A summary of Jules Verne’s "The Mysterious Island"

French author Jules Verne’s 1874 adventure novel explores 19th-century scientific knowledge through the story of human survival in the wild. A classic example of science fiction, it depicts engineering genius and teamwork as triumphs over the harsh elements. It concludes the author’s trilogy, which previously included the novels "The Children of Captain Grant" (1867–1868) and "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (1869–1870). The novel has been adapted for the screen numerous times in the USSR, the USA, and Europe, spawning over a dozen film adaptations and television series.

Escape from Richmond and landing on a desert island

In March 1865, during the American Civil War, five Union men make a daring escape from the besieged capital of Richmond in a hot air balloon. Among the fugitives are engineer Cyrus Smith, journalist Gideon Spilett, servant Neb, sailor Pencroft, fifteen-year-old orphan Herbert Brown, and their faithful dog Top. A terrible hurricane carries their balloon thousands of kilometers into the South Pacific. When the gas in the balloon’s envelope escapes, the passengers discard all their luggage, but the balloon crashes near an unknown landmass.

Cyrus Harding and his dog are thrown overboard during the fall. The four remaining fugitives reach the sandy shore of a small island, which they name Salvation Island. Neb immediately sets out to find his master. Pencroft and Herbert find food and temporary shelter among the coastal rocks in natural niches they call Grottoes. Later, a single dry match is found in Gideon Spilett’s pocket, which helps them start a fire. Top leads the friends to a sand cave in the dunes, where they discover an exhausted but still alive Cyrus Harding.

Having recovered from exhaustion, the engineer organized an exploration of the land. Having climbed to the summit of an extinct volcano named Mount Franklin, the colonists discovered they had landed on an isolated, uninhabited island about 160 kilometers long. They named the island after Abraham Lincoln, and its geographic features were given names reminiscent of their homeland: the Mercy River, Lake Grant, Far View Plateau, Cape Claw, and Snake Peninsula.

Organization of life and arrangement of the Granite Palace

Cyrus Smith measured the height of the granite wall geometrically using a pole and determined the island’s latitude using the Southern Cross (37° south). Later, by measuring the pole’s shadow at midday, he calculated the longitude (152° west). After studying the available minerals, the engineer organized the extraction of iron ore and coal. The colonists fired bricks and pottery from clay, built a fulling mill, and manufactured sulfuric and nitric acids, soda, soap, and stearin candles.

Using nitroglycerin, they create a new outlet for Lake Grant, draining the internal granite tunnel. A spacious natural cavern opens up inside the rock. Inside, the colonists construct their permanent home — the Granite Palace. They punch windows in the granite wall twenty-five meters above the ground and install a hydraulic lift and a rope ladder.

The colonists are active in farming: they fish, gather oysters, hunt wild pigs, kangaroos, and birds, and establish a poultry house and vegetable gardens. A single grain of wheat, accidentally found by Herbert in the lining of his jacket, yields a bountiful harvest after several sowings. In the forest, the colonists tame an orangutan, whom they name Jupe. The ape quickly learns to perform household chores and becomes a devoted servant. A special corral is built at the foot of Mount Franklin to house a herd of mouflon sheep and wild goats.

The Mystery of the Island and Rescue from Tabor Island

Despite the successful settlement of the territory, the colonists encounter events that are difficult to explain by natural causes. Smith recalls his mysterious rescue from the waves, the miraculous return of his dog Top, and the inexplicable disappearance of a sea turtle. Later, at dinner, Pencroff nearly breaks a tooth on a lead pellet found in the carcass of a roasted young peccary. This proves that someone has fired a gun on the island.

The colonists build a small sailboat, the Bonaventure. While testing it in the waters of Herbert Bay, he fishes out a sealed bottle containing a note. It states that a shipwrecked man is found on the neighboring island of Tabor, located 240 kilometers to the southwest.

Pencroft, Gideon Spilett, and Herbert set sail for Tabor Island on the Bonaventure. Deep in the forest, they discover an abandoned hut and then encounter a man gone wild, no longer human. The colonists, with difficulty, restrain him and take him to Lincoln Island. At Granite House, thanks to the care of Smith and his friends, the stranger gradually regains his senses. He weeps, begins to speak again, and reveals his name: Ayrton.

