March 1865 In the United States during the Civil War, five brave northerners escape from Richmond, which was captured by the southerners, in a hot air balloon. A terrible storm throws four of them ashore on an uninhabited island in the Southern Hemisphere. The fifth man and his dog are hiding in the sea near the shore. This fifth - a certain Cyrus Smith, a talented engineer and scientist, the soul and leader of a group of travelers - for several days involuntarily keeps his companions in suspense, who can nowhere find either him or his loyal dog Top. The one who suffers the most is the former slave, and now Smith’s devoted servant, the Negro Neb. In the balloon were also a war journalist and Smith's friend, Gideon Spilett, a very energetic and decisive man with a vigorous mind; sailor Pencroft, a good-natured and enterprising daredevil; fifteen-year-old Harbert Brown, the son of the captain of the ship on which Pencroff sailed, who was left an orphan, and whom the sailor treats as his own son. After a tedious search, Neb finally finds his inexplicably saved master a mile from the shore. Each of the island's new settlers has irreplaceable talents, and under the leadership of Cyrus and Spilett, these brave people rally and become a single team. First, using the simplest means at hand, then producing more and more complex objects of labor and household use in their own small factories, the settlers arrange their lives. They hunt, collect edible plants, oysters, then even breed domestic animals and engage in farming. They make their home high in the rock, in a cave freed from water. Soon, thanks to their hard work and intelligence, the colonists no longer needed food, clothing, or warmth and comfort. They have everything except news about their homeland, about the fate of which they are very worried.
One day, returning to their home, which they called the Granite Palace, they see that monkeys are in charge inside. After a while, as if under the influence of insane fear, the monkeys begin to jump out of the windows, and someone’s hand throws out to the travelers the rope ladder that the monkeys lifted into the house. Inside, people find another monkey - an orangutan, which they keep and call Uncle Jupe. In the future, Yup becomes a friend, servant and indispensable assistant to people.
Another day, the settlers find a box on the sand containing tools, firearms, various appliances, clothing, kitchen utensils and books in English. The settlers wonder where this box could have come from. Using the map, also found in the box, they discover that next to their island, not marked on the map, is the island of Tabor. The sailor Pencroft is eager to go to him. With the help of his friends, he builds a bot. When the bot is ready, everyone takes it on a test voyage around the island. During it, they find a bottle with a note saying that a shipwrecked man is waiting for rescue on Tabor Island. This event strengthens Pencroft's confidence in the need to visit the neighboring island. Pencroft, journalist Gideon Spilett and Herbert set sail. Arriving at Tabor, they discover a small shack where, by all indications, no one has lived for a long time. They scatter around the island, not hoping to see a living person, and try to find at least his remains. Suddenly they hear Harbert scream and rush to his aid. They see that Harbert is fighting with a certain hairy creature that looks like a monkey. However, the monkey turns out to be a feral man. The travelers tie him up and transport him to their island. They give him a separate room in the Granite Palace. Thanks to their attention and care, the savage soon becomes a civilized man again and tells them his story. It turns out that his name is Ayrton, he is a former criminal, he wanted to take possession of the sailing ship "Duncan" and, with the help of the same dregs of society as he was, turn it into a pirate ship. However, his plans were not destined to come true, and as punishment twelve years ago he was left on the uninhabited island of Tabor so that he would realize his act and atone for his sin. However, the owner of Duncan, Edward Glenarvan, said that someday he would return for Ayrton. The settlers see that Ayrton sincerely repents of his past sins, and he tries to be useful to them in every possible way. Therefore, they are not inclined to judge him for past misdeeds and willingly accept him into their society. However, Ayrton needs time, and so he asks to be given the opportunity to live in the corral that the settlers built for their domesticated animals at some distance from the Granite Palace.
- March 1865 In the United States during the Civil War, five brave northerners escape from Richmond, which was captured by the southerners, in a hot air balloon. A terrible storm throws four of them ashore on an uninhabited island in the Southern Hemisphere. The fifth man and his dog fall into the sea not far from the shore. This fifth certain Cyrus Smith, a talented engineer and scientist, the soul and leader of a group of travelers, for several days involuntarily keeps his companions in suspense, who can nowhere find either him or his loyal dog Top. The one who suffers the most is the former slave, and now Smith’s devoted servant, the Negro Neb. In the balloon were also a war journalist and Smith's friend, Gideon Spilett, a very energetic and decisive man with a vigorous mind; sailor Pencroft, a good-natured and enterprising daredevil; fifteen-year-old Herbert Brown, the son of the captain of the ship on which Pencroft sailed, who was left an orphan, and whom the sailor treats as his own son. After a tedious search, Neb finally finds his inexplicably saved master a mile from the shore. Each of the island's new settlers has irreplaceable talents, and under the leadership of Cyrus Spilett, these brave people rally and become a single team. First, using the simplest means at hand, then producing more and more complex objects of labor and household use in their own small factories, the settlers arrange their lives. They hunt, collect edible plants, oysters, then even breed domestic animals and engage in farming. They make their home high in the rock, in a cave freed from water. Soon, thanks to their hard work and intelligence, the colonists no longer needed food, clothing, or warmth and comfort. They have everything except news about their homeland, about the fate of which they are very worried.
