Journey to the Center of the Earth (French: Voyage au centre de la Terre, also translated under the titles A Journey to the Center of the Earth and A Journey to the Interior of the Earth.) It is an 1864 science fiction novel by Jules Verne. The story involves German professor Otto Lidenbrock who believes there are volcanic tubes going toward the centre of the Earth. He, his nephew Axel, and their guide Hans descend into the Icelandic volcano Snæfellsjökull, encountering many adventures, including prehistoric animals and natural hazards, before eventually coming to the surface again in southern Italy, at the Stromboli volcano.
Inspiration The book was inspired by Charles Lyell's Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man, published in 1863 (and probably also influenced by Lyell's earlier work Principles of Geology, published 1830–33). By that time, geologists had abandoned a literal biblical account of Earth's development and it was generally thought that the end of the last glacial period marked the first appearance of humanity, but Lyell drew on new findings to put the origin of human beings much further back in the deep geological past. Lyell's book also influenced Louis Figuier's 1867 second edition of La Terre avant le déluge ("The Earth before the flood") which included dramatic illustrations of savage men and women wearing animal skins and wielding stone axes, in place of the Garden of Eden shown in the 1863 edition.
Importance Journey to the Centre of the Earth has been consistently praised for its style and vision of the world. It explores the prehistory of the globe, but can also be read as a psychological quest, for the journey itself is as important as arrival or discovery. Professor Lidenbrock and Axel travel across Iceland, and then down through an extinct crater towards a sunless sea where they enter a living past and are confronted with the origins of man. A classic of nineteenth-century literature, the novel’s distinctive combination of realism and Romanticism has marked figures as diverse as Mark Twain and Conan Doyle. Main characters Professor Otto Lidenbrock: a man of science and astonishing impatience and the uncle to Axel. Axel: the nephew of Professor Lidenbrock, an over-cautious and un-adventurous student. Hans Bjelke: a Danish-speaking Icelander eiderdown hunter who becomes their guide; dependable, resourceful and imperturbable. Grauben: the goddaughter of Professor Lidenbrock with whom Axel is in love. Martha: the maid at the house of Professor Lidenbrock. Plot The story begins in May 1863, in the Lidenbrock house in Hamburg, Germany, with Professor Lidenbrock rushing home to study his latest purchase, an original runic manuscript of an Icelandic saga written by Snorri Sturluson (Snorre Tarleson in some versions of the story), "Heimskringla"; the chronicle of the Norwegian kings who ruled over Iceland. While looking through the book, Lidenbrock and his nephew Axel find a coded note written in runic script along with the name of a 16th-century Icelandic alchemist, Arne Saknussemm. Lidenbrock and Axel transliterate the runic characters into Latin letters, revealing a message written in a seemingly bizarre code. Lidenbrock attempts a decipherment, deducing the message to be a kind of transposition cipher; but his results are as meaningless as the original.
The Runic cryptogram
Professor Lidenbrock decides to lock everyone in the house and force himself and the others (Axel, and the maid, Martha) to go without food until he cracks the code. Axel discovers the answer when fanning himself with the deciphered text: Lidenbrock's decipherment was correct, and only needs to be read backwards to reveal sentences written in rough Latin. After two days without food, Axel cannot stand the hunger and reveals the secret to his uncle. Lidenbrock translates the note, which is revealed to be a medieval note written by the (fictional) Icelandic alchemist Arne Saknussemm, who claims to have discovered a passage to the center of the Earth via Snæfell in Iceland. In what Axel calls bad Latin, the deciphered message reads: In Snefflls [sic] Iokulis kraterem kem delibat umbra Skartaris Iulii intra kalendas deskende, audas uiator, te [sic] terrestre kentrum attinges. Kod feki. Arne Saknussemm.
In slightly better Latin, with errors amended: In Sneffels Jokulis craterem, quem delibat umbra Scartaris, Julii intra kalendas descende, audax viator, et terrestre centrum attinges; quod feci. Arne Saknussemm which, when translated into English, reads: Descend, bold traveller, into the crater of the jökull of Snæfell, which the shadow of Scartaris touches (lit: tastes) before the Kalends of July, and you will attain the center of the earth. I did it. Arne Saknussemm
Professor Lidenbrock is a man of astonishing impatience, and departs for Iceland immediately, taking his reluctant nephew with him. Axel, who, in comparison, is cowardly and anti-adventurous, repeatedly tries to reason with him, explaining his fears of descending into a volcano and putting forward various scientific theories as to why the journey is impossible, but Professor Lidenbrock repeatedly keeps himself blinded against Axel's point of view.
After a rapid journey via Kiel and Copenhagen, they arrive in Reykjavík, where the two procure the services of Hans Bjelke (a Danish-speaking Icelander eiderdown hunter) as their guide, and travel overland to the base of the volcano.
Read here http://www.ibiblio.org/julesverne/books/jce%20revd%20edn.pdf And Listen, at the same time or one after another.https://librivox.org/search? title=Journey+to+the+of+the+Earth&author=Verne&reader=&keywords=&genre_id=0&status=all&p roject_type=either&recorded_language=&sort_order=catalog_date&search_page=1&search_form= advanced Or find here, an easier version http://www.jules-verne.co.uk/a-journey-to-the-interior-of-the-earth/ebook-page-02.asp
Source: wikipedia By: Ester Conrat