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Nine students from London's Antillean School receive travel scholarships to visit their island homelands in the Caribbean. Accompanied by their eccentric Latin professor, they set sail on what they expect to be a thrilling educational voyage. Little do they realize that, prior to their arrival on board, their ship had been hijacked by escaped convicts who murdered its original captain and crew.
235 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1903
5 people are currently reading
450 people want to read
About the author
Jules Verne
6,334 books12k followersNovels of French writer Jules Gabriel Verne, considered the founder of modern science fiction, include
Journey to the Center of the Earth
(1864) and
Around the World in Eighty Days
(1873).
This author who pioneered the genre. People best know him for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870).
Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before people invented navigable aircraft and practical submarines and devised any means of spacecraft. He ranks behind Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie as the second most translated author of all time. People made his prominent films. People often refer to Verne alongside Herbert George Wells as the "father of science fiction."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_V...
This author who pioneered the genre. People best know him for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870).
Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before people invented navigable aircraft and practical submarines and devised any means of spacecraft. He ranks behind Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie as the second most translated author of all time. People made his prominent films. People often refer to Verne alongside Herbert George Wells as the "father of science fiction."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_V...
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
May 9, 2023
Stand up and cheer! The long nightmare is gone the darkness has left and daylight has come after 110 long years the wait is over the last English language translation of a Jules Verne book, all 64 has arrived finally ( peace on Earth goodwill to men, women too) ... you may sit down please... Now back to our story...Mrs.Seymour, has given a donation to the Antillean School, in London set in 1877, travel scholarships to nine worthy students and a mentor to be chosen by Mr. Julian Ardagh, the school's director, he picks the bookkeeper! A Latin speaking eccentric, all expenses paid by the generous lady, from Barbados for a three month voyage on board the Alert to the West Indies and a bonus of seven hundred pounds too, a lot of money then, for each scholar . An academic contest, sponsored by Mrs. Seymour at the school to select the happy winners, these lucky boys, ages 17 to 20 are natives of the islands, going back after a long absence most of their families have left the Caribbean but there is a little problem. Evil men secretly get on the Alert in Cork harbor , Ireland during the night , captured pirates of the ship Halifax, who escaped from the nearby prison, massacred Captain Paxton and his crew, throw the unfortunates sailors overboard , before the students appear, plan to resume their nefarious work, in the Western Pacific. Weather though stops the Alert, from leaving port, the impostors to prevent suspicion, permit Mr.Horatio Patterson (the chaperon) and the boys on the ship to live. The criminals can kill them out at sea but the greedy pirate captain Harry Markel, leader of the gang hears about the 7,000 pounds that the passengers will receive in Barbados their last stop, from Mrs.Seymour. The bloody pirates, can butcher them there off the the island and dump the bodies in the ocean. Just a slight, but profitable change of the itinerary the world will think the Alert has sunk with no survivors. The gang can give a new name to the vessel a little modification to her and they have a nice amount of money to spend , a fine seaworthy ship also , everything goes right the trip is mostly smooth. The capable pirate captain knows the sea besides it's summer, with the exception of Mr.Patterson , who becomes violently seasick , dozens of remedies don't help, the poor man suffers greatly until he gets his sea legs...From island to island the tourists visit all the interesting, beautiful places, attend sumptuous banquets, ( the relatives invariably fawning over them ) held in their honor, nice handsome homes on shore to stay in, the ebullient students praised wherever they go. The reserved, pirate Captain Markel and crew keep quiet, nevertheless the clueless, Mr.Patterson is always speaking Latin to people, who don't understand one word of the language. Seeing the Lesser Antilles, pretty , exotic, peaceful and rather remote islands, in the hot sun... A blue paradise... Saint Thomas, Saint Croix, Saint Barthelemy, Antigua, Guadeloupe, really two islands, the unspoiled natural beauty of Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, and the fabulous others...For better or worse, their final sad destination...in more ways than one, the coral isle of Barbados, last in the chain, who will live afterwards... Terrific ending, not recommended if you are a landlubber...
