Language and the Cromlech of Rennes-les-Bains_.Lamy relates the writings of Verne to Boudet, the Hapsburgs and the Austrians, and the Rose Cross.Part 3 of this book is entitled "Jules Verne and the Secrets of the Rosicrucians", which explains the relationship of Verne to the mysterious sect of Rosicrucians.Lamy first mentions Verne's relationship to the Rosicrucians, emphasizing the role of the writings of Anatole France, the characters of Robur and Phileas Fogg, the quest for the Holy Grail of Otto Rahn, and other indications of Rosicrucian influence on the writings of Verne.Lamy next turns to Jules Verne and the secrets of Arsene Lupin, emphasizing the role of the countess of Cagliostro, Rennes-le-chateau, and the Merovingians.Following this, Lamy turns to the influence of the Golden Dawn on Jules Verne.Although Verne was likely himself not a member of the Golden Dawn, Lamy maintains that this secret society may have had some influence on Verne.In particular, Lamy traces the influence of Bram Stoker (famous author of the vampire novels featuring Dracula as well as a member of the Golden Dawn) on Verne, emphasizing the role of Verne's own vampire stories in _The Castle in the Carpathians_.Lamy maintains that vampires constitute a secret society based on a blood cult and comes to note the role of vampirism in the stories of Verne.Following this, Lamy turns to a discussion of Jules Verne and the hollow earth.Lamy notes the influence of such authors as Bulwer-Lytton (influenced by Rosicrucianism) and Edgar Allen Poe (who wrote of the hollow earth himself) on Jules Verne, emphasizing the role of Verne's story _The Journey to the Center of the Earth_.Lamy also maintains that Rennes-le-chateau serves as an entrance to the hollow earth.Part 4 of this book is entitled "Once Was a King of Thule", which discusses the esoteric political context of Verne's work.Lamy begins by discussing the role of the Bavarian Illuminati in the categorization of Verne's political beliefs.Lamy notes the contradictory aspect of much of Verne's political beliefs and ultimately concludes that Verne was aristocratic in outlook but also radical and anarchist.He notes the role of his stories and characters in maintaining such an anarchistic outlook though tinged with aristocratic viewpoints.Lamy also discusses "The Chalice in the Fog", noting the role of the Angelic Society, a literary society also called "the Fog", in promoting Verne's anarchistic views.Lamy notes the role of such authors as George Sand and Alexander Dumas as well as such works as the _Hypnerotomachia Poliphilia_ and the writings of H. P. Lovecraft (and his _Necronomicon_) and their relationship to Verne.Following this, Lamy turns to a discussion of "Night and Fog", where he discusses the role of Rudolf von Sebottendorf and his "Thule Society" as well as the influences of esoterism on Nazism and Communism and their relationship to Jules Verne.Lamy also mentions such traditionalist esoteric writers as Rene Guenon and Julius Evola in relation to Verne.Part 5 of this book is entitled "From Sable to the Golden N".Lamy begins by discussing the secrets of Captain Nemo (a name meaning "no one"), revealing the aristocratic anarchism of this character.Lamy finds an image of Verne's political outlook in the figure of Nemo.Lamy ends this book with a discussion of Jules Verne facing God.Here, the author notes the devastating role of the attempted murder of Jules Verne by his deranged nephew Gaston on Verne.Lamy also notes Verne's ensuing melancholy and his eventual turning away from esoterism and towards Catholicism towards the end of his life, where he finally embraced God again.In a brief Epilogue, Lamy once again explains the signifance of Verne's work and its esoteric aspects.

This book offers a fascinating account of the esoteric side to the writer Jules Verne, as well as an interesting history of the various occult movements of the Nineteenth Century.It is certain to interest those who are fascinated by such topics and thus offers an important contribution to the occult literature.As such it comes highly recommended.

