Journey to the Center of the Earth

By Jules Verne, Scott McKowen and Arthur Pober

What a stunning discovery: an old, coded note that actually contains directions for reaching the Earth’s very core! And once he finds it, renowned geologist Professor Liedenbrock can’t resist setting out with his 16-year-old nephew to go where only one man has gone before. Jules Verne takes young readers on one of the most incredible journeys ever imagined, from Iceland’s frozen tundra far down into fantastic underground prehistoric worlds and back up again through the fires of an erupting volcano.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Union Square & Co.
• Release date: Sep 18, 2009
• ISBN: 9781402772474

Jules Verne

Jules Verne (1828-1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. Verne is considered a major French and European author, as he has a wide influence on avant-garde and surrealist literary movements, and is also credited as one of the primary inspirations for the steampunk genre. However, his influence does not stop in the literary sphere. Verne’s work has also provided invaluable impact on scientific fields as well. Verne is best known for his series of bestselling adventure novels, which earned him such an immense popularity that he is one of the world’s most translated authors.

Book preview

___   2   ___

A MYSTERY TO BE SOLVED

AT ANY PRICE

THAT STUDY OF HIS WAS A MUSEUM, AND NOTHING ELSE. Specimens of everything known in mineralogy lay there in their places in perfect order, and correctly named, divided into inflammable, metallic, and lithoid minerals.

How well I knew all these bits of science! Many a time, instead of enjoying the company of lads of my own age, I had preferred dusting these graphites, anthracites, coals, lignites, and peats! And there were bitumens, resins, organic salts, to be protected from the least grain of dust; and metals, from iron to gold, metals whose current value altogether disappeared in the presence of the republican equality of scientific specimens; and stones too, enough to rebuild entirely the house in Konigstrasse, even with a handsome additional room, which would have suited me admirably.

But on entering this study now I thought of none of all these wonders; my uncle alone filled my thoughts. He had thrown himself into a velvet easy-chair, and was grasping between his hands a book over which he bent, pondering with intense admiration.

Here’s a remarkable book! What a wonderful book! he was exclaiming.

These ejaculations brought to my mind the fact that my uncle was liable to occasional fits of bibliomania; but no old book had any value in his eyes unless it had the virtue of being nowhere else to be found, or, at any rate, of being illegible.

Well, now; don’t you see it yet? Why I have got a priceless treasure, that I found this morning, in rummaging in old Hevelius’s shop, the Jew.

Magnificent! I replied, with a good imitation of enthusiasm.

What was the good of all this fuss about an old quarto, bound in rough calf, a yellow, faded volume, with a ragged seal depending from it?

But for all that there was no lull yet in the admiring exclamations of the Professor.

See, he went on, both asking the questions and supplying the answers. Isn’t it a beauty? Yes; splendid! Did you ever see such a binding? Doesn’t the book open easily? Yes; it stops open anywhere. But does it shut equally well? Yes; for the binding and the leaves are flush, all in a straight line, and no gaps or openings anywhere. And look at its back, after seven hundred years. Why, Bozerian, Closs, or Purgold might have been proud of such a binding!

While rapidly making these comments my uncle kept opening and shutting the old tome. I really could do no less than ask a question about its contents, although I did not feel the slightest interest.

And what is the title of this marvelous work? I asked with an affected eagerness which he must have been very blind not to see through.

This work, replied my uncle, firing up with renewed enthusiasm, this work is the Heims Kringla of Snorre Turlleson, the most famous Icelandic author of the twelfth century! It is the chronicle of the Norwegian princes who ruled in Iceland.

Indeed; I cried, keeping up wonderfully, of course it is a German translation?

What! sharply replied the Professor, a translation! What should I do with a translation? This IS the Icelandic original, in the magnificent idiomatic vernacular, which is both rich and simple, and admits of an infinite variety of grammatical combinations and verbal modifications.

Like German, I happily ventured.

Yes, replied my uncle, shrugging his shoulders; but, in addition to all this, the Icelandic has three numbers like the Greek, and irregular declensions of nouns proper like the Latin.

Ah! said I, a little moved out of my indifference; and is the type good?

Type! What do you mean by talking of type, wretched Axel? Type! Do you take it for a printed book, you ignorant fool? It is a manuscript, a Runic manuscript.

Runic?

Yes. Do you want me to explain what that is?

Of course not, I replied in the tone of an injured man. But my uncle persevered, and told me, against my will, of many things I cared nothing about.