Another day, the settlers find a box on the sand containing tools, firearms, various appliances, clothing, kitchen utensils and books in English. The settlers wonder where this box could have come from. Using the map, also found in the box, they discover that next to their island, not marked on the map, is the island of Tabor. The sailor Pencroft is eager to go to him. With the help of his friends, he builds a bot. When the bot is ready, everyone takes it on a test voyage around the island. During it, they find a bottle with a note saying that a shipwrecked man is waiting for rescue on Tabor Island. This event strengthens Pencroft's confidence in the need to visit the neighboring island. Pencroft, journalist Gideon Spilett and Herbert set sail. Arriving at Tabor, they discover a small shack where, by all indications, no one has lived for a long time. They scatter around the island, not hoping to see a living person, and try to find at least his remains. Suddenly they hear Herbert scream and rush to his aid. They see that Herbert is fighting with a certain hairy creature that looks like a monkey. However, the monkey turns out to be a feral man. The travelers tie him up and transport him to their island. They give him a separate room in the Granite Palace. Thanks to their attention and care, the savage soon becomes a civilized man again and tells them his story. It turns out that his name is Ayrton, - In the United States during the Civil War, five northerners flee the besieged southern capital of Richmond in a hot air balloon. In March 1865, a terrible storm throws them ashore on an uninhabited island in the Southern Hemisphere. Each of the island's new settlers has irreplaceable talents, and under the leadership of engineer Cyrus Smith, these brave people rally and become a single team. First, using the simplest means at hand, then producing more and more complex objects of labor and household use in their own small factories, the settlers arrange their lives. Soon, thanks to their hard work and intelligence, the colonists no longer needed food, clothing, or warmth and comfort.
One day, returning to their home, which they called the Granite Palace, they see that monkeys are in charge inside. After a while, as if under the influence of insane fear, the monkeys begin to jump out of the windows, and someone’s hand throws out to the travelers the rope ladder that the monkeys lifted into the house. Inside, people find another orangutan monkey, which they keep and call Uncle Jupe. In the future, Yup becomes a friend, servant and indispensable assistant to people.
Another day, the settlers find a box on the sand containing tools, firearms, various appliances, clothing, kitchen utensils and books in English. The settlers wonder where this box could have come from. Using the map, also found in the box, they discover that next to their island, not marked on the map, is the island of Tabor. The sailor Pencroft is eager to go to him. With the help of his friends, he builds a bot. When the bot is ready, everyone takes it on a test voyage around the island. During it, they find a bottle with a note saying that a shipwrecked man is waiting for rescue on Tabor Island. Pencroft, Gideon Spilett and Herbert discover Ayrton, who has lost his human appearance, and who was left on Tabor for attempting to start a mutiny on the sailing ship Duncan. However, Duncan's owner Edward Glenarvan said that someday he would return for Ayrton. The colonists take him with them to Lincoln Island, where, thanks to their care and friendship, his mental health is finally restored.
Three years pass. The settlers are already harvesting rich harvests of wheat grown from a single grain discovered in Herbert’s pocket three years ago, they have built a mill, raise poultry, completely furnished their home, and made new warm clothes and blankets from mouflon wool. However, their peaceful life is overshadowed by one incident that threatens them with death. One day, looking out to sea, they see a well-equipped ship in the distance, but a black flag flies above the ship. The ship anchors off the shore. Ayrton sneaks onto the ship under cover of darkness to conduct reconnaissance. It turns out that there are fifty pirates on the ship (some of them were part of Ayrton’s former gang) and long-range guns. Miraculously escaping them, Ayrton returns to shore and tells his friends that they need to prepare for battle. The next morning two boats descend from the ship. On the first, the settlers shoot three, and she returns, but the second lands on the shore, and the six pirates remaining on her hide in the forest. Cannons are fired from the ship, and it comes even closer to the shore. It seems that nothing can save the handful of settlers. Suddenly a huge wave rises under the ship and it sinks. All pirates on it die. As it turns out later, the ship was blown up by an underwater mine, and this event finally convinces the inhabitants of the island that they are not alone here.
