The Mysterious Island (Complete) - Jules Verne

Written by Jules Verne
Read by Bill Homewood
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Complete? —-Missing last three chapters added——We have to rescue the settlers!

Release date: 04-10-23
Length: 19 hrs and 44 mins
Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Translation by Steven White

The year is 1866; the American Civil War is at its height. Five prisoners of war hatch an audacious plan to escape their camp by balloon. After a perilous 6,000-mile journey in a fierce storm, they are ‘shipwrecked’ on an unknown Pacific island. What follows is a thrilling tale of resourcefulness, courage and suspense.

Together with our heroes we learn to hunt, to make weapons and pottery, to calculate our position by the sun, to extract iron and even to make explosives from the island’s remarkable natural resources.

As in all Verne’s novels, the plot is packed with unexpected and tantalizing mysteries–above all, who is the invisible benefactor who repeatedly saves our heroes from certain death?

“Bill Homewood’s resonant bass is a fine match for Jules Verne’s 1875 sprawling sequel to his landmark work TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1870). It’s the end of the Civil War, and a small, intrepid band of Union soldiers takes off in a hot-air balloon to avoid capture by the Confederates. A terrifying storm whisks them 6,000 miles away to an uninhabited, uncharted island somewhere in the South Pacific. One of Verne’s trademarks is his meticulous and detailed research, and Homewood keeps the narrative focused and steady as the crew, calling themselves “colonists,” harness fire, fashion tools, and plant crops. When pirates appear, a mysterious presence provides timely help. Homewood provides a classic voice for a classic nineteenth-century fantasy-adventure.”—AudioFile