Runic characters were in use in Iceland in former ages. They were invented, it is said, by Odin himself. Look there, and wonder, impious young man, and admire these letters, the invention of the Scandinavian god!

Well, well! not knowing what to say, I was going to prostrate myself before this wonderful book, a way of answering equally pleasing to gods and kings, and which has the advantage of never giving them any embarrassment, when a little incident happened to divert conversation into another channel.

This was the appearance of a dirty slip of parchment, which slipped out of the volume and fell upon the floor.

My uncle pounced upon this shred with incredible avidity. An old document, enclosed an immemorial time within the folds of this old book, had for him an immeasurable value.

What’s this? he cried.

And he laid out upon the table a piece of parchment, five inches by three, and along which were traced certain mysterious characters.

Here is the exact facsimile. I think it important to let these strange signs be publicly known, for they were the means of drawing on Professor Liedenbrock and his nephew to undertake the most wonderful expedition of the nineteenth century.

The Professor mused a few moments over this series of characters; then raising his spectacles he pronounced:

These are Runic letters; they are exactly like those of the manuscript of Snorre Turlleson. But, what on earth is their meaning?

Runic letters appearing to my mind to be an invention of the learned to mystify this poor world, I was not sorry to see my uncle suffering the pangs of mystification. At least, so it seemed to me, judging from his fingers, which were beginning to work with terrible energy.

It is certainly old Icelandic, he muttered between his teeth.

And Professor Liedenbrock must have known, for he was acknowledged to be quite a polyglot. Not that he could speak fluently in the two thousand languages and twelve thousand dialects which are spoken on the earth, but he knew at least his share of them.

So he was going, in the presence of this difficulty, to give way to all the impetuosity of his character, and I was preparing for a violent outbreak, when two o’clock struck by the little timepiece over the fireplace.

At that moment our good housekeeper Martha opened the study door, saying:

Dinner is ready!

I am afraid he sent that soup to where it would boil away to nothing, and Martha took to her heels for safety. I followed her, and hardly knowing how I got there I found myself seated in my usual place.

I waited a few minutes. No Professor came. Never within my remembrance had he missed the important ceremonial of dinner. And yet what a good dinner it was! There was parsley soup, an omelette of ham garnished with spiced sorrel, a fillet of veal with compote of prunes; for dessert, crystallized fruit; the whole washed down with sweet Moselle.

All this my uncle was going to sacrifice to a bit of old parchment. As an affectionate and attentive nephew I considered it my duty to eat for him as well as for myself, which I did conscientiously.

I have never known such a thing, said Martha. M. Liedenbrock is not at table!

Who could have believed it? I said, with my mouth full.

Something serious is going to happen, said the servant, shaking her head.

My opinion was, that nothing more serious would happen than an awful scene when my uncle should have discovered that his dinner was devoured. I had come to the last of the fruit when a very loud voice tore me away from the pleasures of my dessert. With one spring I bounded out of the dining-room into the study.

___   3   ___

THE RUNIC WRITING

EXERCISES THE PROFESSOR

UNDOUBTEDLY IT IS RUNIC, SAID THE PROFESSOR, bending his brows; but there is a secret in it, and I mean to discover the key.

A violent gesture finished the sentence.

Sit there, he added, holding out his fist toward the table. Sit there, and write.

I was seated in a trice.

Now I will dictate to you every letter of our alphabet which corresponds with each of these Icelandic characters. We will see what that will give us. But, by St. Michael, if you should dare to deceive me—

The dictation commenced. I did my best. Every letter was given me one after the other, with the following remarkable result:

When this work was ended my uncle tore the paper from me and examined it attentively for a long time.

What does it all mean? he kept repeating mechanically.

Upon my honor I could not have enlightened him. Besides he did not ask me, and he went on talking to himself.

This is what is called a cryptogram, or cipher, he said, in which letters are purposely thrown in confusion, which if properly arranged would reveal their sense. Only think that under this jargon there may lie concealed the clue to some great discovery!

As for me, I was of opinion that there was nothing at all, in it; though, of course, I took care not to say so.

Then the Professor took the book and the parchment, and diligently compared them together.

These two writings are not by the same hand, he said; the cipher is of later date than the book, an undoubted proof of which I see in a moment. The first letter is a double m, a letter which is not to be found in Turlleson’s book, and which was only added to the alphabet in the fourteenth century. Therefore there are two hundred years between the manuscript and the document.