Oh, that restless Jules Verne... His imagination sometimes led him to bold plots, as if snatched from the distant future. This man, who is the most faithful friend of Dumas the son, was the first to write about space travel accomplished with the help of technology. By the way, the Columbiad passenger module he invented, like the real American space shuttle Columbia, is made of aluminum. The world's first nuclear submarine was named Nautilus, in honor of Captain Nemo's fantastic submarine. The underwater battles anticipated by the science fiction writer and the march to the Pole became a reality.
Perhaps he anticipated the coming world wars. In the novel “500 Million Begums,” the main negative character, a German by birth, dreamed of world domination. And in “Paris of the 20th century” skyscrapers rise, citizens ride electric trains, and banks operate powerful computers.
You can talk about it endlessly... However, the topic of this article is a brief summary of “The Mysterious Island,” the world-famous book by Jules Verne.
The writer's third Robinsonade
This novel, written by an already famous forty-six-year-old writer, was eagerly awaited by the world readership (Jules Verne ranked second after Agatha Christie in terms of the number of translated literature published). The previous books of the Jules Verne Robinsonade were extremely popular: “20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”, as well as “The Children of Captain Grant”. The Robinsonade genre, where people who find themselves in the world of wild nature confront circumstances and return to the civilized world, was especially popular then.
Main characters. Acquaintance
Brief summary of “The Mysterious Island” Let’s start with the beginning: prisoners of war, representatives of the army of the North, fleeing from the southerners from Richmond in a hot air balloon, due to a storm on March 23, 1865, find themselves on an uninhabited island located 7 thousand miles from the continent. Who are they, the new Robinsons?
Their leader is Cyrus Smith - a scientist and engineer. He is a thin and even bony man of 45 years of age with short hair and a mustache. He is remarkably brave, having participated in many battles under the command of General Grant. He is accompanied by a deeply respected and devoted servant - the dark-skinned strongman Neb.
On the same team with them was the fearless, dynamic and resourceful military journalist of the New York Herald newspaper Gideon Spilett, whose courage and fearlessness surprised even the soldiers. Outwardly, he is a tall, physically strong man of about forty with light, slightly brown sideburns. He, along with Cyrus Smith, is the initiator of the escape. The summary of “The Mysterious Island” introduces them to us as like-minded people, business-minded and determined people, the backbone of the team.
By the will of fate, a real sea wolf also turned out to be with them, a man familiar with the sea first-hand - the sailor Pencroft. Along with them is the captain's son, fifteen-year-old Herbert Brown, who came to Richmond with Pencroff. A kind sailor who sailed under his father takes care of the young man like a son. He is determined and smart. It was Pencroff who came up with the risky idea of escaping from captivity on a balloon.
Balloon crash and rescue
The genre of the book itself presupposes a creative logic of further events. The summary of “The Mysterious Island” suggests that the plot of the novel, like all Robinsonades, is typical. His heroes are people who have become victims of circumstances, by the strength of their spirit, thanks to their work, again acquiring power over their destiny. At the same time, they go through serious trials and challenges.
The balloon with the fugitives took off into a storm. People obviously took risks, but this was the only way to lull the vigilance of the southerners and escape unnoticed. In fact, there was no landing of the balloon on the island, there was a crash. Cyrus Smith and his dog were thrown out of the ball's basket separately from the rest of the fugitives. He, exhausted, found himself a mile from the coast and was found by his faithful servant Neb. Thus, it is classic for Robinsonade: the novel begins with a disaster, and accordingly its summary.
The mysterious island turned out to be quite hospitable. It is inhabited by plants and animals. Here, fortunately, it was possible to find food and shelter quite easily.
First, travelers found edible bivalve mollusks, lithodome. Also readily available food was the eggs of rock pigeons. They were discovered by Herbert Brown, who was interested in zoology. There was fresh water on the island, and trees grew here. Pencroft wove an improvised rope from vines and built a raft suitable for crossing the river and swimming along it. Thus began the Robinsonade of five resourceful northern Americans.
Creative activity of settlers
Invariably in novels of this kind, housing construction is present in the plot, and the summary will not ignore it. The mysterious island provides the five with a whole natural palace - a granite cave, and even with an excellent view that opens up for the observer located in such a fortress house. After all, the rock where this dwelling was located towered above the rest of the area.
The northern colonists are already engaged in crop production on a large scale (from a single grain of wheat miraculously discovered in Herbert’s pocket, they grew this grain crop in quantities sufficient for regular baking of bread). The island now provides the settlers with plenty of meat, milk, and clothing. After all, they tamed mouflons and pigs. They keep the animals in a structure called a corral.
They also tame exotic animals, and this case is mentioned in our summary of the story. The “Mysterious Island” is also inhabited by monkeys. One of them, an orangutan that wandered into their granite home, was tamed. The animal that became attached to them and became their true friend was named Yup.
