<p>Jules Verne has not written a more sane and well-sustained story than this. The excellent descriptions of a wild region in Transylvania and the accounts of the homely ways and daily life of the shepherds and villagers give it an air of veracity not to be expected from this author. The mysterious castle is finely set among the cliffs in an almost inaccessible place. It has been the scene of tragedies, and now after having been long abandoned it...