In a manner of speaking, the sequel to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Jules Verne devoted much attention to practical matters and lore, as he seems to have done in all his books, which slows the pace of the reading somewhat, but provides fascinating information of all sorts. Here, five Union soldiers and a dog are marooned on an uncharted island in the South Pacific after a storm of Biblical proportions sends the balloon in which they were escaping Confederate custody 7000 miles astray. They in fact arrive with very little more than the clothes on their backs. Most of the book shows how, using good old Yankee ingenuity and relying on the Puritan work ethic, they build a successful colony from scratch, managing to manufacture glass, develop iron metallurgy, create pottery and fabrics, even build ships. If you've ever liked games such as Civilization, this is the book for you!