Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Written by Jules Verne and Merinda Wilson

Narrated by Multiple Narrators

In Hamburg, Germany, Professor Otto Lidenbrock comes home with an old Icelandic book. In it there is a message about a journey to the centre of the Earth. This is the beginning of one of Jules Verne's most exciting stories. 'Is this message true? We must go to Iceland and see!' says Lidenbrock excitedly. But his nephew, Axel, wants to stay at home. Can Lidenbrock and Axel and their Icelandic guide, Hans, find the centre of the Earth? And can they all get home alive after their many underground adventures?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Release date: Dec 17, 2009
• ISBN: 9780194215145

Jules Verne

Jules Gabriel Verne was born in the seaport of Nantes, France, in 1828 and was destined to follow his father into the legal profession. In Paris to train for the bar, he took more readily to literary life, befriending Alexander Dumas and Victor Hugo, and living by theatre managing and libretto-writing. His first science-based novel, Five Weeks in a Balloon, was issued by the influential publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel in 1862, and made him famous. Verne and Hetzel collaborated to write dozens more such adventures, including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 1869 and Around the World in 80 Days in 1872. In later life Verne entered local politics at Amiens, where had had a home. He also kept a house in Paris, in the street now named Boulevard Jules Verne, and a beloved yacht, the Saint Michel, named after his son. He died in 1905.

Reviews for Journey to the Centre of the Earth

[literarychanteuse · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book and understand why it's a classic. Very exciting!

[eadieb-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book as it was full of excitement and adventure, with slight hints of humor and slivers of suspense. Verne is so creative and imaginative, yet so descriptive, that you feel as if you are there with the trio as they make their journey. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves adventure.

[tess_w · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A a classic that I should have read some time ago, but never had. I'm not a sci-fi fan. so I kept putting off this read. All in all, this was a good read. The characters, while no backstory, are well developed within the story line. The journey was alternately exciting and boring. Exciting when we see human-guarding mastodons, but incredibly boring when it takes 120 pages or so to describe the various genus of prehistoric mammals. The ending was a bit abrupt. Verne definitely has a way with words and vocabulary, even in the sci-fi genre. The words are beautiful, varied, and well-placed/used.

[kale.dyer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A solid science-fiction adventure novel, though characterisation was a little weak I thought.

[jessiqa_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Professor Leidenbrock and his nephew Axel find a mysterious note suggesting an Icelandic geologist traveled to the center of the earth and lived to tell the tale. The two prepare for the long and arduous journey to Iceland, for that is where the geologist began, and enlist the help of an Icelander named Hans to assist with the journey below ground. Not to spoil a 150-year-old book, but the trio makes it to the center of the earth after several setbacks and strange occurrences, and return safely to ground level.There is a scene near the start of the book in which Professer Leidenbrock and Axel are arguing about what they may find in the center of the earth. The nephew believes that the center would be liquid rock and metal. The professor is convinced that it is solid rock. Both trot out a series of scientific facts and figures to prove their points. Readers are of course meant to side with the Professor and, indeed, he is proven correct later in the book (or there would be no book), but as a modern reader, knowing that the nephew is actually correct, the exchange is pretty hilarious.While the science is obviously not accurate, the book itself is fun. It’s an adventure story written by a master. We read the story from Axel’s point of view, who is reluctant about everything involved in this journey. This makes for a pleasant “surprise” when Axel is proven wrong. If you’ve only ever seen the film version starring James Mason, you will be surprised at some of the differences. I hope you have fun with this classic, as I did.

[mrbronson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book so much. It is one of my best books I have read for a very long time. I really liked this book because it had lots of dramatic action in the middle of the story. I think alot of peolple should read this book, not only is it a good book but has alot of detail in the story. The best part in the story was when they were on this floating big log thing and they had big waves hitting them, with river monsters.Sophie

[hope_chance95 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Unabridged version, so original manuscript and totally exciting to read... I enjoyed reading this novel. I think young reader must read this great book.

[thereadingmermaid · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

True to form, this is a classic adventure piece at it's best! This was a great read with something new happening on nearly every page. Axel and his eccentric uncle Professor Otto Lindenbrock discover an ancient text that happens to fall out of one of the Professor's coveted historical tombs. The text explains how to get to the center of the earth through a crater located in Iceland. The farther they descend into the earth, the farther back in time they seem to travel as they begin to see plants and even animals that lived on earth once long ago. With peril and even death lurking around every corner and down every passage, will Axel and his uncle (along with their guide) ever make it to the surface world alive again? However wrought with tons of scientific jargen, this book is not difficult to follow and instead proves to be quite easy for the reader to follow along. With exciting plot twists at every turn, Verne leaves you constantly wondering if our pros will EVER see daylight again. Simply a classic.