An exact discussion and analysis of Verne's language choices reveals his wordplay, anagrams and even numerical combinations
Michael Lamy's THE SECRET MESSAGE OF JULES VERNE: DECODING HIS MASONIC, ROSICRUCIAN AND OCCULT WRITINGS reveals the science fiction writer's active participation in the occult community of his times in France - and how esoteric secrets can be found in his writings, from Rosicrucian secrets of immortality to Masonic initiation rites. An exact discussion and analysis of Verne's language choices reveals his wordplay, anagrams and even numerical combinations in a guide perfect for any interested in Verne's connections with the occult, and recommended for any library strong in Verne literary analysis as well as new age collections. ... Read more

Book Description
Having assured the members of London's exclusive Reform Club that he will circumnavigate the world in 80 days, Fogg - stiff, repressed, English - starts by joining forces with an irrepressible Frenchman, Passepartout, and then with a ravishing Indian beauty, Aouda.Together they slice through jungles, over snowbound passes, even across an entire isthmus - only to get back five mintues late.Fogg faces despair and suicide, but Aouda makes a new man of him, able to face even the Reform Club again.Around the World in Eighty Days (1872) contains a strong dose of post-Romantic reality plus extensive borrowing from the author's own Journey to England and Scotland - but not a shred of science fiction.Its modernism lies instead in the experimental literary technique, with parallel plots, a narrator constantly made to look foolish, four characters in search of their own unconscious, and a unique twisting of space and time.Verne's classic, a bestseller for over a century, has never appeared in a critical edition before.William Butcher's stylish new translation moves as fast and as brilliantly as Fogg's own journey. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Ce livre est parfait pour s'améliorer son français !
C'est le premier livre qui j'ai lu pour savourer et apprendre la langue française. Il a le vocabulaire simple pour que comprendre aux débutants. L'histoire est bien dit par Jules Vernes ET le livre fut à l'origine écrit en français ! Si vous aimez les classiques de littérature, lisez-le particulièrement en français, n'est-ce pas ?

Gavin, thanks for telling people how it ends.
This is a wonderful book. In my opinion, one of Verne's top 2 or 3. I absolutely loved 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Then, I read this book...Again, in my opion, Around The World In 80 Days is much, much better. This book has to recieve a 5 star rating. I've scarcly, if ever, read better. 20,000 Leagues was my first Verne book. This was my second. Now, I have read almost every Verne book I have been able to get my hands on. This book keeps you flipping pages late into the night. If you want to read a real classic filled with adventure, humor, and drama. Then I should definetly recommend this book, which, I am doing right now ...read Around The World In 80 Days by Jules Verne, and I promise you, you won't be able to put it down.

awesome book
This book was one of my favorite books of all. This book kept me on the edge of my seat till the verry end. Philias Foog maks a wager that he can travel around the world in eighty days. His peers take the wager thinking that there is no chance he can do it. He takes all the transportation you can think of. HE gets back and he thinks that he did not do it but he really did. He did not take in account that they were traveling east. That means you lose a couple of minitues a day. he finnaly realizes that and he goes into the club just as it turns 9:00.He did it!!

An excellent translation
This is Verne's classic story of the trip of Phileas Fogg (who is obsessed with time), Passeportout, Aouda, and Detective Fix around the world on a wager. The book is filled with beautiful time and space imagery throughout(I would bet that one could write an entire thesis on all the time andspace references in the novel). Thirty-three years after its publication,the world first learns of the space/time continuum (although I'm certainVerne was not anticipating Einstein). Fogg bets his fellow club membersthat he can circumnavigate the globe in a mere eighty days. He leavesimmediately with his valet Passeportout and is pursued by Detective Fix,who thinks he is a bank robber. Through many adventures, including therescue of Aouda from immolation, they all return to London. Interestingly,a few years later, after a number of improvements had been made in railwaysand roads, a U.S. journalist named Nellie Bly (the pseudonym of ElizabethCochrane) decided to attempt to break Fogg's "record." Leaving New York onNovember 14, 1889, she was able to circumnavigate the globe in 72 days, 6hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds. But, she didn't rescue a Hindu princess!It should be noted, however, that one has to be very careful concerning thetranslations of this novel. There are some terrible ones being sold. Thistranslation by William Butcher appeared in 1995. ... Read more

Book Description
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Many regard Jules Verne (1828-1905) as the father of modern science fiction. After running away to sea at the age of 11, and getting sent home in disgrace, Verne took up writing. His early works, mostly plays and librettos, met with little success. His first novel, "Five Weeks in a Balloon," based on extensive readings on science and geography, led him to a career writing adventure stories infused with meticulously accurate scientific elements. Novels such as "Journey to the Center of the Earth," "From the Earth to the Moon," "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," and many others followed, earning him a place as one of the most popular authors of all time, read by millions thorughout the world.

"Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon" (sometimes split into two volumes, "The Giant Raft" and "The Cryptogram") tells of a blackmail victim forced on trip down the Amazon to clear his good name. Filled with detailed descriptions of strange lands, animals, plants, and people, it remains a rare volume of Verne's adventure stories. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not typical Verne
Jules Verne is known as the father of science fiction, however this is one of the few novels that falls outside of that genre. Other non-science fiction works by Verne are sometimes lack-luster (specifically "Measuring the Meridian") , but that is not the case for "800 Leagues on the Amazon". While "800 Leagues" is a departure from Verne comfort zone he still delivers a novel that is full of intrigue and suspense.

The first 100 pages of "800 Leagues" reads very slow and is somewhat tedious, but the story does build suspense to and finishes strong. Verne is in his full glory has he paints the wildlife, fauna, and landscape of the Amazon region.Ulimately the story is one of family, honor, and loyalty despite the circumstances of life. Verne has always made "honor" a strong theme in his works and "800 Leagues" may be his finest exmple.

My final verdict - while this is not Verne's best work (my favorite will always be "The Mysterious Island") it is still in the top half of what I read of Verne. I would compare to "5 Weeks in a Balloon" with "800 Leagues" being slightly inferior. However, "800 Leagues" is still a must read for Verne fans. ... Read more

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Book Description
THE LITERARY DISCOVERY OF THE CENTURY

In 1863 Jules Verne, famed author of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in Eighty Days, wrote a novel that his literary agent deemed too farfetched to be published. More than one hundred years later, his great-grandson found the handwritten, never-before published manuscript in a safe. That manuscript was Paris in the Twentieth Century, an astonishingly prophetic view into the future by one of the most renowned science fiction writers of our time . . . ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

Verne as prophet rather than novelist
This was a long-lost Manuscript of Verne's; it was his second science fiction novel and one of his most pessimistic (probably because he had not yet achieved his full success in life). It was never fleshed out into a full length novel due to its lack of commercial prospects (his publisher rightly assumed that people were looking for more positive views of the future in his day, just as his positive visions of the future are unlikely to become best sellers today) Via extrapolation of the technology and social conditions of his day, he managed to make any number of amusingly accurate predictions as to how the future (1960s paris) would look. "The future," in fact, looked an awful lot like he said it would. Lots of high rises, international trade causing more world harmony, lots of "service industry" dominating the economy, huge universities (something that was not at all obvious in his day), elevators, keyboard computers, the end of classics and rhetoric as the central feature of higher education, fax machines, cars, industrialization of the arts, the metro: all predictions which more or less came true.

Of course, his metro was above ground like the T in Boston rather than the underground metro they have in Paris today. And his cars ran on compressed air and "carbolic acid" and such. And while weapons of mass destruction "rendered war ridiculous, and France finding it laughable, disarmed," war isn't so ridiculous that France has disarmed completely.

Amusing things he missed: ball point pens, databases, "industrialization" of pop culture, and the manner in which the arts became barbarous. He was convinced that all artistic things in the future would be machine-like; frankly I think that machine-art is one of the few areas in which modern art occasionally remains interesting or relevant. The main character of this novella was a sort of hippy, except that instead of cultivating the childish nonsense that hippies did in the 1960s, his character cultivated latin poetry.

