Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon

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The Giant Raft
'Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon' by Leon Benett 01.jpg
Original illustration of Jules Verne’s Voyages Extraordinaires
Author Jules Verne
Original titleLa Jangada - Huit Cents lieues sur l'Amazone
Illustrator Léon Benett
LanguageFrench
Series The Extraordinary Voyages #21
Genre Adventure novel
Publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel
Publication date
1881
Publication placeFrance
Published in English
1881
Media typePrint (Hardback)
Preceded by The Steam House  
Followed by Godfrey Morgan  

The Giant Raft [1] (French : La Jangada - Huit Cents lieues sur l'Amazone) is a novel by Jules Verne, published in 1881. It has also been incorrectly published with the title of its first part: Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon.

Contents

It is an adventure novel, involving how Joam Garral, a ranch owner living near the Peruvian-Brazilian border on the Amazon River, is forced to travel downstream when his past catches up with him. Most of the novel is situated on a large jangada (a Brazilian timber raft) that is used by Garral and his family to float to Belém, at the river's mouth. Many aspects of the raft, scenery, and journey are described in detail.

It was adapted into the 1993 film Eight Hundred Leagues Down the Amazon .

Plot summary

Joam Garral grants his daughter's wish to travel to Belém, where she wants to marry Manuel Valdez in the presence of Manuel's invalid mother. The Garrals travel down the Amazon River using a giant timber raft. At Belém, Joam plans to restore his good name, as he is still wanted in Brazil for a crime he did not perpetrate. A scoundrel named Torres offers Joam absolute proof of Joam's innocence, but the price that Torres wants for this information is to marry Joam's daughter, which is inconceivable to Joam. The proof is locked in an encrypted letter that would exonerate Garral. When Torres is killed, the Garral family must race to decode the letter before Joam is executed.

References

  1. Evans, Arthur B. (March 2005). "A Bibliography of Jules Verne's English Translations". Science Fiction Studies. 1. XXXII (95): 105–141. Archived from the original on 30 May 2019. Retrieved 24 February 2013.