In my last reading challenge update I mentioned that the adventure novel I intended to read for the month of April was The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. I finally finished it a couple of days ago. I really enjoyed it and do recommend it, but with a couple of caveats. First, Jules Verne was fascinated by scientific detail and there is plenty of it in this novel, where five castaways land on a remote and uninhabited island and must find a way to make everything they need with just the raw materials available and their own knowledge and abilities. Fortunately the leader of the group is an engineer with a broad background in many scientific fields, so they are quite successful, but Verne does go into great, sometimes tedious, detail as to the methods used for making such items as pottery, gunpowder, glass, various metals, etc. I found the descriptions of these processes to be fascinating, but must admit that I merely skimmed through a lot of the information (hopefully I will never find myself in a situation like the castaways where I wished I had paid more attention to these details!).
I also found it interesting to read yet another 19th century novel which again reinforced the very masculine view of the world during this time period (the Conan Doyle novel I read last month had similar views). All of the castaways are men, and their main focus seems to be conquering their environment rahter than living in harmony with it (one of their first tasks is to blow up one end of a lake to lower the water level for access to an underwater cave!). They are obsessed with coming into possession of guns, which they cannot make themselves, and which, fortunately for them and somewhat miraculously, they find in a chest adrift in the ocean. There is even a brief warlike conflict with some pirates who come across their island - even remote castaways cannot escape war!
The only other problem I had with this novel came at the very end. The five castaways were accompanied by a loyal dog, who did his fair share in helping them all to survive. After the rather catastrophic end to the island, the only survivors are these men and the dog, but they fear that without supplies they will soon perish from hunger and thirst. Just in the nick of time they are rescued, but no further mention is made of the dog. Did he survive or perish before the rescue? Jules Verne did not think to let us know, and I for one as a confirmed dog lover found this overlooked detail maddening! It pretty much ruined the whole ending for me - I even reread the last few pages twice to see if I had missed this detail, but there was nothing. I will just assume that the dog managed to survive, but it would have made me happier to have had this conclusion verified. Otherwise, as I said I found the novel a very worthwhile read and would certainly recommend it to anyone looking to read a classic adventure tale.
Next month's reading challenge is a vintage girl's novel (Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is a classic example), and I have decided to read a lesser known work called Ruth Hall by author Fanny Fern. I am completely unfamiliar with this novel and the author, so I look forward to learning more about both when I read this semi-autobiographical book.
