Delving into Jules Verne's 'Mysterious Island': Fantasy or Reality?

No, I don't think so for a moment. Jules Verne was a great adventure and mystery writer of his era, but if I dare say so nowadays, his works are horribly dated. I would only discuss Verne's writings if it were required for a qualification I was seriously pursuing. Anyway, I'm far too old!

Okay, this is the second question you asked me to answer about fiction being real. If you have difficulties understanding the difference between them, you need to see a psychiatrist STAT for your own health. Please take care.

The answer to your question is, unequivocally, "hell no."

Why Could Jules Verne Predict Some Technology?

Sigh. The ultimate question underlying your inquiry is: Why were Jules Verne and HG Wells able to predict some technology before it existed? It's called extrapolation, and science fiction writers do it all the time. Verne's works, such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, demonstrate this skill.

In 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Verne takes existing ideas and desires of industry and projects them into the future. The Nautilus was a submarine before its time, but the diving suits were barely more than existing technology. Why? Because deep diving suits were an incredible invention, and even manually operated ones could see that mechanical pumps would eventually be used.

Verne's Techniques in 'Mysterious Island'

As you can see, Verne followed existing technology and pushed it forward logically. He needed to make his work believable to the reader. Mysterious Island is an extension to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, where the Nautilus and Captain Nemo carry on.

Consider the following passage from the novel:

You will then embark in the canoe which brought you hither but before leaving the Nautilus go to the stern and there open two large stop-cocks which you will find upon the water-line. The water will penetrate into the reservoirs and the Nautilus will gradually sink beneath the water to repose at the bottom of the abyss.

The team sank the Nautilus to carry the fiction forward, leaving the reader in a deliberate state of wonder. Could the ship still exist at the bottom of the grotto if one could but find the island?

It was pure fantasy with the Nautilus itself being a work of science fiction. A sign of a good author is that such a state of wonder persists, even long after the work is published. Yes, Jules Verne accurately describes some mechanisms of a submarine and others he got very wrong. Cherry picking his accurate descriptions as evidence that this was a true story is fallacious.

One could easily use the inaccuracies he got wrong as evidence of the work's fictional nature. The correct application is to use everything, recognizing this as the work of a talented fiction writer. The sense of wonder that still exists is only more evidence of that.

Jules Verne's Mysterious Island remains a fascinating read because of its blend of incredible imagination and scientific accuracy, even more than 150 years after its initial publication.