Line #18 Literature/TheMysteriousIsland


1	[[quoteright:213:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mysterious_island_5.jpg]]
2	''The Mysterious Island'' (or ''L'Île Mystérieuse'', if you want to use the original French title) is a novel by Creator/JulesVerne. Originally published in 1874, the book is essentially a castaway story. During the American Civil War, five Unionists and their dog companion escape a Confederate prison in a stolen reconnaissance balloon. Unfortunately, a storm blows them off course and they end up on a deserted island in the Pacific where they are forced to make their new home. This being a Verne story, our heroes are far too industrious to merely ''survive''. Over the course of the book, they tame the island and reconstruct the civilization they left behind. They become quite content in their new home, but never enough to abandon their ultimate quest to re-establish contact with the rest of the world.
3
4	If this sounds familiar; that's because it's based on Alexander Selkirk and other real-life sailors stuck on deserted islands whose life-stories had already served as the basis for ''Literature/RobinsonCrusoe'' and ''Literature/TheSwissFamilyRobinson''. Possibly as a way to distinguish itself from those books and Verne's own previous {{Robinsonade}} stories; ''The Mysterious Island'' adds a mystery sub-plot. Someone or something is watching over the castaways; apparently aiding them at times, but whether their ultimate objective in doing so is for good or ill remains unclear for much of the book.
5
6	It was adapted into film as ''Film/MysteriousIsland'' in 1961, and featured Creator/HerbertLom (Chief Inspector Dreyfus from ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' films) as [[spoiler:Captain Nemo]]. While (mostly) faithful, there was a lot of AdaptationExpansion with the addition of numerous gigantic creatures on the island, brought to life courtesy of special effects maestro Creator/RayHarryhausen. It was adapted into television by the CBC in 1995. It was adapted again in 2005 by the Creator/HallmarkChannel, directed by Creator/RussellMulcahy and starring Creator/KyleMaclachlan, Creator/GabrielleAnwar and Creator/PatrickStewart. Yet another adaptation was made by the Scy Fy channel, and featured Creator/LochlynMunro as Cyrus Harding, Creator/GinaHolden as CanonForeigner Julia Fogg, Creator/PruittTaylorVince as Gideon Spilett, and father/son duo Creator/MarkSheppard (who also directed) and William Morgan Sheppard. The telefilm was unique in the fact that [[spoiler: the novel and most of the other films' leading character of Gideon Spilett is shot in the balloon and killed off in the first act, before they reach the island.]]
7
8	The novel was adapted twice for French TV 10 years apart: a two-part TV movie in 1963 and 6-episode miniseries in 1973, featuring Creator/OmarSharif and Creator/JessHahn. The 1973 series was quite faithful to the original novel. Footage from the series was edited into a feature film that was released in French theatres later in 1973.
9
10	In 2004, Kheops Studio produced ''VideoGame/ReturnToMysteriousIsland'', a distant sequel about an original character discovering [[spoiler:the ruins of the Nautilus]].
11
12	Fun fact: While this isn't the most famous of Verne's works, it has the distinction of having inspired two major franchises: ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' and ''Series/{{Lost}}''. It was also loosely adapted into the sequel to ''Film/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth2008'' (itself based on [[Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth another of Verne's novels]]), as ''Film/Journey2TheMysteriousIsland''.
13
14	Copyright has expired on this book, and it's available on Project Gutenberg [[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1268 here]]. If you own a Kindle, it's also available as a free download from Amazon.
15	----
16	!!This book contains examples of:
17
18	* ALightInTheDistance: When the castaways are on their way back to Lincoln Island from Tabor Island; a squall blows them off course, but then they see a powerful light (visible at twenty miles) on the shore of their island that guides them home. They're rather disconcerted to learn, later, that their friends on the island '''didn't''' make that light. [[spoiler: Captain Nemo did it[]].
19	* AllAnimalsAreDomesticated: Pretty much any creature the protagonists bother to capture (as opposed to shoot and eat on sight) are quickly and easily put to use as livestock. This is even true of animals like bighorn sheep or onagers, which violently resist human contact in real life, and several kinds of birds that even modern zoos struggle to keep alive in captivity.
20	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The animals on Lincoln Island in the book are a mismash of real animals from places as far apart as Indonesia and the Americas, without regard for how they could have gotten to the island.
21	** Five ordinary men dogpile and hogtie a six-foot adult male orangutan without suffering so much as a scratch. Orangutans are much stronger in grappling than humans, and Jup is ''huge'' for his species, so the cornered, frightened ape should realistically have maimed or killed enough of its attackers to spur them to shoot him. He likewise could have ripped his way loose easily from any cordage the castaways (who hadn't yet manufactured chains or cable) had at their disposal, if they ''had'' overwhelmed him.
