Underlying book story — recording-specific coverage unverified
Coverage is limited to the scope described in this write-up. Recording changes, further installments or an unwritten ending may remain outside it.
This synopsis covers the underlying book linked to this recording: Mysterious Island. Recording-specific abridgements, added material or adaptation changes have not been verified.
In 1865, during the American Civil War, five Northern prisoners of war escape during the Siege of Richmond, Virginia, by hijacking a hydrogen-filled observation balloon. The escapees are Cyrus Smith, a railroad engineer in the Union army (named Cyrus Harding in Kingston's translation); his ex-slave and loyal follower Neb (short for Nebuchadnezzar); Bonadventure Pencroff, a sailor (who is addressed only by his surname; in Kingston's version, he is named Pencroft); his protégé and adopted son Harbert Brown (called Herbert in some translations); and the journalist Gedéon Spilett (Gideon Spilett in English versions). The company is completed by Cyrus's dog, Top.a
After flying in a great storm for several days, the group crash-lands on a cliff-bound, volcanic, unknown island described as being located at 34°57′S 150°30′W (Southern Pacific Ocean/Asian:Oceanian side), about 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi) east of New Zealand and about 11,000 kilometres (6,800 mi) from Virginia. They name it "Lincoln Island" in honor of Abraham Lincoln. With the knowledge of the brilliant engineer Smith, the five are able to sustain themselves on the island, producing fire, pottery, bricks, nitroglycerin, iron, an electric telegraph, a cave home inside a stony cliff called "Granite House", and even a seaworthy ship which they name the Bonadventure. They start to think of themselves as colonists rather than castaways.
During their stay on the island, the "colonists" endure bad weather and domesticate an orangutan, Jupiter, abbreviated to "Jup" (or "Joop", in Jordan Stump's translation). There is a series of mysterious events on the island, suggestive of some unseen deus ex machina, including Cyrus' survival after falling from the balloon, the mysterious rescue of Top from a dugong, the appearance of a box of equipment (guns and ammunition, tools, etc.), and other seemingly inexplicable occurrences.
The group finds a message in a bottle directing them to rescue a castaway on nearby Tabor Island, who turns out to be none other than Tom Ayrton (from In Search of the Castaways). On the return voyage to Lincoln Island, they lose their way in a tempest but are guided back to their course by a mysterious fire beacon.
Ayrton's former pirate companions arrive by chance and try to make Lincoln Island into their lair, initially being mistaken as rescuers by the colonists. After some fighting with the protagonists, the pirates' ship is mysteriously destroyed by an explosion. Six of the pirates who took small sloops to infiltrate the island survive, kidnap Ayrton, and destroy the Bonadventure. When the colonists attempt to rescue Ayrton, the pirates shoot Harbert, seriously injuring him. The colonists at first assume Ayrton has been killed, but later find evidence that he was not instantly killed, leaving his fate uncertain. When the colonists rashly attempt to return to Granite House before Harbert fully recovers, Harbert contracts malaria but is saved thanks to a box of quinine sulfate which mysteriously appears on the table in Granite House. After Harbert recovers, they again attempt to rescue Ayrton and deal with the pirates. They discover Ayrton alive at the sheepfold; the pirates, however, they find dead, without any visible wounds except a little red spot on each of them.
The island is revealed to be Captain Nemo's hideout, and home port of the Nautilus. Having escaped the maelstrom at the end of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, the Nautilus had sailed the oceans of the world until all its crew except Nemo died. Now an old man, Nemo returned the Nautilus to its secret port within Lincoln Island. Nemo had been the mysterious benefactor of the settlers, planting the torpedo that destroyed the pirate ship and killing the pirates with an "electric gun". On his death bed, Captain Nemo reveals his true identity as the lost Indian prince Dakkar, son of a raja of the then-independent territory of Bundelkund and a nephew of the Indian hero Tippu-Sahib. After taking part in the failed Indian Rebellion of 1857, Prince Dakkar escaped to a desert island with twenty of his compatriots and commenced the building of the Nautilus, adopting the name Captain Nemo. Before he dies, Nemo gives them a box of diamonds and pearls as a keepsake. Nemo's final words are "God and my country!" ("Independence!", in Verne's original manuscript). The Nautilus is scuttled and serves as Captain Nemo's tomb.b
Afterward, the island's central volcano erupts, destroying the island. Jup the orangutan falls into a crack in the ground and dies. The colonists, forewarned of the eruption by Nemo, find shelter on the last remaining piece of the island above sea level. They are rescued by the ship Duncan, which had come to rescue Ayrton but was redirected by a message Nemo had left on Tabor Island. After they return to the United States, they form a new colony in Iowa, financed by Nemo's gifts, and Ayrton shows Lord Glenarvan and his son that his character has changed.