However, the settlers periodically feel that there is a certain well-wisher on the island. Indeed, a priceless gift for the five Americans was a box with working tools, dishes, small arms and ammunition, which they found in the morning on the beach. Now the engineering knowledge of Cyrus Smith allowed the Robinsons to organize the production of the most necessary things.
However, the summary contains not only information about the improvement of life of the settlers. Verne turns his “The Mysterious Island” into a dynamic work by enriching the plot of the novel with new characters.
Swimming on the island Camp
The sailor Pencroft, having carefully studied the map carefully placed in a pencil case with tools by an unknown well-wisher, discovered that next to the island where he and his comrades now live, there is another island, Tabor. The experienced sea wolf realized that it made sense to examine him. Friends together build a small flat-bottomed boat and begin to explore the waters of this island archipelago. Along with the sailor, there are two other people on board who are interested in Pencroft's idea - creative journalist Gideon Spilett and young Garbert. They discover a "sea letter" - a floating, sealed bottle containing a note pleading for help. A shipwrecked sailor awaits help while staying on the island. Camp. This is its summary (Verne builds “The Mysterious Island” on the principle of a quest). Indeed, having landed on about. Tabor, friends discover this man. He is in an inadequate state of consciousness. Ayrton (that was the name of the former pirate) - a semi-wild creature, overgrown with hair and dressed in rags, tries to attack the young man Garbert. His friends help him out. Ayrton is tied up and sent to Lincoln Island to Granite Castle (as his friends call their cave - home).
Ayrton's story
Care and nutrition did their job: the repentant Ayrton told about his ugly story. Twelve years ago, he, being a complete scum of society, along with accomplices like himself, tried to seize the sailing ship Duncan. Captain Edward Glenarvan spared the criminal, but left him on the island. Tabor, telling Ayrton that he would take him, reformed, someday. Thus, Ayrton served his sentence on the island. This is his story in a very short summary. The mysterious island became a prison for him.
They returned from Tabor Island in the dark... The colonists were then saved by a landmark - a fire on the shore. Then they decided that the Negro Neb had started it. It turned out - no. It was kindled by a mysterious friend... (However, the “bottle mail” turned out to be his work. Ayrton did not write the note.)
Arrangement of the settlers' economy
The three years that Cyrus Smith and his comrades spent on the island were not wasted. Their farm includes a mill, a poultry farm, wheat fields, and an established production of woolen products. There is even a telegraph connecting the colonists' place of residence with the corral where they keep the animals.
However, a terrible danger awaits the friends: a war pirate ship drops its anchor in the island’s bay. The forces are clearly unequal. Ayrton, who carried out night reconnaissance, determined that there were 50 pirates on the ship.
War with pirates
The battle scene further decorates the plot and our summary of the book “The Mysterious Island”. Two pirate boats carry thugs from the sailboat to the shore. The northerners bravely take the battle. One of the boats, having lost three corsairs, returns. The second with six fighters nevertheless lands on the jungle-covered shore, and the pirates hide in the thickets. 
The Americans, apparently, are in for a catastrophe. The thugs' warship turns its guns in their direction, and the guns begin to sweep the area around them. However, suddenly an incident occurs again that inspires respect for the power of their secret friend. The pirate ship suddenly explodes and instantly sinks. A live mine went off. 
Next, the author tells us about the real war with pirates, referred to by some unknown readers as Julver (“Mysterious Island”). The summary mentions that it begins with attacks from pirates who disembarked from a boat. Relying on the common sense of the shipless robbers, the northerners did not pursue them. However, the thugs began their usual business - robbery and arson of the property of the settlers. They captured Ayrton, who, tormented by his conscience, voluntarily lived not in a granite castle, but near the corral. Cyrus Smith and his comrades came to his aid. However, the pirates manage to seriously wound young Garbert. The northerners return to their home. The wounded man develops a fever. He is saved by medicine planted by a mysterious friend.
Summary of Verne's novel “The Mysterious Island” enters the denouement stage. The settlers finally decide to destroy the uninvited guests. In their opinion, the thugs are in the corral. And this is true. However, all the bandits are dead, and next to them is the emaciated Ayrton, who has no idea how he ended up here (the pirates kept him in a cave). Once again the presence of an unknown benefactor is felt.
Life is returning to normal. However, a new danger threatens the settlers: the island volcano is gradually beginning to awaken and gain strength. The boat was previously smashed on the reefs by pirates. Concerned, the settlers begin to build a large ship to leave the island if necessary.
