Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Journey to the Center of the Earth by A Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. A Journey to the Centre of the Earth , French Voyage au centre de la Terre , by prolific French author Jules Verne, published in 1864. It is the second book in his popular series Voyages extraordinaires (1863–1910), which contains that combine scientific facts with adventure fiction and laid the groundwork for science fiction. Summary. Axel Lidenbrock, the teenage narrator of the story, lives in Hamburg, Germany, with his uncle, Professor Otto Lidenbrock, an impetuous and single-minded professor of geology. The story, set in May 1863, opens as the latter rushes home to show Axel his latest acquisition: a runic manuscript by the renowned Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson. They find hidden within its pages a separate note which, when translated into Latin and read backward, appears to be the Icelandic alchemist Arne Saknussemm’s record of a passage leading to the centre of the Earth in a crater of Snaefell, a dormant volcano in Iceland. The crater containing the passage, however, is only revealed by shadows at noon during the last few days of June, just a month away. Otto rushes off to the area, dragging a very reluctant, pessimistic, and skeptical Axel with him. They eventually reach Reykjavík, where they hire the Icelandic eider hunter Hans Bjelke to guide them on the long journey to the volcano. After an arduous climb to Snaefell’s summit, the trio locates the correct crater, and they descend and find the passage. When they reach a fork, Otto chooses the eastern tunnel, but after three days they enter a cavern in which the history of the Carboniferous Period is visible, and Otto realizes that he was mistaken. They return and head down the other tunnel. The adventurers exhaust their water supplies, but Hans locates a subterranean river, and they follow that thereafter. One day Axel takes a wrong turn and gets lost, but eventually an acoustic phenomenon allows him to speak to Otto and Hans, and he is able to rejoin them. The trio finds a vast lake or sea, and along the shore they encounter a forest of giant mushrooms and lycophytes. On the ground are mastodon bones. Hans builds a raft of partially petrified wood, and the three men set sail, hoping to cross the sea. They catch fish of extinct species, and, after several days of sailing, they come across an ichthyosaur and a plesiosaur fighting. Later they are caught in an electrical storm that lasts for days. At one point a fireball strikes the raft, but the storm at last drives the vessel ashore. However, the compass indicates that they have returned to the shore from which they had set out. As Hans repairs the raft, Otto and Axel explore the area. They find shells and bones of long-extinct animals and also discover a human skull. Soon they come across a fossilized human. As they continue, they spot a herd of mastodons, and suddenly they see a giant man shepherding the beasts. They flee back to the shore, where they find a marking indicating Saknussemm’s path. They follow it but find themselves blocked by a large rock, which they blow up with gunpowder, after first returning to the raft to put themselves at a safe distance from the explosion. With the barrier removed, the explorers are carried past it on a torrent for hours, and then they find themselves being pushed upward. Two months after entering the underground world, the men are carried by a volcanic eruption to the surface of Stromboli Island, off the coast of Italy. Background and adaptations. An understanding of the time in which Verne was writing sheds light on the story line. Theories that the Earth was hollow were bandied about in Europe in the 19th century, and there was also public interest in the growing sciences of geology, paleontology, and evolution at the time. A Journey to the Centre of the Earth was enormously popular, and numerous, mostly bad, English translations appeared quickly. The most notable among the several film and television adaptations was Henry Levin’s Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959). Journey to the Center of the Earth Summary. Axel, the enthusiastic and excitable nephew of the illustrious professor and mineralogist Otto Lidenbrock, narrates the tale of the journey to the center of the Earth. On May 24, 1863, Lidenbrock consults a recently-acquired runic manuscript of the 12th century and discovers an encrypted message from 16th- century Icelandic alchemist Arne Saknussemm. Lidenbrock is excited, and believes that Saknussemm wants to share a scientific discovery. The professor wants to decipher the message but has trouble doing so. Luckily, Axel