In Jules Verne’s classic Journey to the Centre of the Earth Axel, his uncle Professor Liedenbrock and their “guide” Hans descend inside a volcano in Iceland to explore the hidden world inside the earth. This is a nineteenth century adventure novel so women are mostly ignored and the class system of the time is very obvious but it’s an early example of science fiction and great fun to read. I listened to this on audio where it was read by Tim Curry in a suitably enthusiastic manner.
Our travellers find all manner of unexpected things on the journey and have, of course, to overcome problems and barriers on their way. They find prehistoric creatures, they are separated from one another, they lose their supplies, there are gigantic insects and they face a mighty whirlpool in a subterranean sea. Their expedition is scientific so the author does spend quite a lot of time trying to show how the geology of the earth, as he understands it, could create the conditions for an underworld sea with oceans and a forest beneath the earth. I am sure that this added verisimilitude to the narrative when it was first published but this aspect of the story is of little interest to the modern reader who has visited Narnia and Middle Earth and the modern reader will be more interested in the relationships between the characters and their desire to proceed with their journey even though it seems doomed.
The narrator, Axel, is brave but also frightened and has to be motivated and encouraged by his uncle, who seems to be totally without imagination. He also has to be rescued a few times by Hans who does all the hard work in their exploration. This makes the book accessible to the ordinary reader and we become invested in wanting to see the explorers escape this new world and return to home.
This book is, despite its age, great fun and I enjoyed the tale.
Anne Is Reading 