I think people read a lot more into his "prophecies" than was appropriate. This was apparently a runaway best-seller in 1994 Paris. I would imagine that lots of pious french types read a lot into his predictions, moaning that it was as bad as he said and worse. In fact, life in the 1960s were a lot worse and a much, much better than Verne predicted. It was worse in that, instead of global trade issuing a new era of peace and making armies irrelevant, trade has really only made war between the western european nations unnecessary. Quite an accomplishment after countless millenia of slaughter (Europe has not been as peaceful as it is now since the Roman empire). It was worse in that, instead of poetry named "electric harmonies" and music called "a grand fantasy on the liquefaction of carbonic acid" we had the insipid poetry of Alan Ginsberg and Maya Angelou (or whatever the French were reading), and the vulgar, grody pop music of Serge Gainsbourg and the Monkeys. It was much better in that, while the old arts of opera, drama, painting, novels, symphony and so on are not "pop-art" as they were in the old days, but they are still well-supported hobbies of the bourgeoise and upper classes. It is much better in that, instead of starving all the people who could not deal with soul-killing 30 hour work weeks as happened in Verne's book, socialistic government agencies kept enough such idle people around to have street riots in 1968 and cause the downfall of the 4th republic (Verne assumed it would be an empire of Napoleon IV).
OK, maybe that part wasn't so much better.

It was better in that bestsellers were not "on the lubrication of driveshafts" but were "a history of sexuality by foucault" (one could read that as another form of driveshaft lubrication). I would imagine most of his 1994I would imagine most of his 1994 readers were not as choked up as Verne was on the loss of the tradition of the duel on the champs de mars and ancient martial traditions: though I rather share his sentiments; as his lead character quotes Stendhal, "fighting ennobles the soul."

A cute little read.

I can see why it was never released.
Verne's publisher called this "lackluster and lifeless," so it was locked up in a safe and never released.

Reading it, I can understand why. The characters are boring and predictable, and the dialogue is flat. Verne's vision of the future is not particularly intriguing.

Really, this book is only worth reading for Verne's sometimes prophetic predictions. He imagines the elevator, the automobile and fax machines, for example.

Not horrible, but not up to the standard I expect from Verne.

Verne was a genius!
Just finished reading it for the first time, and would (highly) recommend it to anyone.

I wonder what Verne would write were he alive today, looking at the world as it exists now.

He would no doubt prompt us to look at things in ways we might not otherwise.

He was a truly gifted writer, thinker and social observer.

Lost
If only it had stayed lost, maybe surviving only in rumor and speculation, we could have imagined the great things Verne might have predicted.We could have wondered at the clever plot twists.Just out of reach, it could have been great.

But in our hands, apart from his reporting on the newest of the new inventions of his time (e.g. a rudimentary fax/telegraph machine), we can only follow the thin, strident plot and marvel at the visions not seen.

Of course if you love Verne, you have to read it.Just lower your expectations a bit.There's no Captain Nemo here.

Paris AD 1960: A World of Cold Marvels
The story of the discovery of Jules Verne's novel PARIS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY is the stuff of fantasy: The 1863 unpublished manuscript was discovered lying in a safe some 130 years later.

It tells the tale of one Michel Dufrenoy, winner of a prize in poetry at a time when poetry, indeed literature, means nothing. Thousands of books are still published, but they are all engineering and scientific works with sesquipedalian titles. The real hero, however, is the city of Paris circa 1960: a city of engineering marvels with such devices as elevators, fax machines, underground trains, and gas-powered cabs. (Curiously, this future world also contains quill pens and giant accounting ledger books with scaffolding.)

Verne's vision of the future is endlessly fascinating, especially as so many of his predictions have come true. Where the young Verne faltered, however, is his failure to display the rambunctious 19th century optimism of his later works. Instead of a triumphant tone, we have a world in which the individual who refuses to be a cog in the great works of society becomes marginalized and ultimately crushed. PARIS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY is a young writer's experiment that was rejected by publishers of the day, ostensibly because its vision was too far-fetched (it isn't), but oddly not because it was pervaded with a feeling of doom (which it certainly is).

The book makes interesting reading for its insights, but fails as a story. The hero and his struggling friends are sadly short-changed. ... Read more

Book Description
Based on the true story of Alexander Selkirk, who survived alone for almost five years on an uninhabited island off the coast of Chile, The Mysterious Island is considered by many to be Jules Verne’s masterpiece. “Wide-eyed mid-nineteenth-century humanistic optimism in a breezy, blissfully readable translation by Stump” (Kirkus Reviews), here is the enthralling tale of five men and a dog who land in a balloon on a faraway, fantastic island of bewildering goings-on and their struggle to survive as they uncover the island’s secret.


