The Giant Raft: Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon and The Cryptogram
Author: Jules Gabriel Verne (1828-1905)
Year: 1881-1882
Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons
Place: New York
Description:
2 volumes: Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon. [i-v] vi [vii] viii [1] 2-244 + 16-page undated publisher's catalogue inserted at rear with 43 inserted plates with illustrations by Leon Benett and inserted folding map. The Cryptogram. [i-v] vi [vii] viii [1-3] 4-254 + 16-page publisher's catalogue dated "Fall of 1882" inserted at rear with 36 inserted plates with illustrations by Leon Benett and inserted folding map. Small octavos (7 1/2" x 5 12") bound in original publisher's pictorial bevel-edged brown cloth with front and spine panels stamped in black and gold, cream endpapers in both volumes. Translated by W. J. Gordon. (Myers 28. Taves and Michaluk V022. Evans, XXXII (95): 105–141) First American editions.
The Giant Raft 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 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. 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 lies in an encrypted letter that will exonerate Garral. When Torres is killed, the Garral family must race to decode the letter before Joam is executed.
Condition:
Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon former owner's signature to front end paper. The Cryptogram stain to head gutter diminishing in preceding pages. Book plate to front paste down and signture to front end paper with owner's stamp else a very good set.
