Jules Verne (1828-1905) was the first author to popularize the literary genre of science fiction. Written in 1898 and part of the author s famous series Voyages Extraordinaires, The Mighty Orinoco tells the story of a young man s search for his father along the then-uncharted Orinoco River of Venezuela. The text contains all the ingredients of a classic Verne scientific-adventure tale: exploration and discovery, humor and drama, dastardly villains and intrepid heroes, and a host of near-fatal encounters with crocodiles, jungle fever, Indians and outlaws all set in a wonderfully exotic locale. The Mighty Orinoco also includes a unique twist that will appeal to feminists readers will need to discover it for themselves. This Wesleyan edition features notes, and a critical introduction by renowned Verne scholar Walter James Miller, as well as reproductions of the illustrations from the original French edition. CONTRIBUTORS: Walter James Miller, Stanford Luce, Arthur B. Evans."