August 23, 2013
I'm delighted that the final of Jules Verne's 64 Extraordinary Voyages is finally available to be read in English. Much thanks to Art Evans, managing editor of the Wesleyan University Press's Early Classics of Science Fiction for getting this task completed. Despite being a part of that series, this is not one of Verne's scientific romances. It's a pure adventure story of a group of nine laureates of the Antillean School are awarded scholarships, which their benefactor, Mrs. Kathleen Seymour of Barbados, wants them to use for a trip to visit the islands known as the Antilles. With three hundred and fifty islands in this region, the voyage will be limited to the Windward Islands where the students were born, including the English islands of Saint Lucia, Dominica, and Antigua; the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique; the Danish islands of Saint Thomas and Saint Croix; the Swedish island of Saint Barthélemy; and Saint Martin, owned half by the Netherlands and the other half by France. Accompanying the young men on this trip is the school’s Latin phrase spouting bookkeeper, Mr. Patterson. The journey across the Atlantic begins, but unfortunately for them, the ship they've been traveling upon, the Alert was commandeered by a group of criminals who had initially planned on dispatching the boys early into the voyage. The pirates decide to keep them alive when they learn the students will be receiving 700£ each when their tour of the island reaches the final island of Barbados. For the pirates to be able to complete their mission they will have not be caught and for the students to survive they need to discover the true identities of the Alert’s crew.
For a complete list of Verne's work, I invite to you visit my page The Works of Jules Verne.
For a complete list of Verne's work, I invite to you visit my page The Works of Jules Verne.
December 3, 2025
Started off strong, but the story dimmed the further it went, so it's kinda mid.
September 1, 2013
Finding a "new", untranslated book by Jules Verne was a delight. The story is set in the late 1800s and starts in London. A school for boys has an annual academic contest. The school is for children of parents from the Antilles; referred to today as islands of the Caribbean. There are 9 winners of the contest and they go on a trip to their homelands, thanks to an Antillean benefactor, Mrs. Seymour.
The boys head off to board a ship in Ireland, accompanied by the school's accountant, Horatio Patterson. Little do the boys realize, but the ship, the Alert, and its crew have been murdered and replaced by a band of pirates. The new captain and crew have no choice but to take the boys and mentor along for their journey to the Caribbean. The pirates expect to murder the boys once they are out to sea, but overhear that the boys and Horatio will each get 700 pounds once they reach Barbados.
The rest of the story is a great adventure for the boys, the pirates and the inhabitants of the Antilles islands. There are numerous close calls where the pirates are almost discovered, but the clever captain belays any suspicion with masterful cunning.
The fly in the ointment is when a sailor needing a lift to London boards the Alert for the return journey. He soon discovers the pirates plans and sets things on a different path.
This book was a joy to read and I even learned quite a bit about ships and life at sea in the late 1800s. For Jules Verne fans it's a must read.
The boys head off to board a ship in Ireland, accompanied by the school's accountant, Horatio Patterson. Little do the boys realize, but the ship, the Alert, and its crew have been murdered and replaced by a band of pirates. The new captain and crew have no choice but to take the boys and mentor along for their journey to the Caribbean. The pirates expect to murder the boys once they are out to sea, but overhear that the boys and Horatio will each get 700 pounds once they reach Barbados.
The rest of the story is a great adventure for the boys, the pirates and the inhabitants of the Antilles islands. There are numerous close calls where the pirates are almost discovered, but the clever captain belays any suspicion with masterful cunning.
The fly in the ointment is when a sailor needing a lift to London boards the Alert for the return journey. He soon discovers the pirates plans and sets things on a different path.
This book was a joy to read and I even learned quite a bit about ships and life at sea in the late 1800s. For Jules Verne fans it's a must read.
May 12, 2021
Această şcoală internaţională, destinată numai tinerilor din Antile, era condusă, cu concursul unor profesori eminenţi, de domnul Julian Ardagh. În vârstă de 50 de ani, administrator serios, prevăzător, merita pe bună dreptate toată încrederea familiilor. Avea un personal didactic de o valoare incontestabilă – fie că era vorba de litere, ştiinţă sau de artă – care lucra sub responsabilitatea sa. La şcoala Antilian nu erau uitate nici exerciţiile fizice, sporturile atât de recomandate şi atât de practicate în Regatul Unit, ca boxul, crichetul, luptele călare, crochetul, fotbalul, înotul, dansul, călăria, ciclismul, canotajul, în sfârşit, toate ramurile gimnasticii moderne.
Domnul Ardagh se străduia să reunească, să fuzioneze aceste temperamente şi caractere atât de diverse, cum era şi firesc în convieţuirea unor tineri de naţionalităţi diferite, să facă pe cât posibil din elevii săi nişte «antilieni», să le insufle o dragoste durabilă unora pentru alţii.
