Book excerpt: This carefully crafted ebook: “The Mysterious Island Trilogy - The Original UK Translation” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne is subtitled Dropped from the Clouds, Abandoned and The Secret of the Island. It is a translation of L’Île mystérieuse first published in England by Sampson and Low and in the United States by Scribner and Henry L. Shepard using the same translation of W. H. G. Kingston. English translators often altered their translations to suit current political views of Church and Empire. The novel is about six Northerns prisoners that flee Richmond during the American Civil War. Their escape is done by balloon and brings them to an inhabited island lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The book tells the tale of how these men survive. Jules Gabriel Verne (1828 – 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright best known for his adventure novels and his profound influence on the literary genre of science fiction.