THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND: Including both the Original UK and US Translation

Jules Verne

oct 2017 · e-artnow

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The Mysterious Island was originally published as L'Ile mystéreuse in parts in France between 1873 and 1875 in a periodical. It was the last part of a trilogy. The Mysterious Island made the links between the two novels Captain Grant's Children (1865), and Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas (1869). This idea had been born even before the start of writing of The Mysterious Island. The first English translation was available by Sampson Low in 1875, translated by W.H.G. Kingston. He was a famous author of boys' adventure and sailing stories. However, it is now known that the actual translator of Mysterious Island and his other Verne novels was actually his wife, Agnes Kinloch Kingston. Based on this first English version followed many other variants of translations or abridged versions. In 1876 the Stephen W. White translation appeared first in the columns of The Evening Telegraph of Philadelphia and subsequently as an Evening Telegraph Reprint Book. This translation is more faithful to the original story and restores the death scene of Captain Nemo, but there is still condensation and omission of some sections such as Verne's description of how a sawmill works. Jules Gabriel Verne (1828 – 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright best known for his adventure novels and his profound influence on the literary genre of science fiction.