manages to decrypt the document. Arne Saknussemm reports that the traveler who climbs up on the crater of Snæfells volcano can get into the center of the Earth; he apparently undertook this journey himself. Axel knows that his uncle will want to make a similar attempt and decides not to tell him of the find, but eventually gives in. Lidenbrock immediately starts planning the journey and tells his nephew to come along as well. Axel is reluctant until his fiancée Grauben, his uncle’s ward, tells him that he ought to make the excursion. Lidenbrock and Axel leave Hamburg and travel to Iceland. In Reykjavik they hire a guide named Hans, a placid and stoic man of large size. The three of them climb the volcano crater and find a slope downward. They manage to penetrate the depths of the Earth. When they reach a crossroads, Lidenbrock first chooses the wrong route; this initial path is a dead end and they are forced to turn back. Meanwhile, their supply of water runs out and it seems that the expedition is doomed to fail. Throughout this stage, Axel is exceedingly anxious and pessimistic. He is intrigued, though, that he and his fellow adventurers seem to be venturing back into the prehistoric past in terms of geology. Hans leaves his companions to go in search of water. He finds a source that flows through the wall of a cliff and leads the others there. After Hans drills a hole in the wall, a small brook flows forth: this body of water is named after Hans. At one point in the journey, Axel is separated from his uncle and guide; he despairs that he will die of hunger and thirst in the dark cavern. Thankfully, an auditory trick (much like the use of sound in cathedrals and caverns) allows them to reconnect. The travelers soon come to the shore of a vast underground sea. There they see huge mushrooms, which are identified as the giant champignons. In addition, there are more forms of fungi and bizarre plants. The explorers know that they have to cross a sea and do so, but this sea is much larger than they expect. On their watery route, they see a battle between massive, ancient creatures—the ichthyosaur and plesiosaur. As the journey continues, the weather shifts and a massive storm begins. The adventurers are tossed about on the waves; thunder and lightning sound and spark all around. An electric ball alights on the explorers' raft and flames burst out. They only survive by lashing themselves down. Finally the storm quiets and deposits Axel and the others on the other side of the sea. It is not long, though, before the compass reveals that they actually ended up on the same side from whence they began. Lidenbrock is at first enraged, but then cheerfully decides to plow onward. Axel is consistently amazed at his uncle’s stubbornness and pluck, and wishes that they could just go home. Before leaving, though, the adventurers explore this other part of the shore and discover incredible fossilized specimens from the earliest days of planetary life. They even find entire preserved human bodies. When they wander into a Tertiary-period forest of incredible foliage, they catch sight of mastodons and a twelve-foot man. Not wanting to be detected, Axel and his companions flee quickly. They also discover a rusted knife and markings on a rock; Saknussemm was there and had found the route to the center. It is a twist of fate that the storm actually brought the expedition back to where it needed to be. Axel and his companions continue along Saknussemm’s path, but are stopped by a huge boulder that must have lodged in the passageway sometime between his journey and their own. Now flush with zeal for the journey, Axel suggests using firepower to blow an opening. The explorers set this plan in motion and wait on their raft. After the explosion occurs, Axel, his uncle, and Hans realize that they've created a disruption. The entire sea goes rushing through the aperture and the three men are carried wildly along on the waves. This experience is terrifying; they almost perish. After a time, they realize that they are moving vertically up the shaft of the mountain. The heat grows and the walls crumble around them. Lidenbrock is not frightened and knows that this eruption is what will take them up to the surface of the Earth. The raft tumbles out of the volcano of Etna in Stromboli, a site in the middle of the Mediterranean. Mercifully, all three men survive and find themselves in a lush, green environment. They eat fruit and drink from a stream. Stromboli fisherman assume that the subterranean explorers have survived a shipwreck and help them get home. After his safe return, Lidenbrock becomes famous and renowned for his narrative and for lectures on his journeys. Chapter 12. We had started