From the Trade Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

I'll Be A Castaway On This Island
If ever there was a title that lived up to its name, it's this book's title. Jules Verne, who I am now convinced is a consummate storyteller, weaves a tale that is so fascinating and readable that I constantly found myself musing over its contents even when I wasn't reading. My only other acquaintance with Jules Verne's writings was with "Around the World in Eighty Days," which surprised me by how entertaining it was. I went into "The Mysterious Island" a little more prepared, but Mr. Verne still managed to throw me off guard. This is a great read for two reasons. First, it is an incredibly fascinating account of survival. Not just in the same vein as "Robinson Crusoe," and "The Swiss Family Robinson" (which Verne deftly acknowledges in the story itself), though in many ways it is very similar to those accounts, but it takes a whole new approach, which raises the castaway situation from, not just survival, but civilization making. I suppose, if you are not much interested in how tools are made, how things are manufactured, the rudiments of civilization itself, the book might seem to drag for you and might even seem to be taken from the pages of a textbook. I, for one, even though I am the farthest thing from a scientist, delighted in this instructional storytelling. Everything seemed possible, the ingenuity of man's mind was glorified, obstacles of nature were surmounted with the cleverest tricks. If ever I were to be a castaway, this book would be a must have. Even though the narrative did take an instructional tone at times, and I did slow down my reading, I never did dislike it. I always came back to the book with enthusiasm. And, I must add, Verne did an incredible job of making some of the most, seemingly mundane things spellbinding. One scene, where the castaways are attempting to light a fire with the one match that they have was absolutely gripping, my palms were nearly sweating. I will never light a match frivolously again (I know that's a lie, but it sure felt that way when I was reading). That was one reason that I loved the book. If that were the only aspect of the story, I would have walked away loving it. But Verne doesn't stop there. He also approaches a completely different angle of storytelling, and this is where the "mystery" in the title comes into play. Boy, is he subtle. Man, does Verne play his cards just right when he introduces the mystery of the island. Some strange things occur, but they aren't completely out of the ordinary; they are possibly explained; they are quickly forgotten. But then something else happens, he drops some other subtle hints here and there. He lays it on so smoothly, that it isn't until half way through the novel that you realize that there is something else entirely going on here. Some strange, inexplicable presence. Something that, surprisingly, you realize is integral to the plot (even though you knew from the title that would be the case, Verne lures you into forgetting it). Once the mystery finally starts to take center stage, Verne coyly drops other hints and clues, but never unveils the whole thing, leaving you guessing. At a couple of points, he nearly drove me over the edge. I had to know, and I didn't like being played with. But quickly enough, Verne makes amends and you move on until you catch the next hint. My guesses for the strange events were all over the spectrum, ranging from deity, to fables, to time traveling, among other wild speculations. But with each successive hint, I had to reassess. As the mystery becomes more bold and the events more blatant, there were times where I was almost bursting at the seams to know what was behind it all. If you are reading this and thinking that this is a rather large setup, leading to what must surely be a huge let down, then you are thinking exactly what I thought. I kept on thinking that there was nothing Verne could do to legitimize these events in a consistent way that fits with everything. So this begs the question, does Verne pull it off? Does the mystery fit the brilliant set up? My answer: Yes and no. When the mystery was finally revealed (and yes, it is revealed ... I wondered for a while whether it would even be resolved at all), it made sense, and it fit, and I believed it within Verne's realm of storytelling. But I did feel like it was a little bit of a cheat. Not a big one, mind you, but a little bit of a cut corner. I don't want to give anything away, because I didn't get such an advantage, nor would I have wanted one, but the mystery relies on something that I don't know is completely fair. Yet, in the end, I figured that Verne still did a tremendous job. As I looked back on the setup, and the experience, I realized that I really enjoyed every step of the way ... even if not knowing nearly drove me crazy at some points. Thinking about this, and looking at my very long review which such masterful storytelling has elicited, I have suddenly come to the conclusion that "The Mysterious Island" deserves my highest recommendation for that reason alone. The journey was worth the destination, and even if the journey did manage to slightly outshine the destination, it was a pretty satisfying place to end anyway.