Se înţelege de la sine că numeroasele limbi ce se vorbeau în Indiile Occidentale erau curente printre elevii şcolii. Domnul Ardagh avusese chiar fericita idee să le impună pe rând în timpul orelor şi în recreaţii. O săptămână se vorbea engleza, o alta franceza, olandeza, spaniola, daneza sau suedeza. Fără îndoială, elevii anglo-saxoni formau majoritatea în această instituţie şi poate că încercau să impună un soi de dominaţie fizică şi morală. Dar şi celelalte insule din Antile erau reprezentate în proporţie suficientă. Chiar şi insula Saint Barthélémy, singura care depindea de statele scandinave, trimisese câţiva elevi, între alţii pe Magnus Anders, care primise la concurs premiul al treilea.
În general, sarcina domnului Ardagh şi a colaboratorilor săi nu era lipsită de anumite greutăţi de ordin practic. Nu era oare nevoie de un adevărat spirit de dreptate, de o metodă sigură şi statornică, de o mână fermă şi pricepută, pentru a evita ca între aceşti tineri să se işte rivalităţi, care totuşi se manifestau uneori, cu toată dorinţa ca ele să fie împiedicate?
Şi tocmai în legătură cu acest concurs te puteai teme ca ambiţiile personale să nu provoace oarecari tulburări, reclamaţii, invidii, atunci când se vor anunţa laureaţii. Dar, la urma urmelor, rezultatul a fost satisfăcător: un francez şi un englez luaseră premiul întâi, obţinând acelaşi număr de puncte. E adevărat că dacă un supus al reginei Victoria ajunsese pe penultimul loc, un supus francez era pe ultimul, şi anume Tony Renault, pe care nu l-ar fi invidiat niciunul din colegii săi. Pe celelalte locuri se succedau diverşi elevi născuţi în Antilele engleze, franceze, daneze, olandeze şi suedeze. Nu se găsea printre câştigători niciun venezuelian şi niciun spaniol, cu toate că în şcoală se aflau la acea dată vreo cincisprezece. Trebuie să avem însă în vedere că, în acel an, elevii originari din Cuba, Santo Domingo şi Puerto Rico, din grupa Antilelor Mari, în etate de 12 – 15 ani, erau printre cei mici şi nu aveau posibilitatea de a lua parte la concurs, căci nu se admiteau decât participanţi în vârstă de cel puţin 17 ani.
Domnul Ardagh se străduia să reunească, să fuzioneze aceste temperamente şi caractere atât de diverse, cum era şi firesc în convieţuirea unor tineri de naţionalităţi diferite, să facă pe cât posibil din elevii săi nişte «antilieni», să le insufle o dragoste durabilă unora pentru alţii.
Se înţelege de la sine că numeroasele limbi ce se vorbeau în Indiile Occidentale erau curente printre elevii şcolii. Domnul Ardagh avusese chiar fericita idee să le impună pe rând în timpul orelor şi în recreaţii. O săptămână se vorbea engleza, o alta franceza, olandeza, spaniola, daneza sau suedeza. Fără îndoială, elevii anglo-saxoni formau majoritatea în această instituţie şi poate că încercau să impună un soi de dominaţie fizică şi morală. Dar şi celelalte insule din Antile erau reprezentate în proporţie suficientă. Chiar şi insula Saint Barthélémy, singura care depindea de statele scandinave, trimisese câţiva elevi, între alţii pe Magnus Anders, care primise la concurs premiul al treilea.
În general, sarcina domnului Ardagh şi a colaboratorilor săi nu era lipsită de anumite greutăţi de ordin practic. Nu era oare nevoie de un adevărat spirit de dreptate, de o metodă sigură şi statornică, de o mână fermă şi pricepută, pentru a evita ca între aceşti tineri să se işte rivalităţi, care totuşi se manifestau uneori, cu toată dorinţa ca ele să fie împiedicate?
Şi tocmai în legătură cu acest concurs te puteai teme ca ambiţiile personale să nu provoace oarecari tulburări, reclamaţii, invidii, atunci când se vor anunţa laureaţii. Dar, la urma urmelor, rezultatul a fost satisfăcător: un francez şi un englez luaseră premiul întâi, obţinând acelaşi număr de puncte. E adevărat că dacă un supus al reginei Victoria ajunsese pe penultimul loc, un supus francez era pe ultimul, şi anume Tony Renault, pe care nu l-ar fi invidiat niciunul din colegii săi. Pe celelalte locuri se succedau diverşi elevi născuţi în Antilele engleze, franceze, daneze, olandeze şi suedeze. Nu se găsea printre câştigători niciun venezuelian şi niciun spaniol, cu toate că în şcoală se aflau la acea dată vreo cincisprezece. Trebuie să avem însă în vedere că, în acel an, elevii originari din Cuba, Santo Domingo şi Puerto Rico, din grupa Antilelor Mari, în etate de 12 – 15 ani, erau printre cei mici şi nu aveau posibilitatea de a lua parte la concurs, căci nu se admiteau decât participanţi în vârstă de cel puţin 17 ani.
