B. Zedan's review
The Mysterious Island (Modern Library Classics)
by Jules Verne
Hah! Hah! Hah!
I think I got through it with my respect for Verne intact by accepting it for what it was, early on: survival manual written by someone who wants to show off their bad-ass skience skillz, but with preachy Victorian overtones. After a while, you just go with it.
(Compared to Paris in the the Twentieth Century, it's a freaking cakewalk.)
Exactly! It's got some good info, but holycrap it's preachy about it.
I will always love Journey to the Center of the Earth and Around the World in 80 Days was fun enough, but now I'm going to be especially wary of his books. Gimmie Wells any day instead.
B. Zedan's review
The Mysterious Island (Modern Library Classics) by Jules Verne
B. Zedan's review
rating:
bookshelves:
gutenberg-downloads
recommended for: Folks who want to read 500+ pages of self-important Industry of Man porno
Oh my God. Some dudes are castaway on this island and I cannot put real words together to explain why I wanted to kill this book. So here are some select Twitters from when I was reading it:
* I find it a little horrifying that the castaways in Verne's 'Mysterious Island' never use bone for anything. Too savage? [though they end up using some whale bone, but that's pretty white so it's okay:]
* They didn't use bone to tip arrows! They waited until the dog found a porcupine! How are clothes mended?!
* Nor have they tanned hide yet—and left several seals to rot on a beach, taking the fat (for 'splosions & candles, no soap) ['splosions being nitro-glycerine, the better for shaping the world to human desires:]
* My God, they're doing everything backwards. The Mysterious Island castaways finally tan some leather, but not the rabbits. No. Koalas.
* Yeah, I don't see how reading the "prequels" of Mysterious Island would help any. Pretty vaguely interwoven, t...more
* I find it a little horrifying that the castaways in Verne's 'Mysterious Island' never use bone for anything. Too savage? [though they end up using some whale bone, but that's pretty white so it's okay:]
* They didn't use bone to tip arrows! They waited until the dog found a porcupine! How are clothes mended?!
* Nor have they tanned hide yet—and left several seals to rot on a beach, taking the fat (for 'splosions & candles, no soap) ['splosions being nitro-glycerine, the better for shaping the world to human desires:]
* My God, they're doing everything backwards. The Mysterious Island castaways finally tan some leather, but not the rabbits. No. Koalas.
* Yeah, I don't see how reading the "prequels" of Mysterious Island would help any. Pretty vaguely interwoven, t...more
Hah! Hah! Hah!I think I got through it with my respect for Verne intact by accepting it for what it was, early on: survival manual written by someone who wants to show off their bad-ass skience skillz, but with preachy Victorian overtones. After a while, you just go with it.
(Compared to Paris in the the Twentieth Century, it's a freaking cakewalk.)
Exactly! It's got some good info, but holycrap it's preachy about it.I will always love Journey to the Center of the Earth and Around the World in 80 Days was fun enough, but now I'm going to be especially wary of his books. Gimmie Wells any day instead.