A
Journey to the Center of the Earth (Voyage au center de la Terre in French) is
a novel written by Jules Verne in the Extraordinary Journeys series and
published in 1864. Originally published in in-18 on November 25, 1864, it was
republished in octavo. on May 13, 1867. The text of 1867 differs from that of
1864, with two additional chapters.
After
discovering an ancient rune manuscript, a scientist, his nephew and their guide
embark on a journey to the center of the Earth, using an Icelandic volcano.
As
Jules Verne usually does, the novel is a clever mix of scientific facts,
extrapolations and adventures. The introduction of the novel reflects the
concern for a young science, cryptology (Edgar Poe also dedicated a novel to
him, The Golden Beetle). The continuation presents a description of Iceland in
the late nineteenth century, then focuses on two rising sciences, paleontology
and geology.
The novel contains forty –five chapters,
without a title. The book was inspired by Charles Lyell's Geological Evidence
of the Antiquity of Man, published in 1863 (and may have been influenced by
Lyell's earlier work, Principles Of Geology, published between 1830-33). At the
time, geologists had abandoned the literal interpretation of the Bible
regarding the formation of the Earth, and it was generally accepted that the
end of the last glaciation marked the appearance of mankind, but Lyell
discovered new evidence that sent humans back in time. Lyell's book also
influenced the second edition of Louis Figuier's work, La Terre avant le déluge
(1867), which included illustrations of savages wearing animal skins and
wielding stone axes, instead of the Garden of Eden in the 1863 edition.
Jules
Verne A Journey to the center of the Earth. Form the discovery of a strange parchment
in an old book to the fantastic descent though a dormant volcano into a subterranean world of danger
and beauty, A journey to the Center of the Earth is as wonderfully entertaining
today as when it was
first published.
One
of Jules Verne’s finest novels, its unique combination of “hard” science and vivid imagination helped establish this
brilliant Frenchman as the father of modern science fiction. A high-tension
odyssey, it depicts three men who venture into an unknown, fearsome underworld
to discover what lies at the mysterious center of the earth- while risking their chances of ever returning to the
surface alive.
A
Journey to the Center of the Earth, the next of the “ Extraordinary Journey’s,
is a combination of a clearly formulaic mode of writing and wonderfully
imaginative adventures. In his old age, Verne acknowledged that all along he
had adhered to a specific formula in his
writing. He knew clearly what the
beginning middle and end of his story would be before he put to paper. He made an outline, which he
filled in chapter by chapter, and then
he rewrote. One can see evidence of this
method in the text.
There
is a mapped-out, cyclical nature to all that occurs throughout the journey, if
the story points are begin connected
before our eyes. The characters are driven by a devotion to scientific research and
rational deduction, which leads them to an obvious course of action, which leads them into danger and misadventure,
which leads to accidental good fortune,
which leads once again to a scientific
deduction… and so on and so on until the characters reach their final
destination.
What’s
so unusual is that a writer of such a
scientific and methodical nature would, albeit perhaps unwittingly reveal so
much of his personal experience in his scientifically oriented adventures. Was
it accidental that a story about the exploration of Earth’s interior also
expose the inner workings of the mind of a boy who need to become a man?
For
there are many clear echoes in A Journey to the Center of the Earth of Verne’s
own life. Most evident throughout the story is Verne’s relationship to his
father. A Journey to the Center of the Earth is filled with the moments of
“great good fortune”. Without those moments the adventures would not be able to move forward and neither
would the story. Perhaps the most important moment of “great good fortune “is
an event disguised as a dangerous mistake.
Otto
Lidenbrock, a professor of mineralogy, and Axel, his nephew, embark on the
strangest journey of their lives, on the road depicted in a mysterious
manuscript ... The target of the fantastic journey is the center of the Earth.
Accompanied by Hans, an experienced guide, the two explorers penetrate, deeper
and deeper, under the earth's crust, towards another world. The many adventures
that the three heroes have in the miraculous and unsuspected world from the
depths, the dangers and unusual events they go through are the delight of the
book, which, like all of Jules Verne's novels, is read breathlessly.
Written by Bogus Elena