November 30, 2023
S.
Porfin termine esto, me he demorado un mes completo ya que no he tenido tiempo para leerlo.
El libro estuvo mid, es MUY repetitivo, pareciera que no pasan muchas cosas, pero es facil de leer, rápido (a pesar de que me tomara tiempo por mis horarios) y es hasta cierto punto entretenido.
Me gusto bastante la parte donde ya se llega al final y las descripciones de las vistas y naturaleza de las islas. Algunos personajes me cayeron bien y a pesar de que hay varios y no todos tienen profundidad ni personalidad, los que la tienen estan bien.
Bueno, eso es todo. Me quedan muchos mas libros en mi librero de Julio Verne (Y recién voy dos, lloro) pero me entretengo leyendolos y no necesito muchas neuronas para entenderlos, so...
Porfin termine esto, me he demorado un mes completo ya que no he tenido tiempo para leerlo.
El libro estuvo mid, es MUY repetitivo, pareciera que no pasan muchas cosas, pero es facil de leer, rápido (a pesar de que me tomara tiempo por mis horarios) y es hasta cierto punto entretenido.
Me gusto bastante la parte donde ya se llega al final y las descripciones de las vistas y naturaleza de las islas. Algunos personajes me cayeron bien y a pesar de que hay varios y no todos tienen profundidad ni personalidad, los que la tienen estan bien.
Bueno, eso es todo. Me quedan muchos mas libros en mi librero de Julio Verne (Y recién voy dos, lloro) pero me entretengo leyendolos y no necesito muchas neuronas para entenderlos, so...
December 25, 2022
Es una obra menor del autor sin embargo muy disfrutable, describe el panorama antillano de la época a la perfección, tiene un gran inicio y un buen nudo, sin embargo el final se me hizo algo tedioso, además esta novela no está tan cargada de aventuras como algunas otras de Verne, no está mal pero sin duda Verne tiene mucho más que ofrecer en otras obras.
March 8, 2023
El increíble y único Julio Verne nunca defrauda. Una aventura asombrosa, libro muy entretenido acompañado tanto de datos históricos sobre las islas Antillas como también de detalles sobre la navegación del siglo XIX. La piratería, ingleses, franceses, becas de viaje y personajes que atrapan. Muy recomendable.
March 11, 2021
Este libro es de los que leí de niño, un libro para jovenes lleno de aventuras las cualescte hacían soñar, probablemenre no es de lo mejor de Julio Verne pero puede ser muy interesante si el lector es joven
May 2, 2021
Se describe muy bien todas las islas de la Antilla y el mar caribe. Personalmente me costó engancharme con la historia al principio , se extiende mucho con la parte de los piratas, pero cuando se comienza el viaje en si vemos al clásico Julio Verne de siempre
February 23, 2023
TLDR: For todays standars, it was an ok story for kids who want to wonder about adventures and friendship while you travel. Even when I read it I was not amused about the story, but I had a good time reading it.
July 9, 2017
Versión cómic.
March 22, 2023
The fifty-first Extraordinary Voyage takes us on a tour of the West Indies. This sea adventure is also considered the last of the four Extraordinary Voyages to have boys as the main character (the others being "Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen", "Two Years' Vacation" and "Foundling Mick"), although in this case the boys are seventeen or older.
What is it about?: The Antilian School is a renowned London school, which hosts only European boys born in the Caribbean. Nine of its students are to be awarded travel grants offered by the school's sponsor, a wealthy Barbados woman. Meanwhile, Harry Markel, a former captain turned pirate, has been captured and transferred to England, but he escapes along with his right-hand man John Carpenter and the rest of his accomplices – known collectively as the "Pirates of the Halifax". The pirates end up seizing the Alert, a three-masted ship waiting in port, after massacring its captain and crew. It is precisely the ship that's just about to embark the scholarship winners, accompanied by their mentor Horatio Patterson, the bursar of the school. Markel's intention is to murder his passengers and use the ship t0 go back to a life of piracy, but on learning that the students are also going to be awarded a cash prize, he decides to wait and play the role of a honest ship's captain, until the boys are given those awards, so that he can also steal that money.
