This is the fifth of the Voyages Extraordinaires and the longest one so far, being the first triple-volume novel in the series. (This whole novel, complete, is a bit longer than The Fellowship of the Ring, the first book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.) I read an unabridged Spanish translation, but the English versions I see in Project Gutenberg are abridged. My review applies to the unabridged version.

Anyway, this is another straightforward adventure story, with fewer speculative elements than any of the previous ones. Even Captain Hatteras, another adventure tale, involved the exploration of polar regions that were unknown at the time. This one is also an exploration story, but through parts of the world that, while faraway, were not completely unknown in the 1860s. So, the point here is not geographical discovery, but finding a missing person.


What is it about? (from wikipedia): The book tells the story of the quest for Captain Grant of the Britannia. After finding a message inside a bottle that Captain Grant had cast into the ocean after his ship was shipwrecked, Lord and Lady Glenarvan of Scotland contact Mary and Robert, the young daughter and son of Captain Grant, through an announcement in a newspaper. The government refuses to launch a rescue expedition, but Lord and Lady Glenarvan, moved by the children's plight, decide to do it by themselves. The main difficulty is that the message is deteriorated and only a few words can be made out. The latitude of the wreckage can be read (37 degrees 11” South), but the longitude is unknown. Only by trying to interpret the few remaining word fragments can the rescuers decide where to search.


I was a bit worried coming into this novel because it's longer than the previous ones and the reviews were mixed. And it does have some problems, but many more things to enjoy. Let's explore the pros and cons...

By now, Verne's style is clear. He tells adventure stories but spiced up with educative explanations. In this case we have an exploration novel, but combined with geographical and anthropological asides. This bothers some readers, because the conventional wisdom is that "info-dumps" should always be avoided, but if you want to enjoy Verne you should change the chip and embrace them, since they are an integral part of his style. There will usually be a character who is a scholar and can tell the other characters about the lands they are traveling through or any relevant scientific knowledge. And it gives the stories a bit more depth than a simple action tale would have.

The novel is divided in three volumes subtitled South America, Australia, and New Zealand. Together they tell a single story, but it's a natural way to divide it, because each volume involves the search in a different part of the world, as the interpretation that the searchers make of the message changes.

To begin with, I enjoyed the device Verne uses to motivate the characters. The message in a bottle found inside a shark, which is so deteriorated that it's not really clear where the shipwrecked captain might be, is a great starting point for such an epic adventure, giving the characters a goal and allowing for the exploration of very different regions. And this book is really epic. All the effort, dangers and adventures these characters go through in their seemingly hopeless attempt to find the elusive captain are really impressive.

I also liked the characters. Reviewers sometimes complain that they are too formal, but it's the Victorian style, which I like, always polite and dignified. In some ways they are a typical Verne cast, but the presence of the orphans give the story more emotional weight. Among the main characters, we have Lord and Lady Glenarvan, the owners of the ship that finds the message. They are noble, generous people, and also wealthy. When they realize the government won't look for Captain Grant, they are moved by the plight of his children, and make it their mission to help them find their father. They are accompanied by Major McNabbs, a relative of Lord Glenarvan. McNabbs is the experienced man of action, the same kind of role as Dick Kennedy in Five Weeks in a Balloon. We also have the French character, Jacques Paganel, a scholar and geographer. He plays the role of the "human wikipedia", always filled with knowledge he is willing to share with the other characters and the reader. He is also the source of humor, with his notorious absent-minded moments (in fact he originally got on Lord Glenarvan's ship by mistake) and his friendly bickering with Major McNabbs. Of course we have Captain Grant's children, Robert, who is only 12 but brave and unwilling to be left out of any danger, and his eldest sister Mary, who is 16 and has looked after his brother since their father was lost. Then there is John Mangles, the young captain of Lord Glenarvan's ship, who falls in love with Mary.

Guided by the known latitude and by their changing interpretation of the rest of the massage, they travel through the Southern Hemisphere. Even though they have an excellent ship, they sometimes need to disembark and cross whole continents to try to locate the missing Captain, whom they believe taken prisoner by natives.

The first part takes place in South America: Chile, the Andes Mountains, the Argentinian Pampas... They have plenty of adventure there, although the pacing is not the best I have seen from Verne and some of the adventures are a bit far-fetched (like what happens high in the Andes). It does have nice, iconic moments, like the characters marooned on a gigantic tree during a flood.

The second part takes place in Australia. They have to cross the continent, but luckily for them the 37th parallel only crosses some of the southmost part, avoiding the impenetrable deserts. In fact, a lot of it is civilized to a certain extent, which makes for less adventure, although it was interesting seeing the gold boom towns and the squatter settlements. The pace starts slow because of this lack of adventure, but eventually it becomes very intense and exciting, with a long plot involving a ruthless band of outlaws.

The last part takes place mostly in New Zealand, were the natives are much more aggressive, in contrast with the peaceful Australian tribes. This part is also frenetic. And the ending is excellent, explaining the mystery in an unexpected and satisfying way, and with some of the most moving moments I have encountered in Verne's books.

This is the first Verne novel where the female characters have an important role, particularly in the second and third parts. Do not expect "strong female characters" in the modern style, though. This was written in the Victorian period, where it was considered that women were meant to be cherished and protected from physical danger. But here they do face danger, because they go along for every part of the adventure except the crossing of South America.

Speaking of Victorian attitudes, you can expect the normal supercilious attitude towards uncivilized tribes, although Verne is modern in some ways, like his condemn of the genocide of native Australian people by the British, or the way characters like Thalcave show intelligence, bravery and honor.