I admitted that this was a strictly logical conclusion.

I am therefore led to imagine, continued my uncle, that some possessor of this book wrote these mysterious letters. But who was that possessor? Is his name nowhere to be found in the manuscript?

My uncle raised his spectacles, took up a strong lens, and carefully examined the blank pages of the book. On the front of the second, the title-page, he noticed a sort of stain which looked like an ink blot. But in looking at it very closely he thought he could distinguish some half-effaced letters. My uncle at once fastened upon this as the center of interest, and he labored at that blot, until by the help of his microscope he ended by making out the following Runic characters which he read without difficulty.

Arne Saknussemm! he cried in triumph. Why that is the name of another Icelander, a savant of the sixteenth century, a celebrated alchemist!

I gazed at my uncle with satisfactory admiration.

Those alchemists, he resumed, Avicenna, Bacon, Lully, Paracelsus, were the real and only savants of their time. They made discoveries at which we are astonished. Has not this Saknussemm concealed under his cryptogram some surprising invention? It is so; it must be so!

The Professor’s imagination took fire at this hypothesis.

No doubt, I ventured to reply, but what interest would he have in thus hiding so marvelous a discovery?

Why? Why? How can I tell? Did not Galileo do the same by Saturn? We shall see. I will get at the secret of this document, and I will neither sleep nor eat until I have found it out.

My comment on this was a half-suppressed Oh!

Nor you either, Axel, he added.

The deuce! said I to myself; then it is lucky I have eaten two dinners today!

First of all we must find out the key to this cipher; that cannot be difficult.

At these words I quickly raised my head; but my uncle went on soliloquizing.

There’s nothing easier. In this document there are a hundred and thirty-two letters, viz., seventy-seven consonants and fifty-five vowels. This is the proportion found in southern languages, while northern tongues are much richer in consonants; therefore this is in a southern language.

These were very fair conclusions, I thought.

But what language is it?

Here I looked for a display of learning, but I met instead with profound analysis.

This Saknussemm, he went on, was a very well-informed man; now since he was not writing in his own mother tongue, he would naturally select that which was currently adopted by the choice spirits of the sixteenth century; I mean Latin. If I am mistaken, I can but try Spanish, French, Italian, Greek, or Hebrew. But the savants of the sixteenth century generally wrote in Latin. I am therefore entitled to pronounce this, a priori, to be Latin. It is Latin.

I jumped up in my chair. My Latin memories rose in revolt against the notion that these barbarous words could belong to the sweet language of Virgil.

Yes, it is Latin, my uncle went on; but it is Latin confused and in disorder; pertubata seu inordinata, as Euclid has it.

Very well, thought I, if you can bring order out of that confusion, my dear uncle, you are a clever man.

Let us examine carefully, said he again, taking up the leaf upon which I had written. Here is a series of one hundred and thirty-two letters in apparent disorder. There are words consisting of consonants only, as NRRLLS; others, on the other hand, in which vowels predominate, as for instance the fifth, UNEEIEF, or the last but one, OSEIBO. Now this arrangement has evidently not been premeditated; it has arisen mathematically in obedience to the unknown law which has ruled in the succession of these letters. It appears to me a certainty that the original sentence was written in a proper manner, and afterward distorted by a law which we have yet to discover. Whoever possesses the key of this cipher will read it with fluency. What is that key? Axel, have you got it?

I answered not a word, and for a very good reason. My eyes had fallen upon a charming picture, suspended against the wall, the portrait of Grauben. My uncle’s ward was at that time at Altona, staying with a relation, and in her absence I was very downhearted; for I may confess it to you now, the pretty Virlandaise and the professor’s nephew loved each other with a patience and a calmness entirely German. We had become engaged unknown to my uncle, who was too much taken up with geology to be able to enter into such feelings as ours. Grauben was a lovely blue-eyed blonde, rather given to gravity and seriousness; but that did not prevent her from loving me very sincerely. As for me, I adored her, if there is such a word in the German language. Thus it happened that the picture of my pretty Virlandaise threw me in a moment out of the world of realities into that of memory and fancy.

There looked down upon me the faithful companion of my labors and my recreations. Every day she helped me to arrange my uncle’s precious specimens; she and I labeled them together. Mademoiselle Grauben was an accomplished mineralogist; she could have taught a few things to a savant. She was fond of investigating abstruse scientific questions. What pleasant hours we have spent in study; and how often I envied the very stones which she handled with her charming fingers.