This was published just two years before Verne's death, and although you could argue that there was a certain decline in the last part of his career, in this novel the decline is much more marked, to the point that I would not recommend Travel Scholarships except to Verne completists. This does not necessarily mean that the remaining books are all going to be disappointing since, for example, Master of the World, which would be published the following year, is generally well-regarded.
But there will be time for that later. For the moment, let's go back to this novel. What's wrong with it is not the premise. The idea would make for a tense adventure. Unfortunately, Verne does not develop the idea in a compelling manner. He concentrates on the description of the West Indies islands that the boys visit as part of their travel program, but he does not do so with his usual charm, ending up with a dull travelogue, and he forgets to develop the plot at the same time. I would have expected some incidents to happen, and some of the characters to start becoming suspicious, but mostly nothing happens until we get to the final part.
Most of the characters are not developed either, with the exception of Mr. Patterson, the adult mentor accompanying the boys, who is an ineffectual comic relief figure, and to a certain extent Tony Renault, the jokester among the boys. Then, when the time comes for the story to reach its climax, the leading role is not taken by any of those characters, but by a new one, just introduced.
All in all, a disappointing addition to the series. Clearly Verne, by then plagued by health problems, was not at his best.
Enjoyment factor: I found this one disappointing. It follows a familiar Verne formula, mixing adventure and geographic descriptions, but the usual life and inspiration is missing.
Next up: A Drama in Livonia
See all my Verne reviews here: https://www.sffworld.com/forum/thread...
What is it about?: The Antilian School is a renowned London school, which hosts only European boys born in the Caribbean. Nine of its students are to be awarded travel grants offered by the school's sponsor, a wealthy Barbados woman. Meanwhile, Harry Markel, a former captain turned pirate, has been captured and transferred to England, but he escapes along with his right-hand man John Carpenter and the rest of his accomplices – known collectively as the "Pirates of the Halifax". The pirates end up seizing the Alert, a three-masted ship waiting in port, after massacring its captain and crew. It is precisely the ship that's just about to embark the scholarship winners, accompanied by their mentor Horatio Patterson, the bursar of the school. Markel's intention is to murder his passengers and use the ship t0 go back to a life of piracy, but on learning that the students are also going to be awarded a cash prize, he decides to wait and play the role of a honest ship's captain, until the boys are given those awards, so that he can also steal that money.
This was published just two years before Verne's death, and although you could argue that there was a certain decline in the last part of his career, in this novel the decline is much more marked, to the point that I would not recommend Travel Scholarships except to Verne completists. This does not necessarily mean that the remaining books are all going to be disappointing since, for example, Master of the World, which would be published the following year, is generally well-regarded.
But there will be time for that later. For the moment, let's go back to this novel. What's wrong with it is not the premise. The idea would make for a tense adventure. Unfortunately, Verne does not develop the idea in a compelling manner. He concentrates on the description of the West Indies islands that the boys visit as part of their travel program, but he does not do so with his usual charm, ending up with a dull travelogue, and he forgets to develop the plot at the same time. I would have expected some incidents to happen, and some of the characters to start becoming suspicious, but mostly nothing happens until we get to the final part.
Most of the characters are not developed either, with the exception of Mr. Patterson, the adult mentor accompanying the boys, who is an ineffectual comic relief figure, and to a certain extent Tony Renault, the jokester among the boys. Then, when the time comes for the story to reach its climax, the leading role is not taken by any of those characters, but by a new one, just introduced.
All in all, a disappointing addition to the series. Clearly Verne, by then plagued by health problems, was not at his best.
Enjoyment factor: I found this one disappointing. It follows a familiar Verne formula, mixing adventure and geographic descriptions, but the usual life and inspiration is missing.
Next up: A Drama in Livonia
See all my Verne reviews here: https://www.sffworld.com/forum/thread...
December 30, 2024
Muy repetitivo, con detalles que no aportaban mucho y me terminaron aburriendo. Puedo destacar solo 3 o 4 ocurrencias que me sorprendieron. No terminé de distinguir a los personajes de los alumnos por la poca profundidad que se les dá. Hay sucesos que no les encontré lógica. Confío en que Verne tiene mejores libros
February 17, 2016
Somewhere on the Internet is a map of the world with mid-nineteenth century names and borders, and when you touch any landmass__and quite a bit of the oceans of the world__a window pops up with the name of the Jules Verne roman scientifiques__scientific novel__describing the locale, its peoples, agriculture, animals, customs and politics.
