"Based on the true story of Alexander Selkirk, a man who survived by himself for almost five years on an uninhabited Pacific island off the coast of Chile, Jules Verne's masterpiece, The Mysterious Island, is a tale of five men and a dog who escape Civil War Richmond in a balloon during a storm. Landing on a faraway and uncharted island, they overcome nature's harsh elements to create from scratch a civilization for themselves.

Peculiar things start to happen as they learn to survive on the island, including the mysterious, sudden death of a strange animal after it viciously attacks Top, the dog, and the discovery of a bullet in a wild pig that none of them put there. Mystery, suspense, and science fiction are all combined in one story, as the men ultimately learn the secret at the heart of the island."--BOOK JACKET.