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A review by kunalsen
The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
4.0
I read it first in a Bengali translation in my early teen years and immediately fell in love with it. By that time I had already developed a deep love for science and technology, and this novel was a celebration of human ingenuity, where a bunch of castaways use their brain and their scientific knowledge to create modern living conditions in a deserted island. Sitting in one corner of India, I did not realize then that the characters in this book are not from Jules Verne’s France, but were American’s escaping a Civil War prison. Neither did I see the prevalent attitude towards black people or the great apes. While it did make me cringe at times as I read the book after 40 years, this time in English, I could see that the author was only reflecting what most white people believed in those days.
It is nothing short of amazing that this century and a half old novel still reads as a great adventure and remains a page turner. Our understanding of many things have changed since this book was written, but the spirit of enlightenment still remain valid. It still effectively conveys the idea that with knowledge and rational thinking we can overcome many of our adversities. The most satisfying thing for me is to return to one of my most favorite fictional characters from my childhood – Captain Nemo of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
It is nothing short of amazing that this century and a half old novel still reads as a great adventure and remains a page turner. Our understanding of many things have changed since this book was written, but the spirit of enlightenment still remain valid. It still effectively conveys the idea that with knowledge and rational thinking we can overcome many of our adversities. The most satisfying thing for me is to return to one of my most favorite fictional characters from my childhood – Captain Nemo of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.