22	* ArtisticLicenseGeology: Two islands appear in the book. Tabor Island seems to be a typical Pacific coral island or cay, without much local metal or mineral resources. Lincoln Island, the mysterious island of the title, is a volcanic island that eventually [[spoiler:is almost entirely submerged after a cataclysmic eruption]]. Such islands usually occur in arcs, with several relatively near to one another forming an island chain. Perhaps Tabor and Lincoln Islands could be the only ones above water. But Verne ''also'' had large parts of Lincoln Island be made of granitic and sedimentary rocks with concentrated veins of iron and copper; implausible even according to late-19th century knowledge of geology.
23	* TheAtoner: [[spoiler: Ayrton. Big time.]] %%need to elaborate on this
24	* BackForTheFinale: [[spoiler: According to a brief line at the end, the surviving characters of ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'' and ''Literature/InSearchOfTheCastaways'' all become regular guests at the castaways' new colony in Iowa]].
25	* BadassBookworm: Cyrus spends most of the novel using his brains to solve problems, but he's a good shot and even shanks a pirate.
26	* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:Nemo, near the end.]] %%needs elaboration
27	* CanonWelding: Places Verne's earlier books [[spoiler: ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'' and ''Literature/InSearchOfTheCastaways'']] in the same continuity, although that leads to a SeriesContinuityError in both.
28	* DarkestHour: [[spoiler:The pirates are on the island, Ayrton is missing, and most of the castaways are isolated in the main farm after Herbert was shot.]] %%elaborate?
29	* DesertedIsland: Lincoln Island isn't even on the maps. Tabor Island is, but the only person on it is a [[GoMadFromTheIsolation castaway gone mad]].
30	** [[spoiler: And, of course, Lincoln Island has an inhabitant - captain Nemo lives underneath it.]]
31	* TheDeterminator: Everyone, although Pencroff is probably the most extreme case. If you were ever trapped on a deserted island in real life with these guys, not only would you be fine, but your morale would be at an all-time high. %%huh? some examples maybe, instead of character shilling?
32	* DeusExMachina: The whole plot is basically a sequence of those [[spoiler:Cyrus and Top being rescued, finding a crate of tools and useful items, tossing down a ladder, lighting a beacon during a storm, blowing up the pirates...]]. In a surprisingly Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad way, they almost always create ''more'' suspense than they resolve, until the very end [[spoiler: when it turns out that most of them have been Nemo's doing]].
33	* DiabolusExMachina: The eruption of the supposedly extinct volcano combined with underlying geology that makes an [[EarthShatteringKaboom island-destroying explosion]] extremely likely.
34	* DroppedABridgeOnHim: In the very last chapter, [[spoiler:Jup the Orangutan]] is off-handedly mentioned to have fallen into a crevice and died.
35	* DubNameChange: Some of the character names are changed in the earlier translations into English, e. g. Cyrus Smith being turned into Cyrus Harding, and Pencroff becoming Pencroft. Pretty much all translations changed Harbert to Herbert.
36	* EagleLand: Verne's not nearly as overt here as he was with ''From the Earth To The Moon'' with his admiration for American resourcefulness, pluck and grit.
37	* ElaborateUndergroundBase: The castaways build one by draining a set of caverns formed by an underground stream. Don't ask how the caverns have level floors or were eroded through otherwise unbroken granite.
38	* EvilCounterpart: The six pirates that survive the sinking of ''Speedy'' to the castaways. %%debatable, they're not nearly as developed
39	* FlippingHelpless: The protagonists flip over a giant sea turtle, then they leave to get a cart. When they're back, the turtle has been carried away by a high tide [[spoiler:or helped by captain Nemo]] and escaped.
40	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Early on in the book, the narration establishes that such is Cyrus' ScienceHero ability that you could tell the heroes the island was an erupting volcano and they'd only point at Cyrus and say he could handle it. Guess what happens at the end.
41	* GoMadFromTheIsolation: [[spoiler:Ayrton.]] He's in a pretty bad state when they find him, to say the least...
42	* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: Most of the colonists (save Pencroff) believe the stranded pirates should be shown mercy and allowed to live, after seeing how repentant Ayrton became. Then they shoot Herbert.
43	* HappyEnding: [[spoiler: Verne originally wanted a BittersweetEnding where the castaways are somewhat depressed at having lost the Island. His editor had him change it to an upbeat one where they buy some territory in the state of Iowa and create a replica of the island to serve as a colony and a tourist attraction.]]
44	* HardToLightFire: The castaways lose all their matches save one in the balloon crash. Pencroff fails to get the match to light, since he is too nervous; his hands are shaking and he's afraid he will snap it.
