On Verne

 I finally finished The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne a couple weeks back. I very much enjoyed it throughout most of the book until the end. I thought the end was a big disappointment. Among other things, I was mistaken that this book is a prequel to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. It's a sequel. But the time lime of events between the two books makes no sense historically. Chronologically they are in reverse order from the story events. 

It turns out this is a well-known knock against Verne. But turned me off at the end was the portrayal of Captain Nemo. It felt very anticlimactic. I suppose it was difficult to wrap up a story back then, when it was serialized. It was different that writing a book and publishing it all at once.

I went on after this to read Journey to the Center of the Earth by Verne, because we have been spending so much time watching the Icelandic volcanos on Youtube (it is playing right now on our Chromecast). This is one of the most harrowing books I have ever read. It made me uncomfortable through the whole story. The ending was rather impossible. I'm glad I read it. Would be hard pressed to recommend it to most people. At times it felt like a cross between Dante's Inferno and the part of Tolkien where they go underground in the mines. 

Right now I'm attempting Twenty Thousand Leagues. I'm about a third of the way through it. All of Verne's stories have this in common--he puts his characters in impossible situations of life-and-death and somehow has them survive. Lots of stress. There is an "all is lost" episode near the beginning and then one again at the one. 

I wonder when I'm done if would have the guts to read From the Earth to the Moon. That doesn't sound stressful at all, right?