A narrative about people and events, usually including an interesting plot, is a story. A story can be fictional or true, and it can be written, read aloud, or made up on the spot. Journalists write stories for newspapers, and gossips spread stories that may or may not be true.

The mysterious island is a novel by Jules Verne, serialised from August 1874 to September 1875 and then published in book form in November 1875. The first edition, published by Hetzel, contains illustrations by Jules Férat. The novel is a crossover sequel to Verne's famous Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870) and In Search of the Castaways (1867–68), though its themes are vastly different from those books. An early draft of the novel, rejected by Verne's publisher and wholly reconceived before publication, was titled Shipwrecked Family: Marooned with Uncle Robinson, indicating the influence of the novels Robinson Crusoe[2] and The Swiss Family Robinson.[3] Verne developed a similar theme in his novel, Godfrey Morgan (French: L'École des Robinsons, 1882).[4] The chronology of The Mysterious Island is incompatible with that of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, which begins in 1866, while The Mysterious Island begins during the American Civil War, yet is supposed to happen 16 years after Twenty Thousand Leagues.