Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon

"Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon" by Jules Verne is a novel written in the mid-19th century, renowned for its adventurous spirit and vivid depictions of the Amazon River. The book follows the journey of Torres, a captain who has abandoned the slave trade, as he navigates through the intriguing yet perilous landscapes of the Amazon basin. With a cryptic document promising wealth and danger at stake, Torres is portrayed as an adventurous yet morally ambiguous character, setting the stage for a rich narrative filled with exploration and unexpected twists. The opening of the novel introduces us to Torres as he engrosses himself in a mysterious cipher that holds vital information regarding a wealthy individual. The story begins in the forests of Peru, where Torres reflects on the document's significance and his intention to leverage it for profit. As he attempts to comprehend the document, he is interrupted by various sounds of the jungle and eventually encounters a guariba monkey that steals his important case. This incident ignites a comical and frantic chase, leading to the unexpected intervention of two hunters who mistakenly shoot the monkey, thus returning the case to Torres. As the narrative unfolds, we glimpse the lives of the Garral family, who run a prosperous farm in Iquitos and are preparing for their journey down the Amazon. This blend of adventure, moral complexity, and exploration hints at the broader themes Verne will explore throughout the story. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Jules Gabriel Verne was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a series of bestselling adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872). His novels, always well-researched according to the scientific knowledge then available, are generally set in the second half of the 19th century, taking into account the technological advances of the time.