Based on the true story ofAlexander Selkirk, who survived alone for almost five years on an uninhabited island off the coast of Chile,The Mysterious Islandis considered by many to beJules Verne’smasterpiece. “Wide-eyed mid-nineteenth-century humanistic optimism in a breezy, blissfully readable translation byStump” (Kirkus Reviews), here is the enthralling tale of five men and a dog who land in a balloon on a faraway, fantastic island of bewildering goings-on & their struggle to survive as they uncover the island’s secret.°°°Jules Vernewas born in France in 1828 and died in 1905. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel was wildly successful, producing many brilliant novels in the burgeoning genre of science fiction:20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,Journey to the Center of the Earth, andAround the World in 80 Days, among others. Verne is the second most translated author in the world, afterAgatha Christieand beforeShakespeare.Jordan Stumpis a professor of French at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the author of 2 book-length studies of the writing ofRaymond Queneau(Naming & Unnaming and The Other Book), & the translator of some thirty works of mostly contemporary French fiction, by such authors asMarie NDiaye, Scholastique Mukasonga, Eric Chevillard, &Marie Redonnet.