under a sky overcast but calm. There was no fear ofheat, none of disastrous rain. It was just the weather for tourists. The pleasure of riding on horseback over an unknown country made meeasy to be pleased at our first start. I threw myself wholly into thepleasure of the trip, and enjoyed the feeling of freedom andsatisfied desire. I was beginning to take a real share in theenterprise. "Besides," I said to myself, "where's the risk? Here we aretravelling all through a most interesting country! We are about toclimb a very remarkable mountain; at the worst we are going toscramble down an extinct crater. It is evident that Saknussemm didnothing more than this. As for a passage leading to the centre of theglobe, it is mere rubbish! perfectly impossible! Very well, then; letus get all the good we can out of this expedition, and don't let ushaggle about the chances." This reasoning having settled my mind, we got out of Rejkiavik. Hans moved steadily on, keeping ahead of us at an even, smooth, andrapid pace. The baggage horses followed him without giving anytrouble. Then came my uncle and myself, looking not so veryill-mounted on our small but hardy animals. Iceland is one of the largest islands in Europe. Its surface is14,000 square miles, and it contains but 16,000 inhabitants.Geographers have divided it into four quarters, and we were crossingdiagonally the south-west quarter, called the 'Sudvester Fjordungr.' On leaving Rejkiavik Hans took us by the seashore. We passed leanpastures which were trying very hard, but in vain, to look green;yellow came out best. The rugged peaks of the trachyte rockspresented faint outlines on the eastern horizon; at times a fewpatches of snow, concentrating the vague light, glittered upon theslopes of the distant mountains; certain peaks, boldly uprising,passed through the grey clouds, and reappeared above the movingmists, like breakers emerging in the heavens. Often these chains of barren rocks made a dip towards the sea, andencroached upon the scanty pasturage: but there was always enoughroom to pass. Besides, our horses instinctively chose the easiestplaces without ever slackening their pace. My uncle was refused eventhe satisfaction of stirring up his beast with whip or voice. He hadno excuse for being impatient. I could not help smiling to see sotall a man on so small a pony, and as his long legs nearly touchedthe ground he looked like a six-legged centaur. "Good horse! good horse!" he kept saying. "You will see, Axel, thatthere is no more sagacious animal than the Icelandic horse. He isstopped by neither snow, nor storm, nor impassable roads, nor rocks,glaciers, or anything. He is courageous, sober, and surefooted. Henever makes a false step, never shies. If there is a river or fiordto cross (and we shall meet with many) you will see him plunge in atonce, just as if he were amphibious, and gain the opposite bank. Butwe must not hurry him; we must let him have his way, and we shall geton at the rate of thirty miles a day." "We may; but how about our guide?" "Oh, never mind him. People like him get over the ground without athought. There is so little action in this man that he will never gettired; and besides, if he wants it, he shall have my horse. I shallget cramped if I don't have- a little action. The arms are all right,but the legs want exercise." We were advancing at a rapid pace. The country was already almost adesert. Here and there was a lonely farm, called a bo�r built eitherof wood, or of sods, or of pieces of lava, looking like a poor beggarby the wayside. These ruinous huts seemed to solicit charity frompassers-by; and on very small provocation we should have given almsfor the relief of the poor inmates. In this country there were noroads and paths, and the poor vegetation, however slow, would soonefface the rare travellers' footsteps. Yet this part of the province, at a very small distance from thecapital, is reckoned among the inhabited and cultivated portions ofIceland. What, then, must other tracts be, more desert than thisdesert? In the first half mile we had not seen one farmer standingbefore his cabin door, nor one shepherd tending a flock less wildthan himself, nothing but a few cows and sheep left to themselves.What then would be those convulsed regions upon which we wereadvancing, regions subject to the dire phenomena of eruptions, theoffspring of volcanic explosions and subterranean convulsions? We were to know them before long, but on consulting Olsen's map, Isaw that they would be avoided by winding along the seashore. Infact, the great plutonic action is confined to the central portion ofthe island; there, rocks of the trappean and volcanic class,including trachyte, basalt, and tuffs and agglomerates