Books like “The Mysterious Island”

What to read after “The Mysterious Island” by Jules Verne: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe · 1719
Same genre: “Adventure novel” and “Robinsonade”
Shipwrecked alone on a deserted island, a castaway named Robinson Crusoe builds a life from nothing: shelter, crops and a canoe. Years of solitude end when he finds a footprint in the sand and rescues a man he names Friday.
2
Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson · 1883
Same genre: “Adventure novel”
- Deserted Island
- Nautical Adventure
Young Jim Hawkins finds a treasure map in a dead sailor's chest and sails for a distant island where a pirate's gold is buried. Among the crew is the one-legged cook Long John Silver, whose charm hides a plan to seize the hoard.
3
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas
Jules Verne · 1870
Same genre: “Adventure novel” and “Science fiction”
- Nautical Adventure
Three men are taken aboard the Nautilus, a submarine commanded by the brilliant Captain Nemo, after it attacks their ship. As they travel the ocean depths they witness wonders and terrors of the undersea world while their host's motives stay hidden.
4
The Sea-Wolf
Jack London · 1904
Same genre: “Adventure novel”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
A literary critic survives a ferry collision in San Francisco Bay and is picked up by a sealing schooner commanded by Wolf Larsen, a brutal and brilliant captain. Thrown into the crew's rough life, the soft scholar must find his footing under a man who answers to no law but his own.
5
The Long Ships
Frans G. Bengtsson · 1941
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
The Viking Red Orm sails from his Scandinavian home in the late tenth century and is carried through raids, courts and distant seas, from Andalusia to the Byzantine guard. A picaresque saga of raids, treasure and shifting faith, told with dry humour and a wide view of the Viking world.
6
Master and Commander
Patrick O'Brian · 1969
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Found Family
In 1800, Royal Navy captain Jack Aubrey takes command of a small brig and meets the ship's surgeon, Stephen Maturin, a naturalist and secret intelligence agent. Their friendship grows as the crew pursues a Spanish frigate across the Mediterranean and Atlantic.
7
The Wager
David Grann · 2023
Similar setting: “Deserted Island” and “Nautical Adventure”
In 1740 a British warship hunting a Spanish treasure galleon is wrecked off Patagonia. Months later two groups of survivors reach South America with opposing stories, and a court martial must decide which men were heroes and which were mutineers.
8
The Martian
Andy Weir · 2011
Same genre: “Science fiction”
- Deserted Island
- Survival
During a mission to Mars, astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead and left behind. Alone with limited supplies and no way to call Earth, he applies his botany and engineering skills to grow food and signal that he is alive.
9
The Decagon House Murders
Yukito Ayatsuji · 1987
Similar setting: “Deserted Island”
- Deserted Island
- Survival
Seven members of a university mystery club sail to a remote island that was the scene of an unsolved family murder a year earlier. Cut off by a storm, they are killed one by one, and the survivors must use the rules of detective fiction to name the killer before none are left.
10
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Alfred Lansing · 1959
Similar setting: “Deserted Island” and “Nautical Adventure”
In 1914 Ernest Shackleton sets out to cross Antarctica; in 1915 his ship is crushed by the ice and the crew is left stranded. This account follows their months on drifting floes and the desperate open-boat journey he makes to seek rescue.
11
Moby-Dick
Herman Melville · 1851
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
A wandering sailor joins the whaling ship Pequod, whose captain is obsessed with hunting the white whale that took his leg. As the voyage stretches across the oceans, the crew is dragged toward a reckoning. A vast, digressive novel of obsession, the sea and human nature.
12
The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway · 1952
Similar setting: “Nautical Adventure”
- Nautical Adventure
- Survival
An aging Cuban fisherman, Santiago, has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish. When a huge marlin finally takes his line far out to sea, he must hold on through a long, painful contest of endurance and will.