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 Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson. 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.
It was adapted into film as Mysterious Island in 1961, and featured Herbert Lom (Chief Inspector Dreyfus from The Pink Panther films) as Captain Nemo. While (mostly) faithful, there was a lot of Adaptation Expansion with the addition of numerous gigantic creatures on the island, brought to life courtesy of special effects maestro Ray Harryhausen. It was adapted into television by the CBC in 1995. It was adapted again in 2005 by the Hallmark Channel, directed by Russell Mulcahy and starring Kyle Maclachlan, Gabrielle Anwar and Patrick Stewart. Yet another adaptation was made by the Scy Fy channel, and featured Lochlyn Munro as Cyrus Harding, Gina Holden as Canon Foreigner Julia Fogg, Pruitt Taylor Vince as Gideon Spilett, and father/son duo Mark Sheppard (who also directed) and William Morgan Sheppard. The telefilm was unique in the fact that 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.
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 Omar Sharif and Jess Hahn. 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.
In 2004, Kheops Studio produced Return to Mysterious Island, a distant sequel about an original character discovering the ruins of the Nautilus.
Fun fact: While this isn't the most famous of Verne's works, it has the distinction of having inspired two major franchises: Myst and Lost. It was also loosely adapted into the sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) (itself based on another of Verne's novels), as Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.
Copyright has expired on this book, and it's available on Project Gutenberg here
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This book contains examples of:
- A Light in the Distance: 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. Captain Nemo did it.
- All Animals Are Domesticated: 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.
- Artistic License – Biology: 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.
- 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.
- Artistic License – Geology: 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 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.
- The Atoner: Ayrton. Big time, for his betrayal of the Grant children in In Search of the Castaways and having tried to hijack their ship. More than a decade entirely alone on Tabor Island has given him time to realize his mistake, and then to drive him mad.
- Back for the Finale: According to a brief line at the end, the surviving characters of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and In Search of the Castaways all become regular guests at the castaways' new colony in Iowa.
- Badass Bookworm: Cyrus spends most of the novel using his brains to solve problems, but he's a good shot and even shanks a pirate.
- Big Damn Heroes: Nemo, near the end: He provides medication to cure Herbert's malaria and kills the surviving pirates with his advanced weaponry.
- Canon Welding: Places Verne's earlier books 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and In Search of the Castaways in the same continuity, although that leads to a Series Continuity Error in both.
- Darkest Hour: The pirates are on the island, Ayrton is missing, and most of the castaways are isolated in the main farm after Herbert was shot. They eventually escape and make it back to Granite House - only for Herbert to contract malaria and nearly die from it due to his weakened state.
- Deserted Island: Lincoln Island isn't even on the maps. Tabor Island is, but the only person on it is a castaway gone mad.
- And, of course, Lincoln Island has an inhabitant - captain Nemo lives underneath it.
- The Determinator: Everyone, although Pencroff is probably the most extreme case. Demonstrated starting in the opening scene, where their balloon is sinking over the ocean and the sailor tells everyone to hold on to the rigging so that they can drop the basket into the sea and travel just a bit further to make it to land.
- Deus ex Machina: The whole plot is basically a sequence of those 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 Tropes Are Not Bad way, they almost always create more suspense than they resolve, until the very end when it turns out that most of them have been Nemo's doing.
- Diabolus ex Machina: The eruption of the supposedly extinct volcano combined with underlying geology that makes an island-destroying explosion extremely likely.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: In the very last chapter, Jup the Orangutan is off-handedly mentioned to have fallen into a crevice and died.
- Dub Name Change: 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.
- Eagle Land: 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.
- Elaborate Underground Base: 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.
- Evil Counterpart: The six pirates that survive the sinking of Speedy to the castaways.
- Flipping Helpless: 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 or helped by captain Nemo and escaped.
- Foreshadowing: Early on in the book, the narration establishes that such is Cyrus' Science Hero 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.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: Ayrton. He's in a pretty bad state when they find him, to say the least...
- Guilt-Free Extermination War: 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.
- Happy Ending: Verne originally wanted a Bittersweet Ending 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.
- Hard-to-Light Fire: 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.
- Island of Mystery: The island they find themselves on is seemingly uninhabited, but it quickly becomes apparent there is some kind of presence there.
- Is It Something You Eat?: Pencroff. Surrounded by the wonders of nature, his interests are still primarily culinary.
- Landline Eavesdropping: An extremely early example. The colonists set up a telegraph line between their two main locations on Lincoln Island. Captain Nemo covertly patches in another wire and listens in, before eventually revealing his presence.
- Large Ham: Pencroff. When the colonists test out the cannons they recently installed, his hurrahs are as loud as the explosions.
- MacGyvering: From a couple of watches and a dog's collar to a technical civilization.
- Meaningful Name: The reporter is named Gideon Spilett (i.e. "spill it," as in break the news).
- Misplaced Vegetation / Misplaced Wildlife: 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
MST3K Mantra slash Rule of Cool argument. - Mysterious Backer: 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.
- Named in the Sequel: The novel delves into Captain Nemo's backstory and reveals his original name, Dakkar.
- Narrative Profanity Filter: Pencroff's insults are sometimes described by their severity rather than being listed.
- Note from Ed.: Verne's creative solution to the Series Continuity Error mentioned above (see the "Canon Welding" entry) was to call attention to it in a couple of footnotes supposedly added by the publisher. Each of which simply refers the reader to the other footnote!
- The Remnant: Nemo's origin reveals that he is an exiled Indian prince still fighting the Sepoy Rebellion and hating the British.
- Recycled Premise: Jules Verne had written Robinsonade stories before The Mysterious Island and wrote several more afterwards.
- The Reveal: Captain Nemo and everything he has been up to throughout most of the book.
- Robinsonade: This is played straight with the colonists, but deconstructed with Ayrton. Apparently, having been stranded alone is to blame for the state in which they find him.
- Running Gag: Herbert and Pencroff continue the identify an animal by its scientific name/edible or not gag from 20,000 Leagues.
- Series Continuity Error: The book's chronology is flat out incompatible with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 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.
- Science Hero:
- 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).
- Herbert studied botany as a hobby, which comes in useful on the island when it comes to identifying plants.
- Shipwreck Start: The protagonists are a group of Union POWs of The American Civil War 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 Jules Verne 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.
- Stuff Blowing Up: 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.
- Solar-Powered Magnifying Glass: Cyrus Smith MacGyvered a water-filled lens from two watch glasses as the castaways had no other means of starting a fire after they use up their single match.
- Undying Loyalty: Neb is a former slave who was freed by Cyrus Smith, yet he continues to call Cyrus 'Master'.
- Wacky Americans Have Wacky Names: Bonadventure, Gideon, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus...
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The animal characters are all quickly killed off in the finale, except for Top, the only one the colonists brought with them to the island.
- With This Herring: The characters start out with not much more than the wreckage of a balloon, whatever little is in their pockets, and 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 Minecraft without the creepers.
