Helpful Score: 1
Hmmm. A Verne novel without a different English title. So as this is about a treasure hunt worthy of Robert Louis Stevenson, one might at least subtitle it "Avarice Unleashed," or some such soubriquet. Fear not, since this the main character is a sea captain, there is also a shipwreck although as with The Waif Of the Cynthia, it is a minor one. Even as the plot is interesting, the narrative is maddeningly mind-numbing. Dialog among characters rivals Dumas. Verne is at his two sentence paragraph best. The typesetting is at its best awful. It must have been scanned in using a Model T of scanning machines. It is so bad that this alone will cause to have at ready hand (as this is a maritime novel) a fifth of rum or brandy.