In 1865, during the American Civil War, five Northern prisoners of war escape during the Siege of Richmond, Virginia, by hijacking a hydrogen-filled observation balloon. The escapees are Cyrus Smith, a railroad engineer in the Union army (named Cyrus Harding in Kingston's translation); his ex-slave and loyal follower Neb (short for Nebuchadnezzar); Bonadventure Pencroff, a sailor (who is addressed only by his surname; in Kingston's version, he is named Pencroft); his protégé and adopted son Harbert Brown (called Herbert in some translations); and the journalist Gedéon Spilett (Gideon Spilett in English versions). The company is completed by Cyrus's dog, Top.a
After flying in a great storm for several days, the group crash-lands on a cliff-bound, volcanic, unknown island described as being located at 34°57′S 150°30′W (Southern Pacific Ocean/Asian:Oceanian side), about 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi) east of New Zealand and about 11,000 kilometres (6,800 mi) from Virginia. They name it "Lincoln Island" in honor of Abraham Lincoln. With the knowledge of the brilliant engineer Smith, the five are able to sustain themselves on the island, producing fire, pottery, bricks, nitroglycerin, iron, an electric telegraph, a cave home inside a stony cliff called "Granite House", and even a seaworthy ship which they name the Bonadventure. They start to think of themselves as colonists rather than castaways.
During their stay on the island, the "colonists" endure bad weather and domesticate an orangutan, Jupiter, abbreviated to "Jup" (or "Joop", in Jordan Stump's translation). There is a series of mysterious events on the island, suggestive of some unseen deus ex machina, including Cyrus' survival after falling from the balloon, the mysterious rescue of Top from a dugong, the appearance of a box of equipment (guns and ammunition, tools, etc.), and other seemingly inexplicable occurrences.
The group finds a message in a bottle directing them to rescue a castaway on nearby Tabor Island, who turns out to be none other than Tom Ayrton (from In Search of the Castaways). On the return voyage to Lincoln Island, they lose their way in a tempest but are guided back to their course by a mysterious fire beacon.
Ayrton's former pirate companions arrive by chance and try to make Lincoln Island into their lair, initially being mistaken as rescuers by the colonists. After some fighting with the protagonists, the pirates' ship is mysteriously destroyed by an explosion. Six of the pirates who took small sloops to infiltrate the island survive, kidnap Ayrton, and destroy the Bonadventure. When the colonists attempt to rescue Ayrton, the pirates shoot Harbert, seriously injuring him. The colonists at first assume Ayrton has been killed, but later find evidence that he was not instantly killed, leaving his fate uncertain. When the colonists rashly attempt to return to Granite House before Harbert fully recovers, Harbert contracts malaria but is saved thanks to a box of quinine sulfate which mysteriously appears on the table in Granite House. After Harbert recovers, they again attempt to rescue Ayrton and deal with the pirates. They discover Ayrton alive at the sheepfold; the pirates, however, they find dead, without any visible wounds except a little red spot on each of them.
The island is revealed to be Captain Nemo's hideout, and home port of the Nautilus. Having escaped the maelstrom at the end of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, the Nautilus had sailed the oceans of the world until all its crew except Nemo died. Now an old man, Nemo returned the Nautilus to its secret port within Lincoln Island. Nemo had been the mysterious benefactor of the settlers, planting the torpedo that destroyed the pirate ship and killing the pirates with an "electric gun". On his death bed, Captain Nemo reveals his true identity as the lost Indian prince Dakkar, son of a raja of the then-independent territory of Bundelkund and a nephew of the Indian hero Tippu-Sahib. After taking part in the failed Indian Rebellion of 1857, Prince Dakkar escaped to a desert island with twenty of his compatriots and commenced the building of the Nautilus, adopting the name Captain Nemo. Before he dies, Nemo gives them a box of diamonds and pearls as a keepsake. Nemo's final words are "God and my country!" ("Independence!", in Verne's original manuscript). The Nautilus is scuttled and serves as Captain Nemo's tomb.b
Afterward, the island's central volcano erupts, destroying the island. Jup the orangutan falls into a crack in the ground and dies. The colonists, forewarned of the eruption by Nemo, find shelter on the last remaining piece of the island above sea level. They are rescued by the ship Duncan, which had come to rescue Ayrton but was redirected by a message Nemo had left on Tabor Island. After they return to the United States, they form a new colony in Iowa, financed by Nemo's gifts, and Ayrton shows Lord Glenarvan and his son that his character has changed.
Sources and content license
Source and revision history ↗ · Underlying book identified by the catalog’s explicit book_slug relation. Exact source annotation 959. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, The Mysterious Island. Section headings and formatting adjusted. · Content license