Problem:
The original French version of Verne's novel is told in the present tense (i.e. Standard Island sails through the Pacific). But every English translation converts Verne's novel into the more conventional past tense (i.e., Standard Island sailed through the Pacific). On page 35, we're told that some Americans came up with the idea for Standard Island 'at the end of the nineteenth century', and the island then took four years to build. Verne's novel was first published in 1895. When do you think the events of the novel take place? Before 1895? In 1895? Or in the future? As readers, how would this influence our relationship with what happens in the novel?