Books

First edition in book form in English of the second part of The Mysterious Island, a sequel to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870) and In Search of the Castaways (1867-8). Originally published in French as L'Île mystérieuse in 1874, it was serialized in the US in Scribner's Monthly from April of that year. The Mysterious Island comprises Dropped From the Clouds, Abandoned, and The Secret of the Island. It sees the return of both Captain Nemo and Tom Ayrton, two of Verne's most enigmatic characters. The purported translator of this work was W. H. G. Kingston (1814-1880), an author of adventure and sailing stories; however, the translation was actually the work of his wife, Agnes Kinloch Kingston (1824-1913). A distinguished linguist, Kinloch Kingston published several German and French translations under her husband's name, including Verne's Michael Strogoff (1876) and Johan Wyss's The Swiss Family Robinson (1891). Octavo. Original red cloth, spine and front cover lettered and decorated in gilt and black, rear cover framed and with publisher's monogram in blind, bevelled boards, gilt edges, Binder's ticket of Burn & Co. to rear pastedown. Wood-engraved frontispiece, 49 plates. With 40 pp. publisher's advertisements at rear. Extremities rubbed, spine a little toned, ends bruised, a handful of marks to cloth, gilt bright, light foxing to contents: a very good copy. Gallagher A33.

In 'The Mysterious Island', Jules Verne combines adventure and elements of science fiction to tell the story of a group of castaways who endeavor to survive and solve the mystery of their abandoned locale. Using ingenuity and science, the protagonists uncover secrets including the existence of Captain Nemo, the enigmatic figure from 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'.