Meeting a secret benefactor
One day, in their granite cave, a telegraph from the corral goes off. Finally, a previously unknown patron decided to meet them! They are summoned by him to the corral. The note lying there (again an element of the quest) then directs them along the laid cable - to the majestic grotto. Here their patron, sixty-year-old Captain Nemo, who by his origin is the Indian Prince Dakar, and by conviction, is a fighter for the independence of his homeland, awaits them. He's old, he's lonely. His comrades died in the campaigns and struggle for Indian independence. He is also a creative scientist. The unprecedented Nautilus submarine was designed and assembled by him from components produced by different contractors. Feeling that death was approaching, Captain Nemo called the settlers to help him complete his final task - to help him be buried in the depths of the sea along with his Nautilus. This noble man gives our travelers a chest of jewelry and something else that has no price. He left a note on Tabor Island addressed to rescuers. When he dies, the northerners batten down the hatches and lower the submarine to the bottom. This is a very touching scene.
Final disaster and rescue
Soon, Lincoln Island explodes due to a volcano. The explosion is so strong that the settlers are thrown out of the tent where they had moved in view of the impending disaster, into the water. Verne J. G. (“The Mysterious Island”) does not spare colors for the final scenes. The chapter summary ends with a touching rescue. The sailors of the sailing ship Duncan, which came to rescue Ayrton, guided by the note they found, remove settlers from the lifeless reef island, suffering from hunger and thirst for several days.
Returning to their homeland, the Americans turn the jewelry donated by Captain Nemo into material assets, buying land, livestock, tools and equipment. They are recreating on the American continent the same productive economy as on the island, and are successfully running it together.
Conclusion
Jules Verne in his novel “The Mysterious Island” gave his readers a fascinating story about the American Robinsons. The writer's innovation is striking. The composition of the book contains a number of artistic techniques characteristic of today's action films. Subsequent scenes are logically connected with the previous ones according to the laws of the quest. The final disaster and miraculous rescue are carefully depicted.
The innovation, as well as the artistic presentation of the novel, served as the source of its popularity among millions of readers.
The Robinsonade novel “The Mysterious Island” became a continuation of two other famous works by the French writer Jules Verne – “The Children of Captain Grant” and “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”. The events described in the book take place on a fictional island, on which Captain Nemo, already familiar to readers from previous works, landed.
The novel begins during the Civil War in the United States. Five northern Americans (Nab, Cyres, Gideon, Herbert and Bonaventure) are forced to flee Richmond, the capital of the southerners. The fugitives had a balloon at their disposal. An unusual vehicle gets caught in a storm. The Americans washed ashore on an unknown uninhabited island in the Southern Hemisphere. The new owners of the island begin to develop the land they found and after a while they establish their way of life. The new land was named Lincoln Island. Over time, the Americans acquire a faithful friend - an orangutan nicknamed Uncle Jupe.
One day, the settlers found a box containing firearms, clothing, tools, books in English and various instruments. In the same box was found a map on which Tabor Island was marked. An unfamiliar piece of land is located near Lincoln Island. Pencroft, a sailor by profession, wants to see Tabor in person. For a short trip, friends are building a bot. While making a test voyage around the island, the Americans discover a bottle with a note saying that a shipwrecked man is waiting for help on Tabor.
Ayrton, who had lost his human appearance, was actually discovered on the island. As it turned out, Ayrton was not shipwrecked. He was left on Tabor by the owner of the sailing ship Duncan because Ayrton tried to organize a riot. The owner of the sailboat promised that someday he would definitely return for the offender. Friends take Ayrton with them and surround him with care.
Three years have passed since the arrival of a new resident on Lincoln Island. The Americans managed to harvest a rich wheat harvest. Once upon a time, Herbert discovered a grain of wheat that happened to be there in his pocket, thanks to which it became possible to grow wheat. The friends started raising poultry, built a mill, and made themselves new clothes. But one day the peaceful and prosperous existence of the inhabitants of the small colony was overshadowed by the appearance on the horizon of a ship with a black flag, which could only be seen on pirate ships.
The inhabitants of Lincoln Island are forced to fight for their land with sea robbers: first on the water, then on the land. Americans are constantly haunted by the feeling that someone is helping them, because on their own they could not cope with such a huge number of pirates. Eventually, they meet their mysterious patron. The Indian Prince Dakkar, also known as Captain Nemo, fought for the independence of his country when he was young. All of the captain's comrades had already died. The prince himself was also dying. Nemo warned his friends that a volcano was about to explode on the island, and then gave them a chest of jewelry.
After the death of the captain, the Americans began building a ship in order to leave the island in time. Nemo's boat could no longer be used. An unexpected volcanic explosion led to the fact that only a small reef remained from the island. Friends drifted on it for several days. They were then rescued by the sailing ship Duncan. It subsequently turned out that Captain Nemo left a message on Tabor that there were people on the neighboring island waiting for help. Thanks to this note, the Lincolnites were saved.
