Journey to the Center of the Earth

Jules Verne (*1828-✝1905)


The book Voyage au centre de la Terre by Jules Verne is a classic science fiction novel about the exploration of a vast underground world or cave system. It was was first published in French in 1864, then reissued in 1867 in a revised and expanded edition. The first English edition was published in 1871 by the London house Griffith & Farren with the title A Journey to the Centre of the Earth. That's the version we have here and also the version you will find on gutenberg (see links). Other versions had a slightly different title, A Journey into the Interior of the Earth, but its actually the same book.

Professor Otto Lidenbrock, an eccentric German scientist believes there are volcanic caves which extend to the very center of the earth. With his nephew Axel and their Icelandic guide Hans they abseil into the dormant volcano Snæfellsjökull on Iceland. After many dangers, cave-ins, subpolar tornadoes, an underground ocean, and of course dinosaurs, they look for an exit. Finally the three explorers are spewed back to the surface by an active volcano, Stromboli, in southern Italy.

Obviously this book is to blame for the never ending flood of B-movies with dinosaurs. Also, the description of the underground world is far from any real cave, and definitely impossible from the geologic view. On the other hand, fantastic crystal grottoes with enormous sized crystal, which were originally thought to be pure fantasy, have been actually discovered. If you are aware that it is fiction, and that the language is a little outdated, this book is nevertheless still a good read.