Summary
Summary of The Master of the World
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A detective follows an impossible machine
Chief Inspector John Strock faces a mystery that moves beyond the reach of ordinary police work. Strange fire and noises come from the Great Eyrie in North Carolina. Soon, reports describe a machine moving at impossible speed on roads, on the sea and beneath a lake.
Strock tells the adventure himself, so each discovery comes with his own curiosity and doubt. In a world beginning to encounter cars, submarines and flying machines, his investigation asks what new inventions might make possible, and what dangers might follow.
Key idea 2
The mountain keeps its secret
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Key idea 3
Speed turns sightings into a mystery
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Key idea 4
A warning makes the mystery personal
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Key idea 5
The inventor challenges the world
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Key idea 6
The trap catches the detective
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Key idea 7
Curiosity carries Strock into danger
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Key idea 8
Invention brings curiosity against pride
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
Readers who love inventions ahead of their time, detective chases, secret hideouts and daring machines will enjoy this tale. It also suits anyone who likes a mystery solved one clue at a time.
What this book is
The Master of the World is a science adventure novel by Jules Verne, who died in 1905. It appeared in the early years of the twentieth century and belongs to his late work, when cars, submarines and flying machines were new and the world was wondering what they would bring. It is a mystery, a manhunt and a chase, told in the first person by a government detective.
The story begins with fire and strange noises on a mountain in North Carolina called the Great Eyrie. Soon after, a machine of impossible speed appears on American roads, then on the sea, then under a lake. You follow Chief Inspector John Strock as he tries to explain all of it, and you share his curiosity and his doubts at every step. Along the way you meet a mayor who loves his pipe, a loyal housekeeper who blames the devil, and an inventor who answers the whole world with a threat. First, the book sends Strock to the mountain.
In this summary
- 1Fire and noise on the Great EyrieFree
- 2A machine too fast to catch
- 3A threatening letter and a high price
- 4The Master of the World answers
- 5The trap at Black Rock Creek
- 6Prisoner on the Terror, and how the tale is told
Key point 1 of 6
Fire and noise on the Great Eyrie
Strock begins by telling us that his story is so strange he hardly believes it himself. It opens in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, where a rounded, rocky peak called the Great Eyrie stands above the town of Morganton and the village of Pleasant Garden. Birds seem to avoid it. Local people see smoke, cinders and a glow at night, and they hear rumbling from inside.
Fear grows that the peak hides an old volcano. A balloonist named Wilker tries to look into the crater with a telescope, but a wrong wind carries him away to Raleigh. Then, on the night of April the fourth, a sudden uproar sends the people of Pleasant Garden running into the dark. Flames leap above the rock wall at three in the morning, and the whole district panics, though no lava ever flows.
At about five o'clock a whirring sound passes overhead, with a beat like mighty wings. Nobody can say what made it. Strock's chief in Washington, Mr. Ward, sends him to find out, with money for a climbing party if he needs it and orders to cause no further alarm.
In Morganton the mayor, Elias Smith, welcomes Strock with brandy and a pipe. Smith is a hunter and a landowner, and he doubts that the Alleghany mountains could hold a volcano. He heard the hissing and the strange wings himself. With two guides, Harry Horn and James Bruck, the party climbs the mountain. They reach a wall about a hundred feet high that circles the summit, and they find no way in. Strock goes home beaten, but his curiosity is only sharper.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
What connection do newspapers draw between the strange machines?
Right. “Newspapers conclude that car, boat and submarine must be a single machine.”Not quite. “Newspapers conclude that car, boat and submarine must be a single machine.”
How does the commander of the Terror respond to offers to buy his machine?
Right. “The writer flatly refuses every offer.”Not quite. “The writer flatly refuses every offer.”
What repeatedly drives Strock toward danger?
Right. “Strock is a man who cannot stop wondering, and it drives him straight into danger.”Not quite. “Strock is a man who cannot stop wondering, and it drives him straight into danger.”
Who’s who
- John Strock
- John Strock is a federal investigator pursuing the inventor behind mysterious disturbances and an extraordinarily fast vehicle.
- Robur
- Robur is the brilliant inventor whose extraordinary machine challenges the authorities represented by John Strock.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 43,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 2 h 55 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about The Master of the World
What is The Master of the World about?
A federal police inspector investigates strange fires on a North Carolina mountain and a mysterious machine that moves with startling speed on land, on the sea and under water. He tries to find its owner, who defies every government.
Who is John Strock?
Strock is a chief inspector in the federal police in Washington. He tells the story himself. He is brave, loyal to his chief Mr. Ward, and so curious that he cannot leave any mystery alone.
What is the Great Eyrie?
The Great Eyrie is a real-sounding rocky peak in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Morganton, North Carolina. Its name suggests a nest for birds of prey, and the people nearby fear it may hide a volcano.
What does the Terror mean in the book?
The Terror is the name of the remarkable machine whose commander signs himself The Master of the World. It travels with astonishing speed, and the name suits the fear it spreads among ordinary people.
Is The Master of the World easy to read?
The book has short chapters and a clear first-person voice. Letters, newspaper reports and chase scenes keep the story moving, and the plot builds steadily from one mystery to the next.
