Journey to the Center of the Earth in Classics Without All the Class

Sep 15, 2015 Kristi Krumnow rated it really liked it

Shelves: classic-lit, audiobook, 19th-century

This work is very episodic such as one would expect a 19th century novel to be. The professor, Harry, and their Icelandic guide create an interesting trio: the outlandish, the emotional, and the practical respectively. The depths of the earth curiously resemble the top in temperature, celestial phenomena, winds, bodies of water, and flora. The fauna, however, differs in its strangeness and monster-like attributes, indicative of a century writhe with encounters of difference and otherness. Life u ...more

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Feb 23, 2010 Gaijinmama rated it liked it

Shelves: classics, science-fiction

This was just OK for me. The first two-thirds were slow-paced, but I kept going because the complicated relationship between the narrator and his uncle was interesting. I also really enjoyed the descriptions of Iceland and would totally LOVE to visit.
The last third of the book was a lot more exciting and I liked the way it ends, although it's completely out of the realm of scientific possibility.
Things that really bothered me: Verne was sexist, or just not all that interested in women. He also w ...more

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Dec 29, 2013 Jess rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, read-in-2014

This is a very exciting adventure even now, so long after it was first published. I have to say, though, that the characters are extraordinary! The professor is so obsessed with discovery that he considers things such as almost dying of thirst a minor inconvenience, while his nephew is at times unstably enthusiastic and unstably reluctant. The guide, Hans, is a phenomenal character in that nothing seems to phase him, so long as he receives his weekly payment. Crazy near-death experiences don't e ...more

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Nov 12, 2009 Kayla rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed, 1001-read, classics-read, i-also-saw-the-movie

This book was nothing like what I had expected. I picked it up because I was in the mood for something fast-paced and action-packed, and I figured this was the perfect book (going off of the movie). It wasn't at all. This book was all science. There were no dinosaurs (though there were prehistoric giant sea-monsters at one point) and *major spoiler* (view spoiler) ...more

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