Ships that I Ship: Day 2: Ayrton/Pencroff

[coprime]

Canon: The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
Pairing: Tom Ayrton/Bonadventure Pencroff
Canon Level: Antagonists to Friends

The Mysterious Island is not exactly Verne's most well known work. It's not completely obscure, but if the Family Feud question were "Name a Jules Verne novel," The Mysterious Island would be down at the bottom of the list with just two people answering that. I think. I am not the most impartial of judges when it comes to this novel. The novel is about five Americans who get shipwrecked on an island in the South Pacific and eventually also find one more companion who'd been marooned on the island next door.

Anywho, on to Pencroff and Ayrton. They are my favorites. Pencroff is one of the five colonists, and he is by far the most effusive of the five, quick to judge and quick to praise and just generally sort of constantly out there with his emotions. He's markedly different from the other four in his way of going about his business, which makes him stand out among all the characters and therefore makes him like a breath of fresh air for me bringing some much needed levity by his very presence. Ayrton, on the other hand, is basically the opposite of Pencroff. He is solitary and broody and spends most of his time on the island angsting about how unforgivable of a person he is. It makes me want to hug him and pat his head.

Pencroff spends a not inconsiderable portion of the novel being an asshole to Ayrton until he changes his mind and becomes a fierce friend. It's great. They get the award for "relationship that changes the most" in the novel, and I want their relationship to keep changing into a romantic one.

Suggested reading:
Casus et Certum by psalm_onethirtyone

Comments

[anotherslashfan]

Wait a sec, The Mysterious Island has characters from 20000 Miles Beneath the Sea in it (they appear somewards to the middle or end of the story, maybe), doesn't it? It must have been 20 years since I read these books...

[coprime]

Yup, good memory! You get to find out Captain Nemo's eventual fate. I'm always a little surprised when I find someone else who's read this book, haha, although maybe I shouldn't be.

[anotherslashfan]

You say "good memory", but that is litereally all I retained from reading it ^^. The other thing I remember is that I had a hard time getting into it initially, but really loved it once the pace of the story picked up. Huh. I think I'll do a re-read of some Jules Verne favorites... someday. There used to be a list of the books by him that I'd read. He was such a prolific writer and I strove for reading as many of his books as I could get my hands on - but some just didn't work for me.

[coprime]

Yeah, I remember really loving the pace when I first read the novel. I bounced hard off the last Verne novel I tried to read, but now I kind of want to try again...