Then, when our leisure hours came, we used to go out together and turn into the shady avenues by the Alster, and went happily side by side up to the old windmill, which forms such an improvement to the landscape at the head of the lake. On the road we chatted hand in hand; I told her amusing tales at which she laughed heartily. Then we reached the banks of the Elbe, and after having bid good-bye to the swan, sailing gracefully amid the white water lilies, we returned to the quay by the steamer.

That is just where I was in my dream, when my uncle with a vehement thump on the table dragged me back to the realities of life.

Come, said he, the very first idea which would come into anyone’s head to confuse the letters of a sentence would be to write the words vertically instead of horizontally.

Indeed! said I.

Now we must see what would be the effect of that, Axel; put down upon this paper any sentence you like, only instead of arranging the letters in the usual way, one after the other, place them in succession in vertical columns, so as to group them together in five or six vertical lines.

I caught his meaning, and immediately produced the following literary wonder:

Good, said the professor, without reading them, now set down those words in a horizontal line.

I obeyed, and with this result:

Iyloau lolwrb ou,nGe vwmdrn eeyea!

Excellent! said my uncle, taking the paper hastily out of my hands. This begins to look just like an ancient document: the vowels and the consonants are grouped together in equal disorder; there are even capitals in the middle of words, and commas too, just as in Saknussemm’s parchment.

I considered these remarks very clever.

Now, said my uncle, looking straight at me, to read the sentence which you have just written, and with which I am wholly unacquainted, I shall only have to take the first letter of each word, then the second, the third, and so forth.

And my uncle, to his great astonishment, and my much greater, read:

I love you well, my own dear Grauben!

Hallo! cried the Professor.

Yes, indeed, without knowing what I was about, like an awkward and unlucky lover, I had compromised myself by writing this unfortunate sentence.

Aha! you are in love with Grauben? he said, with the right look for a guardian.

Yes; no! I stammered.

You love Grauben, he went on once or twice dreamily. Well, let us apply the process I have suggested to the document in question.

My uncle, falling back into his absorbing contemplations, had already forgotten my imprudent words. I merely say imprudent, for the great mind of so learned a man of course had no place for love affairs, and happily the grand business of the document gained me the victory.

Just as the moment of the supreme experiment arrived the Professor’s eyes flashed right through his spectacles. There was a quivering in his fingers as he grasped the old parchment. He was deeply moved. At last he gave a preliminary cough, and with profound gravity, naming in succession the first, then the second letter of each word, he dictated me the following:

mmessvnkaSenrA.icefdoK.segnittamvrtn

ecertserrette,rotaisadva,ednecsedsadne

lacartniiilvIsiratracSarbmvtabiledmek

meretarcsilvcoIsleffenSnI.

I confess I felt considerably excited in coming to the end; these letters named, one at a time, had carried no sense to my mind; I therefore waited for the Professor with great pomp to unfold the magnificent but hidden Latin of this mysterious phrase.

But who could have foretold the result? A violent thump made the furniture rattle, and spilt some ink, and my pen dropped from between my fingers.

That’s not it, cried my uncle, there’s no sense in it.

Then darting out like a shot, bowling down stairs like an avalanche, he rushed into the Konigstrasse and fled.

___   4   ___

THE ENEMY TO BE

STARVED INTO SUBMISSION

HE IS GONE! CRIED MARTHA, RUNNING OUT OF HER KITCHEN at the noise of the violent slamming of doors.

Yes, I replied, completely gone.

Well; and how about his dinner? said the old servant.

He won’t have any.

And his supper?

He won’t have any.

What? cried Martha, with clasped hands.

No, my dear Martha, he will eat no more. No one in the house is to eat anything at all. Uncle Liedenbrock is going to make us all fast until he has succeeded in deciphering an undecipherable scrawl.

Oh, my dear! must we then all die of hunger?

I hardly dared to confess that, with so absolute a ruler as my uncle, this fate was inevitable.

The old servant, visibly moved, returned to the kitchen, moaning piteously.

When I was alone, I thought I would go and tell Grauben all about it. But how should I be able to escape from the house? The Professor might return at any moment. And suppose he called me? And suppose he tackled me again with this logomachy, which might vainly have been set before ancient Oedipus. And if I did not obey his call, who could answer for what might happen?

The wisest course was to remain where I was. A mineralogist at Besancon had just sent us a collection of siliceous nodules, which I had to classify: so I set to work; I sorted, labeled, and arranged in their own glass case all these hollow specimens, in the cavity of each of which was a nest of little crystals.