associatedwith streams of lava, have made this a land of supernatural horrors.I had no idea of the spectacle which was awaiting us in the peninsulaof Sn�fell, where these ruins of a fiery nature have formed afrightful chaos. In two hours from Rejkiavik we arrived at the burgh of Gufunes,called Aolkirkja, or principal church. There was nothing remarkablehere but a few houses, scarcely enough for a German hamlet. Hans stopped here half an hour. He shared with us our frugalbreakfast; answering my uncle's questions about the road and ourresting place that night with merely yes or no, except when he said"Gard�r." I consulted the map to see where Gard�r was. I saw there was a smalltown of that name on the banks of the Hvalfiord, four miles fromRejkiavik. I showed it to my uncle. "Four miles only!" he exclaimed; "four miles out of twenty-eight.What a nice little walk!" He was about to make an observation to the guide, who withoutanswering resumed his place at the head, and went on his way. Three hours later, still treading on the colourless grass of thepasture land, we had to work round the Kolla fiord, a longer way butan easier one than across that inlet. We soon entered into a'pingsta�r' or parish called Ejulberg, from whose steeple twelveo'clock would have struck, if Icelandic churches were rich enough topossess clocks. But they are like the parishioners who have nowatches and do without. There our horses were baited; then taking the narrow path to leftbetween a chain of hills and the sea, they carried us to our nextstage, the aolkirkja of Brant�r and one mile farther on, to Saurbo�r'Annexia,' a chapel of ease built on the south shore of the Hvalfiord. It was now four o'clock, and we had gone four Icelandic miles, ortwenty-four English miles. In that place the fiord was at least three English miles wide; thewaves rolled with a rushing din upon the sharp-pointed rocks; thisinlet was confined between walls of rock, precipices crowned by sharppeaks 2,000 feet high, and remarkable for the brown strata whichseparated the beds of reddish tuff. However much I might respect theintelligence of our quadrupeds, I hardly cared to put it to the testby trusting myself to it on horseback across an arm of the sea. If they are as intelligent as they are said to be, I thought, theywon't try it. In any case, I will tax my intelligence to directtheirs. But my uncle would not wait. He spurred on to the edge. His steedlowered his head to examine the nearest waves and stopped. My uncle,who had an instinct of his own, too, applied pressure, and was againrefused by the animal significantly shaking his head. Then followedstrong language, and the whip; but the brute answered these argumentswith kicks and endeavours to throw his rider. At last the cleverlittle pony, with a bend of his knees, started from under theProfessor's legs, and left him standing upon two boulders on theshore just like the colossus of Rhodes. "Confounded brute!" cried the unhorsed horseman, suddenly degradedinto a pedestrian, just as ashamed as a cavalry officer degraded to afoot soldier. "_F�rja,_" said the guide, touching his shoulder. "_Der,_" replied Hans, pointing to one. "Yes," I cried; "there is a boat." "Why did not you say so then? Well, let us go on." "_Tidvatten,_" said the guide. "What is he saying?" "He says tide," said my uncle, translating the Danish word. "No doubt we must wait for the tide." "_F�rbida,_" said my uncle. "_Ja,_" replied Hans. My uncle stamped with his foot, while the horses went on to the boat. I perfectly understood the necessity of abiding a particular momentof the tide to undertake the crossing of the fiord, when, the seahaving reached its greatest height, it should be slack water. Thenthe ebb and flow have no sensible effect, and the boat does not riskbeing carried either to the bottom or out to sea. That favourable moment arrived only with six o'clock; when my uncle,myself, the guide, two other passengers and the four horses, trustedourselves to a somewhat fragile raft. Accustomed as I was to theswift and sure steamers on the Elbe, I found the oars of the rowersrather a slow means of propulsion. It took us more than an hour tocross the fiord; but the passage was effected without any mishap. Lit 2 Go. Originally published in French in 1864, the first English translation of this classic of adventure and science fiction was published in 1871. The book describes the journey of a scientist, his nephew, and their guide through the Earth's interior by way of volcanic tubes. Along the way, they encounter various threats and wonders, seeing evidence of earlier stages in the planet's development. Source: Verne, J. (1871) A Journey to the Center of the Earth (Frederick Amadeus Malleson, Trans.) London: Ward, Lock, &Co., Ltd. (Original work published 1864) Flesch–Kincaid Level: 6.0. Verne, J. (1871). The Journey to the Center of the Earth . (Lit2Go ed.). Retrieved June 15, 2021, from https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/222/the-journey- to-the-center-of-the-earth/ Verne, Jules. The Journey to the Center of the Earth . Lit2Go Edition. 