Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon

4 out of 5

By Nathalie Brossard on Nov 15, 2010

This book like most of Verne's works describes the Amazon, the longest river in the world in great detail. As a backdrop, there is the story of Joam Garol an upright head of a homestead. The trip down the Amazon is necessitated by his daughter, Minha falling in love with Manoel, a friend of Benito Joam's son. Before the start of their journey, they meet Fargoso a barber. We need to go back a little way now to the beginning of the book. The first 2 chapters deal with an unscrupulous captain of the woods, Torres. He is seen attempting to decipher a cryptogram. Joam Garrole harbors a terrible secret and Torres's intent is to blackmail him and become rich. This secret is one of the reasons that Joam never left the homestead and had to flee to Brazil. Things come to a head when Torres demands the hand of Minha and he reports Joam to the authorities. Benito duels with Torres but the damage is done. Joam is imprisoned. The true story of the crime of Tijuco lies in the cryptogram that Torres possesses. This is retrieved and Fargoso is the one who gets the key to the cryptogram and Joam's conviction is overturned at last! I wish Joam Garrole had been up-front about the state of affairs with his family so that they had been better prepared to handle his arrest. There is too much atmosphere building in the book but then we would not have had such an excellent description of the Amazon. Finally, I recommend the cryptogram and the second part of the book to all those who wish to study cryptography. Written by Pranav Lal