[melanti_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Once again, Verne presents a late 19th century version of The Discovery Channel. Nothing wrong with that, I guess, just a bit dry, though not as dry as 20,000 Leagues.

But where I was amazed at how much of Verne's predictions held up well in that novel, here the "science" portion of the book was laughably wrong.

I just wish he had more presence to the characters. He focuses so much on the science that everyone ends up being one-dimensional.

[quaintlittlehead · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jules Verne is often called the first science fiction author, and though this book is more fantasy than reality, its main character definitely establishes what now seems to be the stereotypical boisterous, overzealous, obsessive-but-lovable scientist character in Otto Lidenbrock; I couldn't help but imagine Christopher Lloyd's Doc Brown whenever he was described. The plot manages to take off right away, but just when you think Lidenbrock is figuring everything out too easily, he struggles, a nice dose of reality. Verne mixes serious science with adventure, and though he definitely errs on the side of the latter (the end was just a touch too unbelievable for my taste), the novel is a classic response to the times in which it was written. The characters repeatedly have to question whether the theories and science they believe in are right based on the evidence they encounter, a metaphor that fittingly describes the challenge Darwin posed to society with the publication of his "On the Origin of Species" five years before this book was released. My biggest disappointment was that the females are relegated to stay-at-home-and-wait roles in the story; the main female character actually seemed like a strong and capable person, but didn't get to join the adventure. Otherwise, this was a fun read that would be perfect for capturing the interest of readers from the middle grades and up.

[gregg.cruzata · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Unabridged version, so original manuscript and totally exciting to read... I enjoyed reading this novel. I think young reader must read this great book.

[millilinnea · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is my favorite Jules Verne book. I don't know exactly what it is I like about it, but I find it absolutely fascinating and I like the characters, especially Axel, the professor's nephew. Today, we know that such a journey would most likely be impossible, but I can't help being pulled into the adventure. The copy I read - probably this edition - had notes, with explanations for everything - making the book easy to read, for anyone, with no prior knowledge of French or history. For me, at least half of those notes were a bit unnecessary, but I read them anyway. Someone went to the trouble of explaining every single thing in a book from the 19 century. I didn't need all that help, but it's comforting to know that it's there for those who need it.

[millata_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A quick read but entertaining enough.

[daisy_may-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a fun, quick read. I did find it a bit slow to start off with but I was later swept up in the excitement of the journey and the wondrous things that the three travellers encounter on their journey. It's a short book, and didn't take me long to read, but it was definitely worthwhile reading.

[leslie398 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I would have rated this higher if the narrator, Harry, had not been so annoying. The adventure is still exciting and not too implausible.

[mnleona · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have enjoyed novels by Jules Verne and movies that are based on his books. I first read Journey to the Center of the Earth in the 1950s when I was in Jr. High School. This time, I listened to the book on You Tube. Jules Verne had a knowledge of paleontology, botany, anthropology and geology and all of these are in the book.This book takes the reader on a journey with three men.: the German professor, Otto Lidenbrock, his nephew Axel, and their guide from Iceland, Hans. The book is in first person by Axel.Professor Lidenbrock believes there are volcanic tubes that reach the interior of the earth. Their journey begins in Iceland.Journey to the Center was first published in France in 1864 and is a science fiction book.I found it very interesting and I gave it a 5 star rating.

[thorold_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Even in the 1860s, conventional scientific opinion would have ruled out a "journey to the centre of the Earth" quite firmly: from the study of volcanoes and extrapolating measurements made in deep mines, it was clear that it would soon get too hot for humans to survive. Verne has to jump through a few conceptual hoops to have his eccentric professor support a fringe theory (on the authority of Sir Humphrey Davy!) that allows it to cool as you descend further, and he sidesteps a few other obvious problems, like where you get oxygen from, and the logistics of travelling 6300 km vertically (even on the level it would take the best part of a year to walk that far...). Moreover, like so many adventure stories, this one is triggered by the flimsiest of pieces of evidence. I'm sure any real professor, finding a crudely enciphered bit of paper left in an old book that purported to give directions for reaching the centre of the earth, would assume it was a practical joke by his students and pin it up on the college noticeboard with the spelling mistakes corrected... Verne's eager professor doesn't even stop to wonder about why anyone would take so much care to encipher such a message, or whom he thought he might be addressing. All the same, it's a good story, Verne mixes in enough real Icelandic background (including the farrier-priest-innkeeper who later featured in Under the glacier by Halldór Laxness), geoscience and palaeontology to keep us interested, as well as a reasonable amount of peril and suspense. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't quite deliver on the promise in the title, and the ending is just silly, but we knew from the start that (a) the narrator survives to tell the tale and (b) Verne couldn't be planning to make us sit through the reverse of the entire downward journey, so there has to be a quick exit from the subterranean world somewhere...