After returning to the United States, the “Robinsons” sold the jewelry donated by the captain and bought a small plot of land on which they all settled together.
Characteristics
Bonaventure Pencroff
Before fleeing America, Pencroff was a sailor. His friends consider him an enterprising and very kind person. Bonaventure was orphaned early and was forced to work on the ship on which Herbert Brown's father was captain.
Cyrus Smith
Sires became the leader of the detachment. Smith is the life of the party and a very talented engineer.
Gideon Spilett
Spilett worked as a war journalist. Gideon has all the qualities of a man who will live on a desert island. He is determined, energetic and very resourceful. Spilett loves hunting.
Herbert Brown
Pencroft treats Brown like his own son. Herbert has a deep knowledge of the natural sciences.
Former slave
Nebuchadnezzar, or simply Neb, was once a slave. Neb is well versed in blacksmithing. Having received his freedom, the former slave became Smith's devoted servant.
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Robinson Ayrton
For some time, Ayrton lived alone on Tabor Island. Forced loneliness led to the fact that “Robinson” almost completely lost his mind. When the Lincolns took him to their island, Ayrton could not come to his senses for a long time, despite the care of his new friends. Having gradually recovered, “Robinson” began to be ashamed of his previous behavior.
Captain Nemo can hardly be named among the main characters, but he is invisibly present throughout the entire story. Already at the beginning of the novel, Nemo gives Cyrus a box of tools to help the new inhabitants of the island. The captain also saved Ayrton, who, as it turned out, did not throw the bottle with the note, as he was on the verge of madness. Over time, the Americans begin to understand that there is someone else on the island besides them. The friends embarked on a search expedition to find their mysterious benefactor. However, the search was fruitless.
Nemo (Latin for "nobody") was originally conceived by Verne as a Polish revolutionary. However, the writer later came up with a more interesting idea and turned Nemo into the Bundelkhand prince of Dakkar, who led the Sepoy Mutiny in the 1850s. The British invaders enslaved the homeland. Dakkar fought for the liberation of his native land. The prince lost his wife and children, taken hostage by enemies and killed in captivity. Dakkar himself was forced to flee.
New life
The prince had an excellent education, thanks to which he was able to build a submarine. Taking the name Nemo, Dakkar decided to settle forever in the ocean depths. He tried not to go onto land and, on principle, not to use substances of terrestrial origin. According to Nemo, only life under water makes a person truly free.
Captain Nemo was always helped by his true friends. They were the ones who helped him build the submarine. However, years passed, and almost none of the captain's friends remained alive. Nemo remained a lonely old man, looking for his final refuge. The only joy for the old captain is the help that he had the opportunity to provide to complete strangers. The author allows his hero to end his days among good people without refusing him a final confession.
March 1865 In the United States during the Civil War, five brave northerners escape from Richmond, which was captured by the southerners, in a hot air balloon. A terrible storm throws four of them ashore on an uninhabited island in the Southern Hemisphere. The fifth man and his dog are hiding in the sea near the shore. This fifth - a certain Cyrus Smith, a talented engineer and scientist, the soul and leader of a group of travelers - for several days involuntarily keeps his companions in suspense, who cannot find either him or his devotee anywhere
He needs the dog Top. The one who suffers the most is the former slave, and now Smith’s devoted servant, the Negro Neb. In the balloon were also a war journalist and Smith's friend, Gideon Spilett, a very energetic and decisive man with a vigorous mind; sailor Pencroft, a good-natured and enterprising daredevil; fifteen-year-old Harbert Brown, the son of the captain of the ship on which Pencroff sailed, who was left an orphan, and whom the sailor treats as his own son. After a tedious search, Neb finally finds his inexplicably saved master a mile from the shore. Each of the island's new settlers has irreplaceable talents, and under the leadership of Cyrus and Spilett, these brave people rally and become a single team. First, using the simplest means at hand, then producing more and more complex objects of labor and household use in their own small factories, the settlers arrange their lives. They hunt, collect edible plants, oysters, then even breed domestic animals and engage in farming. They make their home high in the rock, in a cave freed from water. Soon, thanks to their hard work and intelligence, the colonists no longer needed food, clothing, or warmth and comfort. They have everything except news about their homeland, about the fate of which they are very worried.
One day, returning to their home, which they called the Granite Palace, they see that monkeys are in charge inside. After a while, as if under the influence of insane fear, the monkeys begin to jump out of the windows, and someone’s hand throws out to the travelers the rope ladder that the monkeys lifted into the house. Inside, people find another monkey - an orangutan, which they keep and call Uncle Jupe. In the future, Yup becomes a friend, servant and indispensable assistant to people.
