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Journey to the Center of the Earth

Jules Verne

Start date: July 1, 2013

Finish date: July 31, 2013

Discussion leader: Katy

Why we're reading this: Revisit the Shelf Group Read, July 2013
Previous Group Reads:
- Old School Classic Group Read, June 2012
[close] Revisit the Shelf Group Read, July 2013
Previous Group Reads:
- Old School Classic Group Read, June 2012

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Sep 20, 2020 Maggie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, boxall-1001, european, adventure, fiction, science-fiction, guardian-1000

Jules Verne wrote science fiction stories, in a series known as Voyages extraordinaires ("Extraordinary Journeys"), that were published by a man named Hetzel in biweekly chapters in a magazine. These stories were edited by Hetzel. Verne was not allowed to depict France, and all his stories had happy endings, with no complex male-female relationships. Essentially, they were science fiction adventure stories for boys.

That’s what the introduction to my Penguin edition of the book says. So when read Jules Verne wrote science fiction stories, in a series known as Voyages extraordinaires ("Extraordinary Journeys"), that were published by a man named Hetzel in biweekly chapters in a magazine. These stories were edited by Hetzel. Verne was not allowed to depict France, and all his stories had happy endings, with no complex male-female relationships. Essentially, they were science fiction adventure stories for boys.

That’s what the introduction to my Penguin edition of the book says. So when reading Jules Verne's stories, it's with the caveat that they were highly edited to suit the business strategy of a publisher. Journey to the Centre of the Earth is about Professor Lidenbrock who discovers a runic message by the 17th century explorer Arne Saknussemm about going to the centre of the earth. Bringing along his unwilling nephew Axel and an impassive Icelandic guide Hans, Lidenbrock travels to Iceland and descends into a crater. The three explore a series of underground tunnels. At one point they face extreme thirst before discovering water. Then Axel gets lost. When he finds his friends, they are next to a sea. They travel across the sea in a raft, get shipwrecked in a storm, discover Arne Saknussemm's initials engraven on a rock, and in an enthralling turn of events, are blasted out of a volcano back to Earth in Italy.

You can tell Jules Verne meant for the scientific theories to be taken seriously. He goes into detail about scientific theories, the instruments used to calculate where the travellers are, and how the type of soil or rock formations indicate which era in history the travellers are exploring. Axel repeatedly talks about the theory of central heat, in which the earth's temperature gets increasingly higher the deeper you go into its core, so that the core would be over a thousand degrees celsius. Axel believes the theory, but Professor Lidenbrock does not, and Axel ponders about it right through to the end of the book. I can imagine the novel being good science education material for kids in the 19th century. Of course science has progressed since Verne's time, and Verne's theory of our earth being hollow with a second sphere within the earth, complete with a sea, a sky, trees, animals and people living under us, is nonsensical, but quite creative and rather hilarious.

If the book was all about adventures and science, it could have been quite boring. But there is a human aspect to it. Professor Lidenbrock, an impatient man obsessed with his work and with the progress of science, worries and cares for Axel when the travellers almost die from thirst and when Axel gets lost in the darkness. These are touching moments in the story, and because of them I liked the Professor a lot more. Hans is the opposite to the Professor - he is calm and he takes everything in his stride, but while likeable, his lack of emotion makes him a difficult character to connect with. Axel is opposite to the Professor in a different way. Whereas the Professor is recklessly eager to explore the wonders in the earth, Axel worries about every possible danger. They complement each other. The Professor is the driving force behind the expedition, and Axel is his balancing and grounding force. ...more

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Jul 14, 2013 Tracy rated it really liked it

This book really surprised me. I enjoyed the three main characters. They were each clearly defined and developed. Hans, the paid help, was so funny as he kept right on plugging along for that weekly salary regardless of the danger and adventures he was going through. Hah! I would have been long gone! I'm not a big science fiction fan, but I must admit that I enjoyed most of this book. It moved along and I could let the author take me on an otherwise unbelievable journey because of his talented w ...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Trisha rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

I was a little disappointed with this novel because I was expecting more action and adventure, but it really seemed to get bogged down with pages and pages of minerology, archeology, paleontology, and the word "antediluvian". It was a fun concept, but the storyline was slow. I also got annoyed by Henry's character. If anything stressful happened, he was whiney and belligerent, blaming his uncle for dragging him along, but if things were going well, he was all to eager to go first and exclaimed t ...more

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Jun 12, 2013 Nola Tillman rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction-science-fiction, 1001-books-to-read, classics

Started off somewhat dry but then picked up. The antics and impatience of Professor Liedenbrock often made me chuckle. Although the environment beneath Earth's crust comes nowhere close to Verne's imagination, the journey described still remains compelling.

The writing feels a bit more stilted than the last Verne novel I read, 'Around the World in 80 Days,' which left me enjoying it slightly less. Still, the tale is enjoyable, and the characters plausible...and I confess my heart clenched up a bi ...more

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Aug 10, 2018 Ellen Librarian rated it liked it

This was my favorite movie when I was a kid (the original, with Pat Boone and James Mason). I watched it a zillion times on TV for years. I've been racking my brain trying to remember exactly what I found so fascinating as I'm not normally much of a science fiction fan.

I found the book rather charming as well as engaging. A bit less exciting than the movie, as I remember it. However one read is enough, I think. :)

I was disappointed to see that there was no Gertrude in the book, though! For those ...more

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