[fingerpost_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

There are only three characters in this tale. Henry, our narrator, seems to have only one personality trait: fear, and desire to end the journey ASAP; his uncle, Professor Hardwigg, also seems to have only one trait: eagerness to accomplish this dangerous journey; and the third character, the Icelander, Hans, has no personality at all - he's just there to perform tasks.The first two thirds of the book read like an exceedingly tedious and detailed travelogue from a group of spelunkers. In the final third, the adventure gets more interesting, but is really still just an explanation of a series of events on a journey, not a real story. And though the final third is more interesting than the endless descriptions of rock formations that make up the bulk of the book, it is also so preposterous that even the most avid science fiction lover will have difficulty suspending disbelief enough to actually like the random events of the tale.

[sara_cat-107388 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I greatly enjoyed the humor of the narrator, Axel. And some of the descriptions of what they see under the crust of the earth is wonderfully vivid and beautiful. I also enjoyed a lot of the feeling of adventure and occasional suspense of what would happen next.There are some problematic ways in which certain characters or types of people are talked about, but, the book was written in the mid-1800s, so I was very much expecting that. Though, it wasn't to the extent I had assumed.For anyone who understands geology, seismology, etc. will probably cringe if they think too hard about the 'facts' and 'discoveries' Axel and his uncle make on their journey. But, if you can put those things aside for a while, it's a fun read into someone's imagination of what it could be like to try and travel deep into the earth.(For clarity, the English translation I read was done by Robert Baldick.)

[tonifgmamtc · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is somewhat interesting. It tries to stay scientific instead of totally going off some some tangent like sci-fi does these days. I'm sure in it's time, it would have been beyond amazing because so much of it could have been true for all people knew.

[glennbell_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I liked the beginning of the book with the trekking of the professor and Axel from Hamburg to Iceland. This was descriptive and realistic. The adventure of the three travelers into the passages of the earth were also interesting albeit it begins to be fanciful. The latter portions of the book are ridiculous and have no credible logic. I imagine the book was more interesting in the time in history at which it was written. I do not recommend this book as I believe that science fiction should have some logic which veers from the known to the unknown. Often it based on a supposition that is unfounded but examines the ramifications of this deviation. This book is counter to our knowledge and therefore is ridiculous.

[darthdeverell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth follows the German professor Otto Lindenbrock and his nephew Axel as they, along with their guide Hans, descend into the Icelandic volcano Snæfellsjökull, see various prehistoric animals, and return via the Stromboli volcano in Italy. Verne found inspiration in the geologist Charles Lyell’s 1863 book, Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man as well as some of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. This edition, published by Oxford University Press, features a new translation from the original French by William Butcher. The book also features an introduction situating Verne and his work in its historical milieu as well as an explanation of the translation. As part of the Oxford World’s Classics series, the novel features explanatory notes for many of the scientific and foreign-language terms Verne used to add verisimilitude to the book. Though typically classified as science-fiction, the term was not popularized until Hugo Gernsback used it in the 1920s, and Verne himself would have considered this an adventure novel as it focuses more on the journey than the science or technology involved in getting there. This edition works well for those studying science-fiction and its history, though, and is a must-read for even the casual fan!

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have to admit that Jules Verne is harder to read as an adult than as a bright-eyed, impressionable kid. There is so much wonder on these pages, and yet I felt like I needed to work far too hard to get at it - the adventure is hidden behind steampunk techno-babble in a way that modern writers would never be able to get away with. Still, I'm glad to have revisited this book, and I will continue to work through the Verne canon, disillusioned though I am.

[carlahaunted · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book made me feel agoraphobic...in a good way. Tim Curry's narration was sublime, as usual.

[bhutton_10 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There is a lot to get past in this book, the hysterical narator/nephew, all knowing uncle, mute, resourceful guide, the lack of character progression, the lists of flora, fuana & minerals, and diversions to show of at the time cutting edge science. But for all that it moves fast and always wanting to know what happens next. Ruined only by the lack of a compelling conclusion.

