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{{short description|1867–1868 novel by Jules Verne}}
{{about|the novel by Jules Verne|the 1962 Walt Disney Studios film|In Search of the Castaways (film)}}
{{redirect|The Children of Captain Grant|the 1936 Soviet film|The Children of Captain Grant (film)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox book|<!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name = In Search of the Castaways
| title_orig = Les Enfants du capitaine Grant
| translator = 
| image = 'The Children of Captain Grant' by Édouard Riou 001.jpg
| caption = [[Book frontispiece|Frontispiece]] of the original edition
| author = [[Jules Verne]]
| illustrator = [[Édouard Riou]]
| country = France
| language = French
| series = [[Voyages Extraordinaires|The Extraordinary Voyages]] #5
| genre = [[Adventure novel]]
| publisher = [[Pierre-Jules Hetzel]]
| release_date = 1867–1868
| english_release_date = 1873
| media_type = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]])
| pages = 
| preceded_by = [[From the Earth to the Moon]]
| followed_by = [[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas]]
| wikisource = In Search of the Castaways; or Captain Grant's Children
}}

'''''In Search of the Castaways''''' ({{langx|fr|Les Enfants du capitaine Grant|lit=The Children of Captain Grant}}) is a novel by the French writer [[Jules Verne]], published in 1867–68. The original edition, published by [[Pierre-Jules Hetzel|Hetzel]], contains illustrations by [[Édouard Riou]]. In 1876, it was republished by [[George Routledge & Sons]] as a three volume set titled '''''A Voyage Round The World'''''.  The three volumes were subtitled ''South America'', ''Australia'', and ''New Zealand''. As often with Verne, English translations have appeared under different names; another edition has the overall title '''''Captain Grant's Children''''' and has two volumes subtitled ''The Mysterious Document'' and ''Among the Cannibals''. The modern unabridged English translation is done by Don Sample.

==Synopsis ==
The book tells the story of the quest for Captain Grant of the ''Britannia''. After finding a bottle the captain had cast into the ocean after the ''Britannia'' is shipwrecked, [[Lord Glenarvan|Lord]] and Lady Glenarvan of Scotland contact Mary and Robert, the young daughter and son of Captain Grant, through an announcement in a newspaper. The government refuses to launch a rescue expedition, but Lord and Lady Glenarvan, moved by the children's condition, decide to do it by themselves. The main difficulty is that the coordinates of the wreckage are mostly erased, and only the [[latitude]] (37 degrees) is known; thus, the expedition would have to circumnavigate the [[37th parallel south]]. The bottle was retrieved from a shark's stomach, so it is impossible to trace its origin by the currents. Remaining clues consist of a few words in three languages. They are re-interpreted several times throughout the novel to make various destinations seem likely like [[Chile]], [[Argentina]], Southern Tip of [[Australia]], at some times [[New Zealand]] and even the northernmost part of [[Antarctica]] (to which they never sailed).

Lord Glenarvan makes it his quest to find Grant; together with his wife, Grant's children and the crew of his [[yacht]], the ''Duncan'', they set off for [[South America]]. An unexpected passenger in the form of French geographer [[Jacques Paganel]] (he missed his steamer to India by accidentally boarding the ''Duncan'') joins the search. They explore [[Patagonia]], [[Tristan da Cunha|Tristan da Cunha Island]], [[Île Amsterdam|Amsterdam Island]], and Australia (a pretext to describe the flora, fauna, and geography of numerous places to the audience).

There, they find a former quartermaster of the ''Britannia'', [[Tom Ayrton|Ayrton]], who proposes to lead them to the site of the wreckage. However, Ayrton is a traitor, who was not present during the loss of the ''Britannia'', but was abandoned in Australia after a failed attempt to seize control of the ship to practise [[piracy]]. He tries to take control of the ''Duncan'', but by sheer luck, this attempt also fails. However the Glenarvans, the Grant children, Paganel and some sailors are left in Australia, and mistakenly believing that the ''Duncan'' is lost, they sail to [[Auckland]], New Zealand, from where they want to come back to Europe. When their ship is wrecked south of Auckland on the New Zealand coast, they are captured by a [[Māori people|Māori]] tribe, but luckily manage to escape and board a ship that they discover, to their astonishment, to be the ''Duncan''.

Ayrton, made a prisoner, offers to trade his knowledge of Captain Grant in exchange for being abandoned on a desert island instead of being surrendered to the British authorities.  The ''Duncan'' sets sail for [[Maria Theresa Reef|Tabor Island]], which, by sheer luck, turns out to be Captain Grant's shelter. They leave Ayrton in his place to live among the beasts and regain his humanity.

Ayrton reappears in Verne's later novel, ''L'Île mystérieuse'' (''[[The Mysterious Island]]'', 1874).

==Titles and translations==

The title of the orginal French edition, published by Hetzel in 1865, is «Les enfants du captaine Grant». The work is in three parts (or volumes, depending on publisher), with a total of 70 chapters. The parts in French editions do not have individual titles.