But this work did not succeed in absorbing all my attention. That old document kept working in my brain. My head throbbed with excitement, and I felt an undefined uneasiness. I was possessed with a presentiment of coming evil.

In an hour my nodules were all arranged upon successive shelves. Then I dropped down into the old velvet arm-chair, my head thrown back and my hands joined over it. I lighted my long crooked pipe, with a painting on it of an idle-looking naiad; then I amused myself watching the process of the conversion of the tobacco into carbon, which was by slow degrees making my naiad into a negress. Now and then I listened to hear whether a well-known step was on the stairs. No. Where could my uncle be at that moment? I fancied him running under the noble trees which line the road to Altona, gesticulating, making shots with his cane, thrashing the long grass, cutting the heads off the thistles, and disturbing the contemplative storks in their peaceful solitude.

Would he return in triumph or in discouragement? Which would

Reviews for Journey to the Center of the Earth

[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.

[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.

[juva_3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Our young protagonist is visiting with his uncle who is a professor when an exciting discovery is made. Within a book the professor has recently purchased is a coded message from long ago. Without delay, the old gentleman locks himself, his nephew, and the servants in the mansion and refuses to let any of them eat again until they come up with the solution to the code.Although the nephew is reluctant to reveal the meaning to his uncle, he does eventually solve it and give up the information. It seems that their is supposedly a tunnel within an Icelandic volcano that leads deep within the earth, perhaps even to its center. The uncle wastes no time in making travel arrangements for himself and his nephew to Iceland. No matter the danger, they must investigate this wild claim for science!Thus begins an epic journey which will throw our two intrepid protagonists into countless near-death situations. They will traverse icy wastes, underground seas, and endless dark tunnels before reaching their objective and who knows if they will possibly survive. A strange, unlikely story of adventure and exploration.

[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.

[narilka · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Journey to the Center of the Earth is the grand adventure story of Professor Lidenbrock's quest to follow a the instructions in a cryptic text that describe how one can descend to the very center of the planet via volcanic tubes originating in an Icelandic volcano. He sets out with his nephew Axel and their hired guide Hans on an extraordinary journey through the bowels of the earth that has them encountering strange phenomena and many dangers. The story is told entirely from Axel's point of view as he writes journal of the trip.This is my first time reading Jules Verne. It was a lot of fun and reminded me very much of the 1959 movie. The story starts off slow and spends a bit more time in the preparation than on the journey than I'd like. I wish there had been more time spent deep within the earth and the discoveries there. Axel is quite over dramatic and probably should never have gone along with his uncle. The science in the story is incredibly out dated so you have to unplug that part of the brain to enjoy the adventure.I listened to the audio book narrated by Tim Curry. His performance is top notch and fits the work beautifully. I love the emotion he's able to give the characters.

[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.

[5eva5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Professor Otto Lidenbrock, his nephew Axel, and their guide Hans, descend into Iceland's Snæfellsjökull volcano in an attempt to reach the center of the earth. This classic adventure tales is obviously aged, but doesn't feel dated at all; it feels as if someone contemporary wrote an adventure story in an old style - the storyline is exciting enough and has a "new" feel to it. Great story, recommended for all.

[shaunesay · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I probably wouldn't have gotten through this very quickly had I been reading it on my own rather than listening to Tim Curry's masterful performance. He was able to infuse so much character into it, and it truly helped me to appreciate how well done this story really is. There really is a lot of character there. There is also A LOT of detailed geological and instrumental description that probably would have bogged me down, even though I understand it, it's not always the most exciting reading, but definitely added realism to the story. Axel and his uncle Otto, and their guide Hans, really have very distinct personalities that add humor to the story which I believe I would have missed without having the assistance of Tim's reading.

I highly recommend listening to this version, as we like to say Tim Curry could read the phone book and it would be a 5 star performance. He brings this classic adventure story to life and I'm happy to have experienced it!