I have to say that this being a longer than usual Verne novel helped not just the epic feel, but also my involvement with the characters' fate. If your edition does not have maps, you can find them in the book's wikipedia entry, for example, and follow the journey there.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it. It has some flaws: it occasionally required suspension of disbelief and the pace was not always the best, but it was filled with adventure and well thought-out, the pace gets very good in the second half and it has a satisfying epic feel and a great ending. Worth reading, even if not necessarily the one I'd recommend for a first Verne read.


Next up: Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas


See all my Verne reviews here: https://www.sffworld.com/forum/threads/reading-vernes-voyages-extraordinaires.58... ( )

This was a solid adventure book by Jules Verne. I was kept entertained throughout the duration of the novel by the interesting plot-line, pacing, descriptions, locations, and events that occurred during it. This is a great Verne book and I'm glad that I have his "Complete Works" to read through. Very entertaining, fun, and worthwhile. A good read for those interested in classics or adventure stories.

4 stars! ( )

The children Of Captain Grant is a classic adventure story, the fifth of Jules Verne's series of "extraordinary travels and voyges". The story is very entertaining, and, provided the reader can bear Verne's extentive descriptions of geography, flora & fauna, and local customs, all very entertaining.

The story begins as Lord and Lady Glenarvan, sailing home to Glasgow in with their ship, the Duncan find a bottle with a message. The message is written identically in three languages, but the papers in the bottle have sustained water damage and the message is barely readable. Nonetheless, it is clear that the message comes from Captain Grant, who was shipwrecked. Research reveals that the message must have been posted by Captain Grant after the supposed shipwreck of his vessel, the Brittania. Lord Glenarvan also locates Captain Grant's children, Mary and Robert. As the Admiralty refuses to undertake a rescue mission, Lord Glenarvan decides to undertake such a mission himself, bringing along his wife and Captain Grant's children. A very valuable additional team member will prove to be Paganel, a somewhat muddle-headed geographer who mistakenly boarded the Duncan in the harbour of Glasgow.

After the most meticulous interpretation of the three messages from the bottle, compared with the last call in port of the Brittania, it is decided that Captain Grant is most likely to be found in South-America. Based on details from the message they decide to cross the continent along the 37th parallel south. The Duncan lands them on the continent from where their travels to search inland for Captain Grant, whom they believe to be held captive by native tribes. During their search in Patagonia, they encounter a native who tells them about a white man who was taken, and they follow this lead hoping to find Captain Grant. However, half-way through they realize the story is incorrect. Crossing the continent, they come across the wildest adventures including an earthquake and a flood, while observing all the most typical flora an fauna, such as the condor, for Latin America. There are also mentions of typical culture of south American indians. After a strenuous journey, they are taken on board the Duncan which awaits them at the agreed point on the other side of the continent.

Despairing after their failure in finding Captain Grant, Paganel is inspired to read the message in a different way, explaining that they should pusue their search along the 37th parallel, but should set sail for Australia. They set course, via Tristan da Cunha and Amsterdam Island, to the west coast of Australia. Here, they meet a sailor called Ayrton, who was the quarter-master of the Britannia. He promises to lead them across the continent to the place where the Britannia was shipwrecked. They set out with a caravan of waggons, oxen and horses, to follow the trail and cross over to the east coast. However, in the middle of their journey Ayrton rouses suspicion, as their animals die one after the other, and they are shadowed by a band of crooks. Ayrton leaves them stranded, while getting away with a letter by Lord Glenarvan which he will use to board and direct the Duncan, which he wants to take control of. After a long journey of foot, the rescue party reaches the east coast of Australia, and failing to meet the Duncan at the appointed location, they believe their mission is a complete failure. They have not found Captain Grant, and have lost the Duncan. They pay passage on a ship to New Zealand, but this ship is wrecked off the coast of New Zealand. The unhappy party falls into the hands of a maori tribe they believe will kill them, but with the help of Robert, who was not captured they manage a spectacular escape, and making use of the Maori's superstitious believes in taboo, the escape being recaptured by the cannibals. Crossing over land, they reach the coast, but here they are again in danger of being captured. They try to escape in a canoe, and as they are about to be overtaken by Maori in pursuit, they are rescued by a European ship, which turns out to be the Duncan. Back aboard ship they hear how Ayrton's attemp to capture the Duncan was foiled. At his own request, Ayrton is transported to to be left at an uninhabited island, Tabor Island, on which they discover Captain Grant.

To modern readers, the features of the geography, flora and fauna, and anthropology of local peoples of South America, Australia and New Zealand may be a bit tedious to read, but most of it is quite entertaining. It is obvious that the novel is structured in such a way to enable the author to maximize the descriptive potential. Coming from Scotland, in search of a shipwreck in South America the most logical attempt would be to land on the east coast of the continent and cross over to the west coast. Upon failing to find the captain, the most logical thing would then be to cross over to New Zealand, as if the travellers would have followed the 37th parallel they would then have found Captain Grant immediately on Tabor Island. In the novel, however, the globe is circumvented, sailing from the west to the east.

Beside the extensive descriptions of geographical features, natural history and disasters, readers are entertained with lock, stock, and barrel clichés about cannibalism and "once a convict, forever a convict" regarding the settlers in Australia. ( )

This novel also goes by the slightly more interesting title of In Search of the Castaways. It is one of Verne's longer novels and involves a hunt round the world by a group of travellers for the missing sea captain of the title, accompanied by his children, following the discovery of a message in a bottle which purports to show where he was shipwrecked (but there are several twists). It has some exciting episodes, but is too long and Verne indulges in too much of his usual braindumping of information about the geography, flora and fauna of the several continents and islands through which they travel. So a bit of a slog, all in all. 3/5 ( )

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