A Wondrous Adventure!
Note: Your "helpful" votes are appreciated. Thanks

To escape the Civil War, some men steal a hot-air balloon, and caught in a huge storm, they finally land, of course, near a "mysterious island." I saw the movie fifty years ago as a child, and later read the novel. The images have stayed with me all these years.

What a debt we owe to Jules Verne for taking us so many fantastic places!

As for the ecology of the island, I think some readers are taking the story too seriously. Just lay back and have a great adventure. It's easy to pass over the things that we wouldn't do today. If they had turned the island into a nature preserve, there wouldn't be the same wondrous story.

Ten stars if I could give that many!

And if you like lost-on-an-island adventures, be sure to read Richard Laymon's "Island." Highly recommended! Unput-downable!
Island

excellent book
excellent book, but you obviously don't need me to tell you this.just look at how long its been in production.

Saddening metaphor of human nature
I really love fantasy and adventure novels, maybe because I am a geek, maybe because I am immature, but I really do. This book however left me with a bitter taste on my lips. I enjoy Verne's fantasy and his easy and fluid writing syle but I cannot stand the general tone of this one novel.. which is about a few guys that , while involved in the american civil war, have the very bad idea of flying in a balloon during a storm and end up stranded in your classic desert island. As soon as they land on this island they start laying waste on it killing whatever animal crosses their path, even if just to make candles and make their house a little more comfy. Not happy with that they even manage to fabric explosives to bomb the island here and there. Before you know, they have changed a luxurious, splendid , wild tropical island in a boring american ranch. A clear example and metaphor of the well known human attitude for consuming , exploiting and polluting nature. Nowhere in the book Verne takes the chance to make his characters reflect on the absurdity of war even if the peaceful life they were leading in the island would make the ideal contrast for it. I won't say anything about Ned, one of the characters, an ex slave freed by his master who seems to be there just to blindly follow his master like a dog. I think it 's self-commenting.
Overall, still a good adventure book, but also an (unwanted) saddening portrait of human nature.

Survivor 19th Century Style!
This is my favorite book by Jules Verne and I've always been disappointed that it is so underappreciated.

After escaping a confederate prison camp in a hot air balloon, five men are stranded on a remote island. The characters prove to be innovative and determined souls and set about creating a life for themselves using their knowledge of chemistry and other sciences.

The title of the book stems from a series of mysterious incidents that seem to be the work of a benevolent force helping the survivors.

Their ingenuity makes for fascinating reading and once again validates Jules Verne as one of the most intuitive authors of all time. ... Read more

Book Description
According to Wikipedia: "a humorous science fantasy story written in 1865 by Jules Verne and is one of the earliest entries in that genre. It tells the story of three well-to-do members of a post-American Civil War gun club who build an enormous sky-facing columbiad and launch themselves in a projectile/spaceship from it to a Moon landing."Download Description
Jules Verne's classic tale of the first trip from the Earth to the Moon. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Free SF Reader
Unfortunately, From the Earth to the Moon always struck me as being on the rather dull side, so it took me a while to get through it the first time I read it.I can't really recommend this to many, except perhaps those interested in the history of science fiction, or really big Verne fans.The story of the first trip to Earth's satellite.

A Science Fiction Classic
Jules Verne, the father of science fiction, made several predictions
that came true in this book.The book is exciting from cover to cover.
It deserves more credit than it seems to be getting.It was written over
one hundred years ago.I would recommend this book to any science fiction
fan.Danny Fleming, author of How to Prove The Collatz Conjecture.

And interesting ride...
I love the way that Verne ended the book!His sense of humor is so subtle, and yet so great.

An Obsolete Translation--Barnes&Noble ISBN:0760765197
This translation, one of the Barnes and Noble "Classics Editions", is the 1874 English translation by Edward Roth, a Philadelphia school-teacher. In no sense a translation, it is more a parody or retelling of the French original with many embelishments and additions by the author. The editor is Aaron Parett, an English professor from Montana. In an appendix the editor mentions that for furthur reading one might try the complete translation by Walter James Miller, "The Annotated Jules Verne: From the Earth to the Moon" published by Crowell: 1978 and reprinted by Gramercy: 1995. (In reading reviews, make sure the review applies to this ISBN: 07060765197)

A Good Read
My boyfriend bought From the Earth to the Moon, and since he is an Astrophysics student I expected that he would have enjoyed finding about people's conceptions about going to the moon at that early time.He however summed up the book by saying that it contained a lot of basic things didn't make much sense. Well, from a layman's perspective I found from the Earth to the Moon engaging.It goes into the technical aspects of going to the moon and involves a reasonable amount of logic, Physics and Astronomy.Even from my scientifically deprived perspective, a lot of things in the book didn't make much sense, such as the actual method of getting to the moon, but this doesn't really take away from the book - it adds greatly to its appeal.The book contained some bizarre bits of humour and its whimsical nature never bordered into the ridiculous. I was kept wondering how much of this was actually going to work, and what these poor souls were going to come up with next.Compared to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and even Journey to the Centre of the Earth however, From the Earth to the Moon is noticeably less imaginative. Verne uses everyday objects and ideas to make his ideas a reality, and much unlike his other works, doesn't stray far from the earthly. Some people may feel cheated by the predictable conclusion, but all in all From the Earth to the Moon is a good read.If you drop at the sight of f(x) = y, then this book is not for you because it involves some logical thinking, Centripetal forces and the like which may be hard to assimilate.If you really know your Physics theory then you may not appreciate the book either because of the theoretical meanderings that may have limited basis today. If you, like me are somewhere in the middle of these two extremes then From the Earth to the Moon is definitely worth your time.

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Around the World in Eighty Days (1873) relates the hair-raising journey made as a wager by the Victorian gentleman Phileas Fogg, who succeeds - but only just! - in circling the globe within eighty days. The dour Fogg's obsession with his timetable is complemented by the dynamism and versatility of his French manservant, Passepartout, whose talent for getting into scrapes brings colour and suspense to the race against time.Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863) was Verne's first novel. It documents an apocryphal jaunt across the continent of Africa in a hydrogen balloon designed by the omniscient, imperturbable and ever capable Dr Fergusson, the prototype of the Vernian adventurer. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

One of Verne's best books
One of the greatest adventure books of all time, whose basic plot has been copied by many other books and movies (including the Die Hard films). In the 1850s, the Argentine navy erects a lighthouse at Isla de los Estados, in the southern tip of South America, near the Magellan Strait that connects the Atlantic and the Pacific and in the turbulent waters that had witnessed many shipwrecks throughout the centuries. Left behind in the lighthouse to guard it are three sailors, without knowing that in the island lie pirates with a plot to takeover the lighthouse in order to intentionally shipwreck the ships passing by and take over their treasures. A sailor escapes alive the seizure of the lighthouse by the pirates and a game of cat and mouse begins (if you seen Die Hard, you can imagine the plot, with the guard trying to hit back at the pirates). A great adventure book that you can read fast and easily.

Survival and Suspense
Don't read this book execting all of the "good guys" to survive. It's too realistic for that, but it was great. It had a pleasing ending and the "bad guys" got their dues. If you like modern-day stories, don't read this. If you like classic adventures, you'll like it. Also, it made me feel what the main character was feeling.

Early thrill-a-minute novel
Beware:I will give away some of the plot

The modern action novel has its English antecedents in the books of Robert Louis Stevenson, and, it turns out, its French antecedents in those of Jules Verne.This short and exciting novel could be described as Die Hard with pirates.On an Island on the southernmost tip of South America a lighthouse is built and three men are left behind to tend it.The island is also inhabited by pirates, who capture a damaged schooner, bring it into the port with the lighthouse, and immediately kill two of the lighthouse keepers.The third escapes and must survive on his wits and attempt to stop the pirates from leaving the island until a group of soldiers come to relieve him.Pretty gripping stuff.

I highly recommend this for those interested in seeing the roots of the modern action novel (who would have thought that the literary path to Alistair MacLean and Robert Ludlum would have passed through Jules Verne), as well as anyone interested in lighthouses (the descriptions of the island and the function of the lighthouse are great) and, of course, Jules Verne.It is also great to compare this to Robert Louis Stevenson's seafaring novels, especially Treasure Island, Ebb-Tide and The Wrecker.