Another day, the settlers find a box on the sand containing tools, firearms, various appliances, clothing, kitchen utensils and books in English. The settlers wonder where this box could have come from. Using the map, also found in the box, they discover that next to their island, not marked on the map, is the island of Tabor. The sailor Pencroft is eager to go to him. With the help of his friends, he builds a bot. When the bot is ready, everyone takes it on a test voyage around the island. During it, they find a bottle with a note saying that a shipwrecked man is waiting for rescue on Tabor Island. This event strengthens Pencroft's confidence in the need to visit the neighboring island. Pencroft, journalist Gideon Spilett and Herbert set sail. Arriving at Tabor, they discover a small shack where, by all indications, no one has lived for a long time. They scatter around the island, not hoping to see a living person, and try to find at least his remains. Suddenly they hear Harbert scream and rush to his aid. They see that Harbert is fighting with a certain hairy creature that looks like a monkey. However, the monkey turns out to be a feral man. The travelers tie him up and transport him to their island. They give him a separate room in the Granite Palace. Thanks to their attention and care, the savage soon becomes a civilized man again and tells them his story. It turns out that his name is Ayrton, he is a former criminal, he wanted to take possession of the sailing ship “Duncan” and, with the help of the dregs of society like him, turn it into a pirate ship. However, his plans were not destined to come true, and as punishment twelve years ago he was left on the uninhabited island of Tabor so that he would realize his act and atone for his sin. However, the owner of “Duncan” Edward Glenarvan said that someday he would return for Ayrton. The settlers see that Ayrton sincerely repents of his past sins, and he tries to be useful to them in every possible way. Therefore, they are not inclined to judge him for past misdeeds and willingly accept him into their society. However, Ayrton needs time, and so he asks to be given the opportunity to live in the corral that the settlers built for their domesticated animals at some distance from the Granite Palace.
When the boat was returning from Tabor Island at night during a storm, it was saved by a fire, which, as those sailing on it thought, had been lit by their friends. However, it turns out that they were not involved in this. It also turns out that Ayrton did not throw the bottle with the note into the sea. The settlers cannot explain these mysterious events. They are increasingly inclined to think that besides them, someone else lives on Lincoln Island, as they have dubbed it, their mysterious benefactor, who often comes to their aid in the most difficult situations. They even undertake a search expedition in the hope of discovering his whereabouts. However, the search ends in vain.
The next summer (for five months had already passed since Ayrton appeared on their island until he told them his story and summer was over, and it is dangerous to sail in the cold season) they decide to get to Tabor Island to leave a note in the hut. In the note they intend to warn Captain Glenarvan, should he return, that Ayrton and five other castaways are waiting for help on a nearby island.
The settlers have been living on their island for three years. Their life, their economy achieved prosperity. They are already harvesting rich harvests of wheat grown from a single grain discovered in Herbert’s pocket three years ago, they have built a mill, raise poultry, completely furnished their home, and made new warm clothes and blankets from mouflon wool. However, their peaceful life is overshadowed by one incident that threatens them with death. One day, looking out to sea, they see a well-equipped ship in the distance, but a black flag flies above the ship. The ship anchors off the shore. It shows beautiful long-range guns. Ayrton sneaks onto the ship under cover of darkness to conduct reconnaissance. It turns out that there are fifty pirates on the ship. Miraculously escaping them, Ayrton returns to shore and tells his friends that they need to prepare for battle. The next morning two boats descend from the ship. On the first, the settlers shoot three, and she returns, but the second lands on the shore, and the six pirates remaining on her hide in the forest. Cannons are fired from the ship, and it approaches even closer to the shore. It seems that nothing can save the handful of settlers. Suddenly a huge wave rises under the ship and it sinks. All pirates on it die. As it turns out later, the ship was blown up by a mine, and this event finally convinces the inhabitants of the island that they are not alone here.
At first they are not going to exterminate the pirates, wanting to give them the opportunity to lead a peaceful life. But it turns out that the robbers are not capable of this. They begin to loot and burn the settlers' farms. Ayrton goes to the corral to check on the animals. The pirates grab him and take him to a cave, where they torture him to get him to agree to come over to their side. Ayrton doesn't give up. His friends go to his aid, but in the corral Harbert is seriously wounded, and his friends remain in it, unable to move back with the young man who is dying. A few days later they still go to the Granite Palace. As a result of the transition, Harbert develops a malignant fever and is near death. Once again, providence intervenes in their lives and the hand of their kind, mysterious friend gives them the necessary medicine. Harbert makes a full recovery. The settlers intend to deal the final blow to the pirates. They go to the corral, where they expect to find them, but they find Ayrton exhausted and barely alive, and nearby the corpses of robbers. Ayrton reports that he does not know how he ended up in the corral, who carried him from the cave and killed the pirates. However, he reports one sad news. A week ago, the bandits went to sea, but, not knowing how to control the boat, they crashed it on the coastal reefs. The trip to Tabor has to be postponed until a new means of transportation is built. Over the next seven months, the mysterious stranger does not make himself known. Meanwhile, a volcano awakens on the island, which the colonists thought was already dead. They are building a new large ship that, if necessary, could take them to the inhabited earth.
