Title: Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Author: Jules Verne
Number of Pages: 185
Original Published Date: 1864
Favorite Sentence: Chapter VIII: “In his impatience I believe he was trying to accelerate the train with his feet”. This narration by Axel succinctly describes the Professor’s one-track-mind obsession for his quest. Throughout the story, the Professor never really stops to appreciate or reflect upon the sights and astounding wonders around him.
Journey to the Centre of the Earth was my first encounter with the writing of Jules Verne and my first foray into the genre of science-fiction. Verne’s collection, Les Voyages Extraordinaires, which includes Journey to the Centre of the Earth along with his other famous novels Around the World in Eighty Days and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas have survived the test of time that only great novels can achieve by remaining popular more than two hundred years after publication.
I purchased this book more than twenty years ago when I spent a semester of college studying in London, England (hence the spelling of Centre). During my time in the historical city, I had fallen in love with reading and read the classics exclusively, the only exception being the books assigned from my studies. When I think back to those days, I feel as if I must have encountered more than a hundred book stores during my walks in the city and ended up buying one in nearly every shop I entered. Reading in my shared room or a park or café became an enjoyable way for me to recharge my introvert battery in a comfortable place for an inexpensive cost.
Many novels (mostly Dickens) were read while I relished my time in London, but I wasn’t able to get to them all so my books, read and yet to be, were shipped to my home when my studies concluded. In its twenty plus years of ownership, Journey to the Centre of the Earth has been packed and unpacked countless times, but I’ve always chosen something else to read in its place. It languished packed up in a box or dusty on a shelf and was always passed over for another. My love for reading ebbed and flowed over the years and during a particularly long streak of not reading that I wanted to halt, I convinced myself to choose a book on my shelf that had few pages and had been read by millions in hopes that my dry streak would end. That is when Journey to the Centre of the Earth was finally favored. One of the reasons this book sat so long unread is because of its science-fiction reputation. I was wholly unfamiliar with science fiction and had yet to introduce myself to that genre. The only thing I really knew about Verne’s writings was the now-defunct Disney ride Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. This book was me dipping my toes into the water.
The beginning of the plot progresses quickly. The main protagonist, Axel, narrates the story of his uncle, Professor Liedenbrock, and his obsession with reaching the center of the earth. After Axel decodes and translates an ancient piece of parchment paper found hidden in an old manuscript, he becomes terrorized that his uncle will also discover the hidden message and attempt to follow in the footsteps of the code’s writer, Arne Saknussemn. Out of shear desperation, Axel shares the key to decoding the message with his uncle and the Professor becomes convinced that traveling to the center of the earth is not only possible, but has been accomplished before. With persuasion to partake on the journey from his love, the young Grauben, Axel reluctantly finds himself leaving his home in Germany by train and later by steamer towards his final destination of Iceland with the obsessed Professor. He remains a reluctant and unenthusiastic traveler throughout most of the journey and is always hoping to convince the Professor to turn back which always ends in disappointment for Axel. Along the way, they pick up a guide in Iceland named Hans to accompany and assist them with their journey.
The three men’s journey to the mouth of the dormant volcano and their descent down the shaft toward the center of the earth was a little slow in places. Being saved by Hans when they ran out of water and Axel falling away from the group were rousing points during this progress but it isn’t until they reach the beach and set sail on the underground ocean on a make-shift raft that the story captivates the reader with beautiful scenery, fantastical creatures and high action. This is where the story gripped me and I understood why it had become a classic.
Fortune smiled upon the three main characters in this book or rather providence, as the Professor acknowledges. With all the exploits that the three characters contend with throughout the story such as descending a volcano, falling down a shaft, dehydration, caught in a death match between colossal sea creatures, sailing through an electric storm, traversing a bone yard filled with human remains, encountering gigantic land animals and later ascending up through an erupting volcano, the characters persevered unharmed. The story is so fantastical and unbelievable but oh so entertaining.
The ending wraps up nicely with the characters being shot out of a volcano and landing unharmed in Italy. All three travel back to Germany where the Professor is regarded by society and the scientific community as a great man, Axel is reunited with his love Grauben and Hans becomes homesick and returns to his native Iceland, but his memory forever remains with Axel and the Professor Otto as their faithful and stoic companion who saved their lives more than once. Although Axel and Hans shared a language translation barrier and were never able to communicate through words, they bonded none the less. Without the hero Hans, the three men would have never made it out alive.
I truly enjoyed this story and the only criticism I have for this book is with Journey to the Centre of the Earth being rather short with under two hundred pages in length, I found myself only truly engaged in the story and characters about two-thirds of the way in. I didn’t really fall in love with this book until they exited the cave and set sail under the electric subterranean sky which doesn’t occur until Chapter thirty. It’s never a bad read but rather its far more captivating in the last third of the book. The story becomes more eventful and in my non-expert opinion, Verne’s writing becomes more engaging and descriptive as the book progresses.
This is a fantastic book that I’d recommend to other readers, lovers of science-fiction or not. I hope to one day re-read Journey to the Centre of the Earth in its native French if I can ever get my French language skills up to par.