English translations have appeared under a number of different titles, including:
*In Search of the Castaways<!--Q134890648-->, published by [[J. B. Lippincott & Co.]], 1874 (60 chapters).
*Captain Grant's Children<!--Q134891275-->, published by [[Ward, Lock & Co.]], 1876. In three volumes, with titles ''The Mysterious Document'', ''On the Track'', and ''Among the Cannibals''. Abridged version in two volumes (ARCO, ed. I.O.Evans, 1964)<ref name="evans_bib">{{cite web|url=http://jv.gilead.org.il/evans/VerneTrans(biblio).html|title=A Bibliography of Jules Verne’s English Translations|author=Arthur B. Evans|access-date=June 14, 2025}}</ref>
*A Voyage Round the World<!--Q134891049-->, published by [[Routledge]], 1876–77 in three volumes ''South America'', ''Australia'' and ''New Zealand'' (70 chapters). Evans<ref name="evans_bib" /> considers this to be the best of the 19th century translations. 
*In Search of the Castaways or The children of Captain Grant<!--Q59781630-->, published in "The Works of Jules Verne", ed. Charles F. Horne in 1911. This is not an original translation, but a heavily abridged version of the Routledge translation (66 chapters). This version circulates widely on the internet, and is often used by modern publishers.
*[https://julesverne.ca/jv.gilead.org.il/CaptnGrant/HTML/Children%20of%20Captain%20Grant/index.html The Children of Captain Grant]: A Journey Around the World In Search of The Castaways. Modern translation by Don Sample; claims to be more faithful to Verne's original work (70 chapters).

The work has been translated into other languages including Czech, Polish, Russian and Swedish. 

==Adaptations==
* 1877: ''[[:es:Los sobrinos del capitán Grant|Los sobrinos del capitán Grant]]'' ("Captain Grant's nephew and niece"), a three-act, spectacular Spanish [[zarzuela]] by [[Manuel Fernández Caballero]] to a text by [[Miguel Ramos Carrión]].
*1914: ''Les enfants du capitaine Grant'', a French silent film and the last film [[Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset]] worked on before his untimely death.
* 1936: ''[[The Children of Captain Grant (film)|The Children of Captain Grant]]'' (''Дети капитана Гранта'', ''Deti kapitana Granta''), [[Soviet Union]], directed by [[Vladimir Vajnshtok]] and starring [[Nikolay Konstantinovich Cherkasov|Nikolai Cherkasov]], film score composed by [[Isaak Dunayevsky]]. The film was released in the United States as ''Captain Grant's Children''. (see {{IMDb title|qid=Q4159356|title=Deti kapitana Granta}}).
* 1962: ''[[In Search of the Castaways (film)|In Search of the Castaways]]'', United States, a film directed by [[Robert Stevenson (director)|Robert Stevenson]] and starring [[Maurice Chevalier]], [[Hayley Mills]], and [[George Sanders]]. Songs by the [[Sherman Brothers]] were: "Castaway", "Enjoy It!", "Let's Climb", "Merci Beaucoup". (see {{IMDb title|qid=Q3129651|title=In Search of the Castaways}}).
* 1985: ''[[In Search of Captain Grant]]'' (''В поисках капитана Гранта'', ''V poiskakh kapitana Granta'', ''Децата на капитан Грант''), [[Bulgaria]] and the [[Soviet Union]], a TV miniseries directed by [[Stanislav Govorukhin]] and starring [[Nikolai Yeryomenko, Jr.]], [[Lembit Ulfsak]], [[Aleksandr Abdulov]], [[Kosta Tsonev]], and [[Anya Pencheva]].<ref>See {{IMDb title|qid=Q2359642|title=V poiskakh kapitana Granta}}.</ref>

==Maps==
{|
| [[File:'The Children of Captain Grant' by Édouard Riou 057.jpg|thumb]]
| [[File:'The Children of Captain Grant' by Édouard Riou 117.jpg|thumb]]
| [[File:'The Children of Captain Grant' by Édouard Riou 172.jpg|thumb]]
|}

3 Maps Showing ''The Duncan's'' crew's search in [[Chile]], [[Argentina]], [[Australia]] and [[New Zealand]].

== References ==
<references />

==External links==
{{wikisource|In Search of the Castaways; or Captain Grant's Children|''In Search of the Castaways; or Captain Grant's Children''}}
{{wikisourcelang|fr|Les Enfants du capitaine Grant}}
{{Commons category|In Search of the Castaways}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/jules-verne/in-search-of-the-castaways/j-b-lippincott-co}}
* {{Gutenberg book|no=2083|name=In Search of the Castaways}}
* {{Gutenberg book|no=14163|name=Les enfants du Capitaine Grant}} {{in lang|fr}}
* {{Librivox book | title=In Search of the Castaways | author=Jules Verne}}
* [http://jv.gilead.org.il/rpaul/Les%20enfants%20du%20capitaine%20Grant/ 177 illustrations by Édouard Riou] from ''Les Enfants du capitaine Grant'' (1865–66)

{{In Search of the Castaways}}
{{Jules Verne}}
{{The Mysterious Island}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:In Search Of The Castaways}}
[[Category:1868 French novels]]
[[Category:French adventure novels]]
[[Category:Novels set in Australia]]
[[Category:Novels set in New Zealand]]
[[Category:Novels set in South America]]
[[Category:Novels set on ships]]
[[Category:Fiction about castaways]]
[[Category:French novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Adventure novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:French novels adapted into television shows]]
[[Category:French novels adapted into operas]]
[[Category:Novels by Jules Verne]]