One evening, as they are preparing to go to bed, the inhabitants of the Granite Palace hear a bell. The telegraph they ran from the corral to their home works. They are urgently called to the corral. There they find a note asking them to follow the additional wire. The cable leads them to a huge grotto, where, to their amazement, they see a submarine. In it they meet its owner and their patron, Captain Nemo, the Indian prince Dakkar, who fought all his life for the independence of his homeland. He, already a sixty-year-old man who buried all his comrades, is dying. Nemo gives his new friends a chest of jewelry and warns that if a volcano erupts, the island (this is its structure) will explode. He dies, the settlers batten down the hatches of the boat and lower it under the water, and they themselves tirelessly build a new ship all day long. However, they do not have time to finish it. All living things die when the island explodes, leaving only a small reef in the ocean. Settlers who spent the night in a tent on the shore are thrown into the sea by an air wave. All of them, with the exception of Jupe, remain alive. For more than ten days they sit on the reef, almost dying of hunger and no longer hoping for anything. Suddenly they see a ship. This is Duncan. He saves everyone. As it later turns out, Captain Nemo, when the boat was still safe, sailed on it to Tabor and left a note for the rescuers.
Returning to America, with the jewelry donated by Captain Nemo, the friends buy a large plot of land and live on it the same way they lived on Lincoln Island.
Option 2
In the spring of 1865, during the American Civil War, southerners captured Richmond. Five guys fly away from the city in a hot air balloon, but a storm throws them off their path, and they find themselves in the Southern Hemisphere on a desert island. The fifth daredevil, Cyrus Smith, who led this journey, failed to get ashore. His dog Top also disappeared. For several days, travelers continue their search: the servant of the missing Neb, the journalist Gideon Spilett, the sailor Pencroft and his 15-year-old ward Harbert Brown. And suddenly Smith is found a mile from the shore. The settlers are trying to settle down in a new place, equipping their home at a height in a cave, and begin to engage in animal husbandry and agriculture. One day, monkeys climbed into their home, and after the owners arrived, everyone fled, except for one orangutan, whom people nicknamed Yupa and allowed to live with them.
The settlers discovered a box on the island with valuables: tools, weapons, books, clothes and kitchen utensils. There they find a map on which they see the nearby island of Tabor. The settlers build a boat and make a test voyage, during which they catch a bottle in the sea with a note from a shipwrecked man from a neighboring land. Herbert, Pencroft and Spilett sail to Tabor, but find no one in the discovered hut. During the search, a 15-year-old boy is attacked by a feral man, whom they tie up and decide to transport to their island in the evening. Upon returning back, people find themselves in a storm, and only thanks to the blazing fire do they find their way home. But on the island it turns out that it was not their friends who started the fire. The savage turns out to be the criminal Ayrton, who 12 years ago wanted to capture the sailing ship “Duncan” and become a pirate, and for this he was landed on a desert island, promising to return for him someday. He also insisted that he did not write any rescue note. The settlers take pity on Ayrton and accept him into their collective. But the savage asks to live for some time away from them in a building they built for animals.
Friends begin to suspect that someone else lives on the island and is secretly helping them. They search but find nothing. Over the three years they lived on the island, the friends made their stay comfortable: they increased wheat yields, built a mill, and learned how to make clothes. One day a pirate ship sailed to their island, the settlers desperately defended themselves, but the forces were unequal. Suddenly the ship hit a mine and sank. The surviving pirates do not want peaceful cohabitation, they constantly harm their economy and capture Ayrton. During his release, Harbert is seriously wounded, causing the young man to develop a fatal fever. But his life is saved by a medicine that came from nowhere. The next time they try to rescue Ayrton, the settlers discover a barely alive friend who does not remember how all the pirates were killed.
A few months later, a volcano wakes up on the island, and the friends begin to build a ship to save them. After the meeting with the pirates, a means of communication with the home was installed in the ship. One day they heard a signal, and when they arrived at the place, they found a note and a cable that led them to a grotto with a submarine. Inside it, they meet their secret patron, 60-year-old Captain Nemo, who gave them jewelry before his death. The friends do not have time to complete their ship when the volcano explodes. They were able to escape on a small reef, where they were discovered by the captain of the Duncan, who sailed for Ayrton.
Summary of the Mysterious Island of Vern