45	* IslandOfMystery: The island they find themselves on is seemingly uninhabited, but it quickly becomes apparent there is some kind of presence there.
46	* IsItSomethingYouEat: Pencroff. Surrounded by the wonders of nature, his interests are still primarily culinary.
47	* LandlineEavesdropping: An extremely early example. The colonists set up a telegraph line between their two main locations on Lincoln Island. [[spoiler:Captain Nemo]] covertly patches in another wire and listens in, before eventually revealing his presence.
48	* LargeHam: Pencroff. When the colonists test out the cannons they recently installed, his hurrahs are as loud as the explosions.
49	* MacGyvering: From a couple of watches and a dog's collar to a technical civilization.
50	* MeaningfulName: The reporter is named Gideon ''Spilett'' (i.e. "spill it," as in break the news).
51	* MisplacedVegetation / MisplacedWildlife: Lincoln Island has frankly implausible levels of biodiversity and has species that couldn't realistically exist in the latitude it's supposed to lie in. This was something that even Verne's ''contemporaries'' noticed. His answer? A wink, followed by a 19th-century version of the MST3KMantra slash RuleOfCool argument.
52	* MysteriousBacker: [[spoiler: The source of most unexplained events on the island turns out to be captain Nemo helping the protagonists out of boredom and because he find them sympathetic.]]
53	* NamedInTheSequel: The novel delves into [[spoiler:[[Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea Captain Nemo's]] backstory and reveals his original name, Dakkar]].
54	* NarrativeProfanityFilter: Pencroff's insults are sometimes described by their severity rather than being listed.
55	* NoteFromEd: Verne's creative solution to the SeriesContinuityError mentioned above (see the "Canon Welding" entry) was to [[LampshadeHanging call attention to it]] in a couple of footnotes supposedly added by the publisher. [[FootnoteFever Each of which simply refers the reader to the other footnote!]]
56	* TheRemnant: [[spoiler:Nemo]]'s origin reveals that he is an exiled Indian prince [[ShellShockedVeteran still fighting]] the Sepoy Rebellion and hating the British.
57	* RecycledPremise: Jules Verne had written Robinsonade stories before ''The Mysterious Island'' and wrote several more afterwards.
58	* TheReveal %%needs explanation
59	* {{Robinsonade}}: This is played straight with the colonists, but deconstructed with [[spoiler:Ayrton]]. Apparently, having beed stranded alone is to blame for the state in which they find him.
60	* RunningGag: Herbert and Pencroff continue the identify an animal by its scientific name/edible or not gag from 20,000 Leagues.
61	* SeriesContinuityError: The book's chronology is flat out incompatible with [[spoiler: ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'' which takes place in 1866.]] This book starts during Civil War Siege of Richmond, which ended in March 1865; but is supposed to be set 16 years after the events in that book.
62	* ScienceHero:
63	** Cyrus Smith. He's stated to be an "engineer", but seems to be equally at home with physics, botany, chemistry and metallurgy. Between his knowledge and the whole group's determination, they build a plantation, an explosives plant, a smeltery, and a telegraph system out of little more than raw materials (plus a little help from a mysterious benefactor).
64	** Herbert studied botany as a hobby, which comes in useful on the island when it comes to identifying plants.
65	* ShipwreckStart: The protagonists are a group of Union [=POWs=] of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar who flee from Confederate captivity on a stolen reconnaissance balloon, only to get swept up by a sudden storm and to crash near an uninhabited island in the Pacific. This being a Creator/JulesVerne novel, the five of them prove way too industrious for a regular {{Robinsonade}} and immediately get to reinventing most of modern civilization on the island.
66	* StuffBlowingUp: Realistically portrayed when Cyrus Smith manufactures nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose. Verne was correct with the chronology here, with the castaways' balloon flight removing them from contact with the world in early 1865 when dynamite had not yet been invented and nitrocellulose / guncotton was available but very dangerous to make.
67	* SolarPoweredMagnifyingGlass: Cyrus Smith [=McGyvered=] a water-filled lens from two watch glasses as the castaways initially had no other means of starting the fire.
68	* UndyingLoyalty: Neb is a former slave who was freed by Cyrus Smith, yet he continues to call Cyrus 'Master'.
69	* WackyAmericansHaveWackyNames: Bonadventure, Gideon, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus...
70	* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: [[spoiler:The animal characters are all quickly killed off in the finale, except for Top, the only one colonists brought with themselves.]]
71	* WithThisHerring: The characters start out with not much more than the wreckage of a balloon, whatever little is in their pockets, and [[spoiler:supply drops arranged by Nemo]]. They end up with a working telegraph line, railway, and iron mine. It's basically the 19th century equivalent of ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' without the creepers.

Context Literature / TheMysteriousIsland