The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion

I hope everyone is having a great summer, temperatures here (Arizona) are already unbearable and I'm not looking forward to months where the temperature is above 100 degrees.

The following will be the reading schedule for The Mysterious Island:

Part 1 - Dropped from the Clouds
Jun 17 - Jun 23: Chap 1 - 12
Jun 24 - Jun 30: Chap 13 - 22

Part 2 - Abandoned
Jul 1 - Jul 7: Chap 1 - 11
Jul 8 - Jul 14: Chap 12 - 20

Part 3 - The Secret of the Island
Jul 15 - 21: Chap 1 - 11
Jul 22 - Jul 28: Chap 12 -20

My edition (Wordsworth Classics Complete and Unabridged) is 524 pages including the introduction and the end notes. Normally I aim for approximately 70 pages per week, this selection will be slightly more pages from 75 to 88 pages each week.

Please let me know if you will be joining us and if this selection is a reread for you. One of my favorite books is by Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days. One of the books I never would have gotten through if I had to read it vs. listening to an audio version was also by Verne, was Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. There was so much technical information at that novel's beginning my eyes were crossing. My husband and I listened to it when we drove from New Orleans, LA to Phoneix, AZ. So for me, Verne is hit or miss.

I am looking forward to our discussions.

I'll be joining. I believe Around the World in Eighty Days is the only Verne I've read so far (by the way, I really like the miniseries on it that came out on PBS a couple of years ago; it differs from the book but it's very entertaining).

I enjoyed that series also, Lori, as well as the 1956 movie (exposing my age!). I’ll be joining the read of The Mysterious Island.

The Wordsworth editions are generally more compact. The Modern Library Editions are 723 pages and 630 pages which is a lot longer than I expected for a Verne novel!

This should be fun. I will look forward to this because:
1. At a GR rating of 4.13 it has the highest rating of Verne's major novels
2. I like that this read will be a more-substantial-than-usual 100 pages per week for me.
3. The 1961 film version with Michael Callan and Michael Craig was, next to The Magnificent Seven, my most memorable movie theater experience as a young boy. Great Ray Harryhausen creatures. While the movie meant something to me I never have read the book. Its about time I did. I'm certainly not getting any younger.

For anyone who doesn't mind a few minor spoilers and is curious about it, this is the trailer for the 1961 movie version: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi17601669...

I've read the book and it's an entertaining read, but no giant chickens, Brian!

The 1961 movie was entertaining, and had nice effects for the period, but had little to do with most of the book, which admittedly isn’t particularly cinematic. The discovery and discussion of a seed (Corn? Wheat? I don’t remember) for example, which is a critical moment.

I read and reread it as a child: I may try the Modern Library edition: and see if old illustrated edition are on the Internet Archive (archive.org).

Unfortunately I am scheduled for two reads in June, plus I may be moving. I will look in and maybe contribute, time and energy allowing.

Rosemarie wrote: "I've read the book and it's an entertaining read, but no giant chickens, Brian!"

Damn. But why not? Was Verne a vegetarian?

I doubt it. There are a lot of hunting scenes in his books.

The grain I mentioned is wheat, which I have confirmed in the Modern Library’s translation by Stump (which contains a set of the original illustration) and the Wesleyan University Press’s Kravitz translation, both fairly recent (2001) and unabridged. At the moment the Kindle editions of both are inexpensive, and I bought both, in case I do find time to join in.

Follow-up.

The original French book publication had 154 illustrations, some of which are reproduced in editions of English translation. They all can be found, with the French text, in a fairly clean pdf, at https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_VU...

Of the many illustrated editions on Kindle, I have located one that has all 154 (there may be others): with Jules Ferat credited as the Illustrator, and Agnes Kinloch Kingston as translator. This last shows meticulous attention to detail, as in the nineteenth century the translation was attributed to her husband. Unfortunately, she shortened the text, so it is in effect an abridged edition. See
https://www.amazon.com/Mysterious-Isl...
The reproduction of the steel engravings is not as sharp as I would like, but they are, I think, acceptable.

Half of the illustrations are reproduced in the new Modern Library translation, https://www.amazon.com/Mysterious-Isl...