Ayrton confesses that twelve years ago he was a boatswain on the ship "Britannia," then led a gang of Australian convicts under the name Ben Joyce and attempted to seize the yacht "Duncan." For his crimes, Lord Glenarvan marooned him on the uninhabited island of Tabor. Over time, loneliness drove him to madness. Ayrton categorically denies writing the note or throwing the bottle into the sea. Cyrus Harding forgives him, and Ayrton settles in the corral, tending to the cattle. An engineer lays an electric telegraph line between the corral and Granite House.

Pirate invasion and mortal danger

In the autumn of 1867, while photographing the coast, Herbert noticed a speck on the horizon in his negative. A ship under a black flag was approaching the island — the pirate brig "Swift," commanded by Bob Harvey, Ayrton’s former accomplice. On board were fifty escaped convicts from Norfolk Island.

Ayrton swims aboard the brig at night and attempts to blow up the powder magazine, but is forced to jump into the water. The next day, the pirates begin shelling the island with their ship’s cannons and land troops. The colonists valiantly defend themselves, eliminating some of the bandits with well-aimed carbine shots. However, the "Bystry" enters the strait and begins to destroy the Granite Palace at point-blank range.

Suddenly, a huge column of water rises beneath the pirate vessel’s keel. A powerful underwater explosion occurs, and the brig instantly sinks with its entire crew. Only six pirates, who had managed to disembark earlier, remain on the surface. Examining the wreckage, Cyrus Harding finds a piece of a metal cylinder and realizes: the ship was destroyed by an underwater torpedo. The colonists are left with no doubt about the existence of a mysterious patron.

The surviving pirates hide in the forests. They capture Ayrton, severely wound Herbert with a gunshot wound, and burn down the buildings on the Far View Plateau. Herbert is taken to the corral, where he falls ill with a severe swamp fever. When the young man is on the brink of death due to a lack of medicine, a box of quinine sulfate mysteriously appears on the table in the room. The medicine saves Herbert’s life.

In February 1868, the colonists set out to search for pirates and discovered all five bandits dead in the corral. Only the faint marks of deadly electric bullets were visible on their bodies. There they also found Ayrton, alive but exhausted.

The Mystery of Captain Nemo and the Death of Lincoln Island

In October 1868, the telegraph rang at Granite House. A note in the corral pointed the way along a new wire leading to the western shore. At low tide, the colonists entered the underwater cave of Dakkar and spotted the submarine Nautilus.

On board the submarine, they are met by the aging Captain Nemo, the Indian Prince Dakkar, the organizer of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Having lost his family and homeland, he built the Nautilus and sailed into the ocean depths. As the last of his crew, Captain Nemo brought the Nautilus to an underwater harbor beneath Lincoln Island, where it became trapped due to shifting basalt layers. The dying captain reveals to the colonists that it was he who saved them in their darkest moments, watched over their fate, and helped them.

Captain Nemo gives the colonists a chest of treasures and asks them to lower the Nautilus to the bottom of the cave after his death, making it his tomb. The colonists fulfill the dying man’s wishes: they seal the hatches, open the valves, and submerge the Nautilus into the watery depths.

Before his death, Captain Nemo warns Cyrus Smith that the volcano is preparing to erupt: the basalt barrier between Dakkar’s cave and the crater has thinned, and water penetrating the molten magma will inevitably cause an explosion. The colonists accelerate the construction of a large schooner to escape the island.

In early March 1869, the volcano erupted with unprecedented force. Lava destroyed the remaining vegetation, flooded a vegetable garden, and destroyed buildings. On the night of March 9, the thin wall of the cave collapsed. Ocean water rushed into the volcano’s depths. A gigantic explosion thundered, reverberating for hundreds of kilometers. Mount Franklin and the entire Lincoln Island split and instantly plunged into the ocean waves.

All that remains of the colony is a lone, bare rock, nine meters long and four meters wide. Six colonists and their dog, Top, find refuge on this rock. For twelve days, without food or fresh water, they suffer from excruciating hunger and thirst.

On the morning of March 24, the steam yacht Duncan, commanded by Robert Grant, appeared on the horizon. It turned out that Captain Nemo had managed to reach Tabor Island on the Bonaventure and left a note there with the exact coordinates of Lincoln Island and the location of Ayrton and the American colonists.

The rescued colonists return to America. Using the treasures left by Captain Nemo, they acquire vast lands in Iowa, where they found a thriving rural community named in memory of the island swallowed by the ocean. In this community, the friends live together, preserving the memory of their great patron and the mountainous island in the Pacific Ocean.