L'oncle Robinson

by Jules Verne

C’est vers 1861 que Jules Verne imagina de reprendre à sa manière le mythe de Robinson Crusoé – et de concurrencer, peut-être, le Robinson suisse de J. D. Wyss. Le succès de Cinq semaines en ballon orienta le romancier vers d’autres projets, mais le manuscrit fut retrouvé dans ses archives, acquises en 1981 par la Ville de Nantes. Echoués sur une île déserte du Pacifique après la mutinerie de l’équipage du voilier qui les emmenait vers les Etats-Unis, un couple et ses quatre enfants doivent apprendre à survivre, aidés par l’oncle Robinson, un matelot resté fidèle… Source intarissable de rêves pour Jules Verne, le thème des naufragés devait réapparaître dans L’Ile mystérieuse. L’écrivain lui donne ici une expression caractéristique de sa manière, et susceptible de passionner les lecteurs d’aujourd’hui.

Genres: Classics, French Literature

315 pages, Pocket Book

Published October 10, 2001

About the author

Novels 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...

Reviews

[Steve Gross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting first attempt at "The Mysterious Island"

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second entry in the North American Jules Verne Society’s (NAJVS) Palik Series features a story that would be reworked into one of Jules Verne’s most famous novels Mysterious Island. This volume features an outstanding piece by series editor Brian Taves on Verne’s “Robinsonades.” For those that don’t know, a Robinsonade is a story of survival, using on a desert island in the spirit of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Johann Wyss’s The Swiss Family Robinson. The late Sidney Kravitz provided the translation for this tale, Sidney’s translation of Mysterious Island is the definitive English language translation of that classic novel. The story itself is very good, and it is unclear why his publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel rejected this story and told him to start over after Verne had completed the first volume. Elements of this story make it into Mysterious Island and other of Verne’s “Robinsonades” details of which are found in Taves' excellent piece.

[Steve Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Shipwrecked Family" is in the tradition of Robinson Crusoe and the Swiss Family Robinson. It's also the prototype for Verne's classic Mysterious Island. A wonderful essay comes with the book that not only outlines the author's fascination with "Robinsonades" but also addresses how the plot of this particular tale was later reworked into the exploits of the immortal Captain Nemo.

Verne is often wrongly assumed to be a writer of nothing but fiction aimed at the younger market. In this case, that's actually true but the prose possesses charm enjoyable to readers of all ages. Verne never completed the last chapters of "Shipwrecked Family"; however, I found that fact not nearly the drawback I anticipated. In fact, just the opposite was the case and I pleasantly caught myself exercising my imagination to complete the finale.

Of interest on many levels.