Second paragraph of third chapter:

« En avant !» s’écria le reporter.

“Come along!” cried the reporter.

I flagged this book to myself as the second most popular book published in 1874 on LibraryThing and Goodreads, after Far From the Madding Crowd. It’s a ridiculously long fantasy (750 pages!) about five chaps who, escaping from Richmond in the closing days of the U.S. Civil War, are swept by balloon to a remote Pacific island, where fortunately they find all the animal, vegetable and mineral resources necessary for them to survive and thrive.

Towards the end they encounter a character from a previous Verne novel, and this firmly tips the book into science fiction (it has been teetering on the edge up until then, with a super-intelligent orang-utan). Lots of incident, lots of Great Engineer solutions, lots of unconscious racism (and some totally conscious racism from Caleb Carr in the introduction to my edition). I think if I had not had been reading two other rather long books at the same time, it might have become a bit tedious, but it’s all done at cracking pace.

My edition also features the glorious line-drawing illustrations by Jules-Descartes Ferat, engraved by Charles Barbant, from the original French version.

You can get it here.

This was my top unread book acquired last year, and my top unread sf book. Next on those piles are Prophet Song and ‘Salem’s Lot.