A Possibly Impossible Conclusion

Reading another 350 pages (to the end of the book) an in-depth summary is out of the question. I’ll just give the most important parts this time.

By the end of the book, the island is well developed. They even have a farm and telegraph. The person the use the telegraph to speak to is a man named Ayrton. They found him after receiving a chest full of useful items (including guns and an atlas showing a small island near them) from the master of the island. They construct a boat (called the Bonadventure) and Pencroft, Herbert, and Gideon sail to Tabor Island, where they find Ayrton.

After taking him back to Lincoln Island (guided by a fire lit on it, which Harding denies having a part in) he tells them that the reason for his being on Tabor was that he attempted to take over a ship he was on with the help of some convicts from a prison island. Failing, he was marooned there as punishment, the captain saying that he would return once he felt a long enough period of time had passed (this was 12 years ago). Ayrton is very remorseful, and refuses to live with the other colonists.

The convicts mentioned by Ayrton, however, did take a ship. They find Lincoln Island, and attempt to kill the colonists. They fail due to a torpedo that blew up their ship, but destroy the Bonadventure (which the colonists had planned on using to leave a note on Tabor Island for the captain to find) and all the farms on Lincoln.

The colonists are then led to the master of the island through a wire connected to their telegraph. They find, down in a watery cave deep beneath the island, the Nautilus and in her, Captain Nemo (revealed to be an Indian prince who lost a war for independence in India, then shunning mankind). Now an old man, he has been the mysterious benefactor of the colonists, and gives two last gifts to them before he dies. One, a fortune in diamonds and pearls gathered over the course of his life, and two, the knowledge that the island is destined for destruction.

Soon, cracks in the underwater cavern will allow water to rush into the volcano at the center of the island, causing a build up of steam resulting in an explosion large enough to destroy the island (I don’t know if this is actually possible, but I doubt it).

He dies, and, according to his last wish, is given a watery grave in his submarine.

Months later, with the colonists on the verge of finishing a larger boat, the catastrophe occurs. All that is left of the island is a small projection of granite, where the colonists have enough supplies to survive a little while longer.

There, the captain mentioned earlier finds them with his ship, the Duncan. Captain Nemo had given them one last gift. He had left a note on Tabor Island, giving the co-ordinates of the colonists.

Saved, the colonists use Nemo’s fortune to purchase a large area, naming it Lincoln Island after their lost paradise.

I’m not very good at keeping this short, am I?

I was glad to see Renfield become a bit more normal. They eventually found tobacco for him, and the meat thing was just dropped. His past as a sailor was also emphasized a bit, and he was the one who led the construction of the boats (thankfully it wasn’t Harding). By the end of the book, he was my favorite character again.

Interesting how writing a blog like this emphasizes this sort of quirk in storytelling. Character traits (even if they are ones that I don’t like) are dropped entirely with little ceremony. I probably wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn’t decided to pay special attention to Pencroft (whose first name is Bonadventure, by the way) for the purposes of this blog, it would have gone right past me without my noticing it (I’ve a feeling that the grammar of that sentence is off, but oh well).

I was surprised by the small amount of science fiction in this book, as the introduction specifically said that it was science fiction in some surprising ways at the end of the book (I no longer have it, so I can’t give you a quote). The only thing was the Nautilus, which features in the book for about 20 pages. It was still a good story, though.

I think that this is longer than my English theme at this point, so I think I’ll stop there.