[zottel-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Das Buch war deutlich besser als erwartet. Da ich kein großer Fan von Science Fiction bin, hatte ich nicht viel erwartet, es war einfach ein Experiment, den alten Klassiker einmal zu lesen. Faszinierend war für mich dann auch eher die Reise in die Vergangenheit, die das Buch mir ermöglichte, als die zum Mittelpunkt der Erde. Die alte Sprache meiner Übersetzung, die Beschreibung der Reise nach Island und vor allem die wissenschaftlichen Vorstellungen dieser Zeit. Äußerst faszinierend, gepaart mit einer spannenden Geschichte, die das Lesen leicht macht. Die von mir gelesene Ebook-Ausgabe von NTS Editions hatte des öfteren komplett falsche Wörter im Text, wo die OCR-Software offenbar s und f nicht unterscheiden konnte. Einmal erkannt machte das aber nicht mehr viel aus. Insgesamt eine klare Empfehlung, allerdings mehr an den historisch Interessierten als an Science-Fiction-Fans.

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

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

[carl_alves_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Journey to the Center of the Earth is a classic Jules Verne tale. Even before listening to the story on audio, I was already familiar with the tale, so there wasn’t going to be any big surprises in the novel. But even knowing more or less what was going to happen, didn’t mean the novel would be enjoyable. The basic plot and adventure were strong. I enjoyed the different things that the adventurers encountered at the various levels during their journey to the center of the Earth.There were a few negatives to the novel. The first is the first person narration. It’s often told in a clinical manner that took away from the excitement of the story. The narration could have used more of a flare for the dramatic. The other thing that I didn’t much care for was the character of Axel. He had some funny lines and moments, but I found him to be whining and lacking any sense of adventure. He was constantly trying to get out of going on this voyage, but simply lacked the spine to tell his uncle no. The professor, on the other hand, was a more memorable and enjoyable character. He was touched with a bit of madness and insane drive to explore and discover. Overall, this was a fun adventure story, one that inspired many other similar stories.Carl Alves – author of Reconquest: Mother Earth

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

Well. That was nothing like the movie.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a wonderful thing an imagination is. In Journey to the Center of the Earth we get to appreciate the imagination of Jules Verne in his 1864 novel that follows Professor Otto Lidenbrock, his nephew Axel, and their guide Hans down a volcanic tube in Iceland in a quest to reach the center of the earth.A little dated and somewhat silly at times, this was still a fun and exciting read that had this group of adventurers encountering many dangers, including prehistoric animals before they discovered themselves back on the surface of the earth. Although many of the scientific “facts” that were used in this book have since been disproved, the author’s vision and his writing style make this book a classic of nineteenth century literature.I read this book in instalment form through Daily Lit and as much as I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to this subterranean world, I can’t help but wish I had discovered this book when I was young as I know it would have fired my own imagination tremendously. Coming to the book at my advanced age, does allow me to understand why this book has been filmed for both movies and television numerous times as the author’s vision of a strange inner earth is vivid and one can see that it would play well on film.

[garrison0550 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An absolute classic. Love it!

[sturlington_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listened to this as an audiobook, which I have been finding the most effective way of making my way through the classics. It was a fun adventure story, a little goofy--I can see why it would appeal to younger readers. I certainly had to curtail my skepticism; for example, how did three men port all the food and lamp oil they needed for several months themselves? For me, the first-person protagonist's voice made all the difference. Harry (as he was called in the audio version) was not really a natural-born explorer; he preferred decent meals and a soft bed, and he was given to panic attacks and fits of hyperbole. I liked him. Jack Sondericker, the narrator, was excellent. He brought a lot of expression to his reading and gave all the characters terrific accents.

[karin7-11 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When I read this in high school, I loved it, but I have no idea what I'd thnk of it now.

[bookconcierge · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Book on CD performed by Simon Prebble

Book three in the Extraordinary Voyages series begins with Professor Otto Lidenbrock showing a volume of Icelandic literature to his nephew Axel. A sheet of parchment falls out. It contains a coded message by a 16th century scientist. Although Axel fears that decoding it will lead to some ill-advised adventure he helps his uncle decipher the message, which, of course, gives direction for finding a passage to the center of the earth.

This is a classic adventure tale – imaginative, humorous, suspenseful and even though high implausible still great fun. I found it a bit slower to get going than some of Verne’s other tales (we are a third of the way into the book before they even get to the crater that has the passage to the center of the earth), but once they began their descent I enjoyed it more. The “science” may be complete fantasy, but Verne’s imaginative text just pulls the reader along.

Simon Prebble does a fine job narrating the audio version. He has good pacing and he brings the characters to life. I especially liked his voice for the irascible Professor Lidenbrock.

[michael_rose-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was the first true adult book I read. I seem to recall the story being a bit different than any of its film depictions. It makes me wish you could attempt to journey to the center of the earth in that way.