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Customer Review: A jewel of children's literature
Though not directly related to Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - In Search of Castaways - Mysterious Island sequel, this book is very similar to them and just as good. It's a classical adventure, something that every child should grow up with, one of the jewels of world children's literature. It's all that - adventure and mystery, courage and love, gallantry and friendship. Left in the command of a ship by an accident, the main character, a 15-year old boy, delivers his passengers and the crew through all the dangers on land and on sea and sucessfully overcomes the evil intentions of their enemy, who was trying to sell them to slavery. Let your kids read it - it's a must!
Product Description
TRANSLATED BY ELLEN E. FREWER
Customer Review: Some classic, topical Verne.
Like many of the more famous Verne books, this has been seen as largely a children's book. While it is less "adult" than many of Verne's other works, it can be enjoyed by adults too. Also, the content is certainly not suitable for a particularly young audience.
The story is of Dick Sands - a 15 year old crew member on a ship with an eclectic collection of people on board during this particular voyage. After a tragedy, he is left to run the ship himself. They eventually run ashore and (thinking they are in South America) meet a man called Harris, who generously offers to be their guide in getting back to "civilisation". However, he has more sinister plans, as it turns out they are actually in Equatorial Africa at the height of the slave trade. Capitalising on their delusion, Harris betrays them and the party is enslaved. The rest of the book is an account of their (especially Dick's) attempts at resistance and escape.
The book is great at showing the maturity, courage and resourcefulness of Dick, a classic case of having to grow up soon and doing very well at it. It also offers a shocking and brutal portraying of the slave trade (which is why it's not suitable for the very young), largely based on the accounts of the explorers Stanely and Livingstone. It is here that I think the book suffers a setback, as Verne overdoes it in an oft-too-dydactic way. It is understandable due to the fact that he comes from a context of a newly-found French liberalism and in his time, slavery was a more recent issue in terms of the US and other Western countries. So, the level rhetoric detracts from the book for a modern reader.
Still, it's an unyielding and sublime account of the unspeakable horrors of the Atlantic slave trade and a good adventure story too, so an enjoyable and accessible work of Verne here.
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