[jerry.yoakum · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I know a lot of people who don't bother to read a book that has a movie version. You don't need to worry about this book. The movie is so different from the book that you won't know what will happen.

[john_warner-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was a young adolescent when I first started reading this book. However, I placed the book on top of the family's station wagon when we stopped at a convenience store only to lose it when we I forget it as I hopped back in the car. Fifty years later, I finally finished it. When Professor Lidenbrock deciphers a runic note authored by Icelandic alchemist Arne Saknussemm, he discovers that the alchemist discovered and traveled a passage in Iceland to the center of the Earth. With the assistance of a Icelandic guide, the taciturn Hans, Professor Lidenbrock and his nephew Axel, and the novel's narrator, follow their predecessor in his descent into an extinct volcano to the center of the Earth.If you have seen either the 1959 movie with James Mason and Pat Boone or the 2008 film with Brendan Fraser, you will not significant differences, especially with the latter which is more a sequel to the book. In the book there are no competitors seeking to first reach the center of the Earth, no dinosaur fights on the beach, or abandoned temples at the center of the Earth. However, the book is a good read nevertheless.

[pilgrimjess · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

“We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read.”Professor Otto Lidenbrock , metallurgist and bibliophile, returns to his home in Hamburg in 1863 with a prized and obscure Icelandic runic manuscript which he eagerly shows to his nephew, ward and assistant Axel. In the process of which an old piece of paper falls out of the book and is discovered to have a message in code from “Arne Saknussemm!…another Icelander, a savant of the sixteenth century, a celebrated alchemist.” After hours of trying to decipher the code Axel, to his own surprise, succeeds in doing so. Fearful of what this discovery may lead to Axel is initially determined not to reveal it to his uncle believing he alone will never solve it. However, when his uncle refuses to let anyone in the household eat until the riddle is solved, hunger finally forces Axel to yield the message, which is:“Descend, bold traveller, into the crater of the jokul of Sneffels, which the shadow of Scartaris touches before the kalends of July, and you will attain the centre of the earth; which I have done, Arne Saknussemm.”Over the intervening years since his death Saknussmm has been largely discredited but on reading the message the Professor immediately starts secretly preparing for Axel and himself to journey to the extinct Sneffels volcano in Iceland, in the hope of retracing Saknussemm's footsteps. At the time there is a raging scientific debate as to whether the centre of the Earth is cold or hot with the Professor believing it to be the former. He envisages this trip as his opportunity to prove his way of thinking is right. Once on Iceland they hire a guide called Hans and set of on an exciting and dangerous adventure.Firstly I think that it is only fair that I admit that I'm not really a fan of science-fiction and when this is coupled with the fact that the action takes place on earth making the science behind it all the more improbable, then I am going to struggle. My main concern is the lack of character development. Throughout the Professor is portrayed as intrepid explorer who seems to have a logical explanation for everything contrasted with Axel, the cowardly voice of reason trying vainly to oppose him, whereas Hans is a largely silent, steadfast, dependable, unflappable, unquestioning servant. Whilst this did cause a certain amount a contrast and friction between the characters, I cannot in all honestly say that I particularly took to any of them. However, if you are able to put all this to one side and read it purely as a boys' own adventure story then, despite its age and the fact that there are no car chases or gun battles, it still has its place and why it is still read and enjoyed today.

[lgandt · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a great fantasy story, if you take it with some serious grains of salt. The imagery is marvelous, the pace is very fast. Keeps your attention throughout. The physical demands that he expected from the human body though and the slight continuity problems in the end are the only problems I have with it.I have to say the film with James Mason tightened some things up quite well.

[sumisbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

True to form, this is a classic adventure piece at it's best! This was a great read with something new happening on nearly every page. Axel and his eccentric uncle Professor Otto Lindenbrock discover an ancient text that happens to fall out of one of the Professor's coveted historical tombs. The text explains how to get to the center of the earth through a crater located in Iceland. The farther they descend into the earth, the farther back in time they seem to travel as they begin to see plants and even animals that lived on earth once long ago. With peril and even death lurking around every corner and down every passage, will Axel and his uncle (along with their guide) ever make it to the surface world alive again? However wrought with tons of scientific jargen, this book is not difficult to follow and instead proves to be quite easy for the reader to follow along. With exciting plot twists at every turn, Verne leaves you constantly wondering if our pros will EVER see daylight again. Simply a classic.