1871. Web. https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/222/the-journey-to-the-center-of-the- earth/ >. June 15, 2021. Jules Verne, The Journey to the Center of the Earth , Li2Go edition, (1871), accessed June 15, 2021, https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/222/the-journey- to-the-center-of-the-earth/ . This collection of children's literature is a part of the Educational Technology Clearinghouse and is funded by various grants. Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne Review. It’s time to return again to our regularly scheduled Jules Verne programming. Voyage au centre de la Terre is the third Verne novel I have read, and so far it is my favorite. There are multiple translations, and the names of the main characters are different depending on which one you read. I read the version where the narrator is called “Harry Lawson” rather than Axel Lidenbrock. According to Project Gutenberg, this 1871 translation I read is the most widely circulated. But it is also not as true to the original text as the 1877 version. Apparently, what I read was somewhat abridged, but was still about 470 pages! Synopsis. Harry/Axel starts his story by setting the scene of his life with his eccentric uncle, who is most often referred to as “the professor.” The story really gets going when the professor discovers a coded message scrawled in an antique text he has just purchased. The former owner was a 16th century alchemist named Saknussem who left behind directions to the finding the exact center of the Earth. The enthusiastic professor drags the reluctant Harry along for the ride to Iceland, where Saknussem’s tunnel is located. With the help of a taciturn Icelandic hunter, they embark on an incredible journey of discovery into the depths. Along the way they encounter living fossils, a huge subterranean sea, and a multitude of other wonders. What I Thought of Journey to the Center of the Earth. There were two main reasons that I liked this book more than 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in 80 Days . First, the narration by Harry was often very humorous, especially when it came to his own misgivings and cowardice. Second, this story was not bogged down by minutiae. Verne only dropped the occasional Latin name. Plus, he pulled this place out of his imagination rather than reporting on a real locations, it freed him to be able to drive the action any way he pleased. It would be nice to read a version that has gone through a modern editing process. These old serials are great, but they are also riddled with redundancies. For instance, the phrase “my uncle, the professor” occurs several times. The Icelander is referred to as “Hans, our guide” almost without fail, as if there would be some other Hans wandering around hundreds of miles below the Earth’s crust. I am sure it helped readers of the original serial over the course of the year it took to read the whole thing. But it sure gets repetitive when reading it as a novel. The science in this book doesn’t stand the test of time quite as well as others from this period. Yet at the time it came out, it was right in the middle of the scholarly debate concerning the origins of life on Earth. In the 1860s, academics had only recently abandoned the straight Biblical interpretation of our origins. This occurred in large part because of the discovery of fossil hominids in unexpected strata. Scholars also divided themselves into distinct schools of thought concerning the nature of the planet itself. Keep in mind, the theory of plate tectonics wasn’t even put forth until almost a century later. Adaptations of Journey to the Center of the Earth. Perhaps this is the reason, not to mention the enormous sets that would be required, that Journey to the Center of the Earth has only rarely been adapted to film and television compared to Verne’s other works. The first film was made in 1959, but it wasn’t remade in English again until the 2008 re-interpretation which put a contemporary uncle (Brendan Fraser) and nephew (Josh Hutcherson) on the path described in Verne’s novel rather than following the narrative as it occurred in 1864. Stay tuned for a review of that film and its sequel later this week! Have you read this book or seen the movies? What did you think? Are there other homages our readers would enjoy? Please, leave us a comment!