And if there isn__t, there should be.
When, after the international success of his earliest works, his publisher decided to collect these and his subsequent novels into Voyages extraordinaires__Extraordinary Voyages__the intent was trumpeted thusly:
__The goal of the series is, in fact, to outline all the geographical, physical, and astronomical knowledge amassed by modern science, and to recount, in an entertaining and picturesque format that is all his own, the history of the universe.__
Well, let us say, rather, a __contemporary history of the world,__ with side trips to circle the moon and to tour the solar system. Jules Verne spent the next 39 years doing his best to fulfill this promise.
Returning to that imaginary map for a moment, if you were to touch the area around the Antilles, the novel that would appear would be Travel Scholarships. Published when Verne had only two years left of life in him, Travel Scholarships is the last of four novels, only recently, to be translated into English. For a man mapping the world with his words, it fits in nicely with his oeuvre; as one of the __Fathers of Science Fiction____a title bestowed upon him, along with H.G. Wells and Edgar Allen Poe__it does not. He has also been relegated (usually due to poor translations) to being a children__s adventure author, and here the book fits admirably . . . if one is not overly bothered by the slaughter of a ship__s crew at the book__s outset. That is the book__s central conceit; what would otherwise be a peaceful tour of a group of the Antilles__ islands is made suspenseful by the fact that the passengers (a group of students) aboard the ship do not know their captain and crew are imposters, are, in fact, pirates.
My only real complaint with the book is the characterization and through-story of Mr. Patterson, the students__ mentor. It is incredible hubris on my part to suggest an improvement on Jules Verne, but had Mr. Patterson risen to the challenge in the latter portions of the book, instead of or in concert with the belatedly-introduced Will Mitz__and particularly if somehow discovery of the pirates__ identity or capturing of the ship were somehow linked to his spouting of Latin phrases__I think the ending would have been much more satisfying, and Verne would have gifted literature with one more memorable character.
Verne might__ve also figured out some way for Mr. Patterson to keep the stuffed snake.
And if there isn__t, there should be.
When, after the international success of his earliest works, his publisher decided to collect these and his subsequent novels into Voyages extraordinaires__Extraordinary Voyages__the intent was trumpeted thusly:
__The goal of the series is, in fact, to outline all the geographical, physical, and astronomical knowledge amassed by modern science, and to recount, in an entertaining and picturesque format that is all his own, the history of the universe.__
Well, let us say, rather, a __contemporary history of the world,__ with side trips to circle the moon and to tour the solar system. Jules Verne spent the next 39 years doing his best to fulfill this promise.
Returning to that imaginary map for a moment, if you were to touch the area around the Antilles, the novel that would appear would be Travel Scholarships. Published when Verne had only two years left of life in him, Travel Scholarships is the last of four novels, only recently, to be translated into English. For a man mapping the world with his words, it fits in nicely with his oeuvre; as one of the __Fathers of Science Fiction____a title bestowed upon him, along with H.G. Wells and Edgar Allen Poe__it does not. He has also been relegated (usually due to poor translations) to being a children__s adventure author, and here the book fits admirably . . . if one is not overly bothered by the slaughter of a ship__s crew at the book__s outset. That is the book__s central conceit; what would otherwise be a peaceful tour of a group of the Antilles__ islands is made suspenseful by the fact that the passengers (a group of students) aboard the ship do not know their captain and crew are imposters, are, in fact, pirates.
My only real complaint with the book is the characterization and through-story of Mr. Patterson, the students__ mentor. It is incredible hubris on my part to suggest an improvement on Jules Verne, but had Mr. Patterson risen to the challenge in the latter portions of the book, instead of or in concert with the belatedly-introduced Will Mitz__and particularly if somehow discovery of the pirates__ identity or capturing of the ship were somehow linked to his spouting of Latin phrases__I think the ending would have been much more satisfying, and Verne would have gifted literature with one more memorable character.
Verne might__ve also figured out some way for Mr. Patterson to keep the stuffed snake.
December 30, 2017
Roman d’aventure assez sympa dans le style typique de Jules Vernes qui nous embarque dans les péripéties de ses protagonistes, même si on sait qu’à la fin les « gentils » seront sains et saufs.
February 13, 2021
Περιπετειωδες.
April 8, 2022
No es de las mejores de Verne. Leída la edición de Plaza & Janes y Orbis.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews