The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
The genre of the work is presented as a novel-robinsonian, telling the events that occur on an imaginary island with people who happen to be there, crashed a hot air balloon.
The compositional structure of the novel consists of sixty-two chapters, which are divided into three parts, telling the story of the crash, the discovery of the island and the discovery of its mystery.
The storyline of the novel unfolds at the moment of the crash of the balloon travelers on a desert island, where the heroes show true human qualities, not falling into despair and melancholy, but making attempts to live in difficult conditions, equipping the island for the necessities of life. While living on the island, the heroes have various adventures and encounters, which they cope with with honor and dignity.
The main characters in the novel are five men, presented as Americans who find themselves on a deserted island located in the southern part of the mainland. The main character is introduced as the talented engineer and scientist Cyrez Smith, who is the soul and leader of the group of travelers. He is accompanied by a servant, Nab, who is a former slave, a Negro.
In addition, Gedeon Spilet, presented by the author as a war journalist and friend of Smith, who is distinguished by his energy and determination and is a passionate hunter, Pencrof, portrayed as a sailor, a kind and straightforward man, an enterprising daredevil and an avid smoker, and Herbert Brown, an orphan who is the son of the captain of the ship in which Pencrof sailed in the past, who has a deep knowledge of the natural sciences, are also on the journey.
There are also animals in the piece, portrayed in the form of Cyrus Smith’s faithful dog Top, as well as Yup, an orangutan tamed during a wild ape invasion of the Granite Palace. In addition, another resident is announced on the island, which the travelers discover, in the person of Tom Ayrton, who is a wild madman who has subsequently regained his sanity.
A peculiarity of the work is the inclusion by the author in the composition of the characters of the novel of his famous hero Captain Nemo, who is found only in the final narrative, but throughout the story is marked by his invisible presence.
A distinctive feature of the novel is the writer’s numerous use of scientific and cognitive material.
In the novel’s finale, all of the characters are rescued, with the exception of Joop, and sent to the mainland.
