'Allora mastro Antifer venne colto da un delirante accesso di gioia, come aveva provato raramente in vita sua. In realtà, se non era felice quel giorno, quando mai avrebbe potuto esserlo? Finalmente aveva in mano la longitudine tanto attesa! Poteva trasformare in realtà ciò che fino a quel momento era stato solo un sogno! Il possesso di quella fortuna inverosimile dipendeva solo dalla fretta con cui sarebbe andato a cercarla sull'isolotto dove lo stava aspettando! '-Cento milioni... cento milioni! - ripeteva.' Con questo romanzo, raramente ripubblicato e forse il più divertente di tutta la sua opera, Jules Verne imbarca il lettore in una serie d'incredibili peripezie su tutti i mari del mondo per una straordinaria caccia al tesoro! Età di lettura: da 8 anni.

Based on the true story of Alexander Selkirk, who survived alone for almost five years on an uninhabited island off the coast of Chile, The Mysterious Island is considered by many to be Jules Verne's masterpiece. “Wide-eyed mid-nineteenth-century humanistic optimism in a breezy, blissfully readable translation by Stump” (Kirkus Reviews), here is the enthralling tale of five men and a dog who land in a balloon on a faraway, fantastic island of bewildering goings-on and their struggle to survive as they uncover the island's secret.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Una misteriosa creatura marina che affonda navi da guerra di ogni paese, la scoperta di uno straordinario mezzo meccanico - il sommergibile Nautilus capace di esplorare le profondità degli abissi marini, il suo comandante, il Capitano Nemo, un uomo nobile e generoso che cela però nell'animo un insopprimibile desiderio di odio e di vendetta, il professor Arronax, il suo servitore Consiglio e il fiociniere Ned Land. E poi le meraviglie di un continente sconosciuto - l'oceano e i suoi abissi - le esplorazioni attraverso tutti i mari, le lotte contro mostri spaventosi, la fede in una scienza che dovrebbe offrire all'uomo un progresso inarrestabile, il desiderio di libertà che anima tutti i personaggi del libro.

Nel febbraio del 1889, la rivista americana 'The Forum' pubblicò un racconto di Jules Verne (1828-1905) ambientato nel lontano futuro della società statunitense. Protagonista del racconto è Francis Bennett, un magnate dell'informazione, proprietario di un enorme complesso imprenditoriale fondato su un giornale, l'Earth-Herald. Intorno al giornale, che viene trasmesso via telefono e via 'fonografo', ruotano grandi interessi economici e politici. Francis Bennett infatti finanzia ricerche scientifiche, imprese spaziali, grandi attività imprenditoriali. Ma soprattutto Francis Bennett gode di un potere politico che oscura quello dello stesso presidente. Il controllo dell'informazione diventa così il vero potere nel mondo del 2890...

The intrepid Professor Lindenbrock embarks upon the strangest expedition of the nineteenth century: a journey down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the Earth's very core. In his quest to penetrate the planet's primordial secrets, the geologist—together with his quaking nephew Axel and their devoted guide, Hans—discovers an astonishing subterranean menagerie of prehistoric proportions. Verne's imaginative tale is at once the ultimate science fiction adventure and a reflection on the perfectibility of human understanding and the psychology of the questor. As David Brin notes in his Introduction, though Verne never knew the term “science fiction,” Journey to the Centre of the Earth is “inarguably one of the wellsprings from which it all began.”

Shocking his stodgy colleagues at the exclusive Reform Club, enigmatic Englishman Phileas Fogg wagers his fortune, undertaking an extraordinary and daring enterprise: to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days. With his French valet Passepartout in tow, Verne's hero traverses the far reaches of the earth, all the while tracked by the intrepid Detective Fix, a bounty hunter certain he is on the trail of a notorious bank robber. Set from the text of George M. Towle's original 1873 translation, this Modern Library Paperback Classic of Verne's adventure novel comes vividly alive, brilliantly re?ecting on time, space, and one man's struggle to reach beyond the bounds of both science and society.

Jules Verne, the most translated novelist in the world and best known for books such as Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas and Around the World in Eighty Days, was also a prolific playwright. Journey Through the Impossible, a play of fantasy and science fiction, ran for 97 performances in Paris in 1882 and 1883. In the three acts, the characters go first to the center of the Earth, then under the sea, and finally to the planet 'Altor.' Characters from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas, From the Earth to the Moon, Doctor Ox, and Journey to the Center of the Earth appear again in Journey through the Impossible, including Captain Nemo, President Barbican, Michel Ardan, Doctor Ox, and Professor Lidenbrock.
Verne wrote this play in the middle of his life, between his optimistic (science helps humanity and is good) and pessimistic (science is dangerous and bad) works; the play is a vehicle for Verne to ask himself and his readers whether science, technology, and the pursuit of knowledge are good or bad. He used the play to pose questions about life and wisdom that are still important in our time.
The script of the play was lost to Verne scholars for almost a century, until the text was discovered in 1978 in the Archives of the Censorship Office of the Third French Republic and was published in French in 1981. The play had many reviews in 1882 and two of them are included here to give the reader insight into how the play was staged in Paris in the second half of the 19th century. Also included are many wonderful illustrations showing set designs for the original play, a page from a lost scene, the original frontispiece, and other interesting details.
This is the first complete edition and the first English translation of a surprising work by a popular French novelist whose works continue to delight readers and audiences to this day.

Based on the true story of Alexander Selkirk, who survived alone for almost five years on an uninhabited island off the coast of Chile, The Mysterious Island is considered by many to be Jules Verne's masterpiece. “Wide-eyed mid-nineteenth-century humanistic optimism in a breezy, blissfully readable translation by Stump” (Kirkus Reviews), here is the enthralling tale of five men and a dog who land in a balloon on a faraway, fantastic island of bewildering goings-on and their struggle to survive as they uncover the island's secret.

At a time when Verne is making a comeback in the US as a mainstream literary figure, Wesleyan is pleased to publish a new translation of one of his best-known novels, The Mysterious Island. Although several editions under the same title are in print, most reproduce a bowdlerized nineteenth-century translation which changes the names of the characters, omits several important scenes, and ideologically censors Verne's original text.

The Mysterious Island was published in 1874, and it is one of Verne's longest novels. The plot depicts a group of men who have become castaways stranded on an island in the Pacific during the American Civil War. The novel describes their attempts not only to survive but also, with the aid of the scientific and technological know-how, to rebuild their world from the meager resources of the island. At the end, however, it is realized that Captain Nemo, from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, has secretly been helping the settlers. A marvelous adventure story, The Mysterious Island is also notable for its modern retelling of the utopian deserted-island myth, with repeated echoes of Robinson Crusoe and the Swiss Family Robinson. This Wesleyan edition features notes, appendices and an introduction by Verne scholar William Butcher, as well as reproductions of the illustrations from the original French edition.

Professor Hardwigg, his nephew Harry, and their guide Hans explore a volcanic crater in Iceland that leads them to the center of the Earth and to incredible and horrifying discoveries.

In 1872, English gentleman Phileas Fogg has many adventures as he tries to win a bet that he can travel around the world in eighty days.

Un antico e misterioso documento scritto da uno scienziato e rinvenuto per caso; il sogno di giungere al centro della Terra; la lotta con un rivale privo di scrupoli; la spaventosa solitudine degli abissi; l'incontro con animali preistorici; un oceano immenso che condurrà i protagonisti al centro della Terra e a una soluzione imprevedibile. Un grande romanzo d'avventura che presenta numerose chiavi di lettura.