Lighthouse at the End of the World/ Le Phare Du Bout Du Monde: The First English Translation of Verne's Original Manuscript (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) - Tapa dura

"William Butcher's text has an easy, graceful rhythm; it preserves the allusive complexity of the original prose." --Michael Crichton--Michael Crichton (04/02/2007) "A lively modern translation of one of Verne's tensest, tautest thrillers, a lean, ferocious, breakneck yarn readers will devour in a single evening. William Butcher renders action scenes with great color and dash, dialogues with sparkling fluency. . . . His research, commentaries, and analyses are riveting new contributions to our understanding of this Protean novelist. Outstanding entertainment, admirable scholarship."--Frederick Paul Walter, Verne translator and specialist-- (04/02/2007) "It's a cracking good novel, and William Butcher's commentary is superb."--SFRA Review --SFRA Review (05/26/2008) "Lighthouse at the End of the World might be best read under the covers, after bedtime, by flashlight. It is a wondrous, old-fashioned adventure story, likely to bring out the little boy, the castaway, the pirate and the lighthouse-keeper in every reader."--Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Book Review-- (09/23/2007) "[W]e're in the midst of a Verne renaissance brought on by new manuscripts, improved translations, and scholarly reassessments. . . . Thanks to efforts such as Mr. Butcher's . . . it's now possible for the rest of us to see Verne more clearly than ever before."--John J. Miller, Wall Street Journal-- (09/16/2007)

At the extreme tip of South America, Staten Island has piercing Antarctic winds, lonely coasts assaulted by breakers, and sailors lost as their vessels smash on the dark rocks. Now that civilization dares to rule here, a lighthouse penetrates the last and wildest place of all. But Vasquez, the guardian of the sacred light, has not reckoned with the vicious, desperate Kongre gang, who murder his two friends and force him out into the wilderness. Alone, without resources, can he foil their cruel plans? A gripping tale of passion and perseverance, Verne's testament novel paints a compelling picture of intrigue and heroism, schemes and calamities. The master storyteller returns here to the theme of civilization against its two oldest enemies: pitiless nature and men's savagery.