The writing in this translation is a bit simple.I suspect that this is due to the translator, who was not an artist but a mechanic.Based on a brief comparison with a French text of the novel, however, the translation seems accurate, and it is definitely readable. ... Read more

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An adventure set in India in the period following the Mutiny, when the country seethed with discontent. Pursued by the authorities, one rebel plots to revenge himself against the British and make himself ruler of the land. Part II of "The Steam House." ... Read more

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Jules Verne is best known for such novels as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in 80 Days, and Journey to the Center of the Earth, but he did a great deal of other work as well -- he published two books a year for decades, and left behind an oeuvre that approaches vast.

In this novel, published in this edition as An Antarctic Mystery but also known as The Sphinx of the Ice Fields, Captain Len Guy's brother is on the ship Jane when it goes missing, and the Captain must convince the crew of the Halbrane to take a long and dangerous trip to Antarctic in hope of finding his brother and any other survivors of the Jane. But strange as the journey may be, it's nowhere near as strange as what they will find waiting at its end. . . .Download Description
I think there is some need for doubt, I answered "the singular character of the hero of those adventures being taken into consideration--at least concerning the phenomena of the island of Tsalal. And we know that Arthur Pym was mistaken in asserting that Captain William Guy and several of his companions perished in the landslip of the hill at Klock-Klock." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great book - too many errors
The number of misspelled and missing words in this book make it very hard to read at times.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story and will try to find a better copy.

sequel to Poe's novel
I haven't read this yet, but I thought people might like to know that this is a sequel to the only novel of Edgar Allen Poe. H.P. Lovecraft also wrote a sequel and so, in his way, did Rudy Rucker. The rating is how I feel about Verne in general (I've read some 40 or so books of his) and because this system won't accept a review without a rating. ... Read more

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During his twilight years, the French author Jules Verne (1828-1905) wrote two original sequels to books that had fired his own youthful imagination but which he felt to be incomplete: Johann Wyss's Swiss Family Robinson and Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Arthur Gordon Pym (1845) was only one of many Poe stories which Verne admired; no other single author had more impact on his writing. Verne acknowledged this debt in his only major piece of literary criticism, a detailed 1864 article entitled 'Edgard [sic] Poe and His Work.' Poe (1809-1849) was just emerging on the French literary scene in translation as Verne was writing his first plays and short stories. Verne was familiar with a broad range of Poe's works, the well-remembered stories as well as many that are obscure today. What is to be admired in Poe, Verne wrote, 'are the novelties of his situations, the discussion of little-known facts, the observations of the unhealthy faculties of Mankind, the choice of subject-matter, the ever-strange personality of his characters, their nervous, sickly temperaments, their ways of expressing themselves by bizarre interjections. And yet, among all these improbabilities, exists at times a verisimilitude that grips the credulity of the reader.'Download Description
During his twilight years, the French author Jules Verne (1828-1905) wrote two original sequels to books that had fired his own youthful imagination but which he felt to be incomplete: Johann Wyss's Swiss Family Robinson and Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Arthur Gordon Pym (1845) was only one of many Poe stories which Verne admired; no other single author had more impact on his writing. Verne acknowledged this debt in his only major piece of literary criticism, a detailed 1864 article entitled "Edgard [sic] Poe and His Work." Poe (1809-1849) was just emerging on the French literary scene in translation as Verne was writing his first plays and short stories. Verne was familiar with a broad range of Poe's works, the well-remembered stories as well as many that are obscure today. What is to be admired in Poe, Verne wrote, "are the novelties of his situations, the discussion of little-known facts, the observations of the unhealthy faculties of Mankind, the choice of subject-matter, the ever-strange personality of his characters, their nervous, sickly temperaments, their ways of expressing themselves by bizarre interjections. And yet, among all these improbabilities, exists at times a verisimilitude that grips the credulity of the reader." ... Read more

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Captivating audiences in 1873 upon its first publication, Around the World in Eighty Days takes readers on a daring and extraordinary adventure. Englishman Phileas Fogg risks his life's fortune in a bet that he can circumnavigate the entire globe in only eighty days. Accompanied by his servant, Passepartout, Fogg travels by every means possible through some of the most dangerous conditions, all the while being followed by Detective Fix, a bounty hunter whose goal is to sabotage Fogg's plans.