We're all going on a summer holiday... (Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne)

Member Name: CaptainD

Product:	Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne
Date:	07/06/05 (1346 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compelling science and intriguing theories

Disadvantages: Slow pacing and occasionally bogged down with incomprehensible jargon

Journey to the Centre of the Earth is about… um… well, it’s about a journey to the centre of the earth. This expedition is led by Professor Lidenbrock, his long-suffering nephew Axel (the narrator of the book), and Hans, and extremely taciturn Icelander. Don’t expect it to be anything like the film version starring James Mason though, in fact it takes about two thirds of the book before they get anywhere near the centre of the earth. While it wouldn’t exactly make a gripping film, the book is in itself a very interesting, albeit slow-moving, novel by one of the most important figures in science fiction history, Jules Verne. (Sadly Verne is often overlooked by English-language readers but the translations of his works are very readable and readily available, if anyone is interested in starting a collection of his books or just curious enough to read one of them, I suggest looking for the Penguin Popular Classics collection.)

In Journey to the Centre of the Earth, the story starts with Professor Lisenbrock – and esteemed Mineralogist - making an astonishing discovery – an ancient message from a fabled explorer, written in Runic (an early form of Scandinavian), which he suspects is of great importance – unfortunately it’s encrypted, and the code obstinately refuses to be broken at first. He is described by his nephew (his assistant and also a Mineralogist) as rather short-tempered and very focused - Otto Lidenbrock was not, I must admit, a bad man; but, unless he changes in the most unlikely way, her will end up as a terrible eccentric.” The relationship between the two is occasionally strained, but generally works well enough. When the meaning of the cryptogram is discovered (no prizes for guessing what it is!), Prof. Lidenbrock is determined to go on a journey into the bowels of the earth. Axel is not too keen on the idea, but ends up being persuaded / bullied to go. Later on in their travels they team up with Hans, the Icelandic guide, and the descent begins.

Along the way various events and mishaps take place, along with repeated attempts by Axel to convince his uncle to give way to reason and abandon his plan. The pace is very slow throughout the first two-thirds of the book, and while it quickens in the final third, it really isn’t until the final 5 chapters (out of 45) that it could really be considered to go fairly quickly. For myself this wasn’t a huge problem as I found it quite interesting, though for others it may just be too slow to hold their interest. The main problem I found with this book is the scientific terminology that it uses – terms that mean little or nothing to the average person are thrown around freely and regularly, and the result is a further slowing down of the already sedate pacing of the book. Some extremely interesting scientific theories are brought to the surface though, in particular one relating to what the centre of the earth may actually consist of, which highlight just how much we take for granted what we are taught about certain things just because we read it in a book. (What I mean by that is, we may be very certain that the earth has a molten core, but when certain arguments are put to us we may suddenly find ourselves not very sure after all.) These don’t form the crux of the novel but were, for me, probably the most interesting aspect of it. Another interesting side-note is that Verne writes about a curious blend of evolution and creation theories, which left me wondering which he actually believed or if he did indeed believe in a combination of the two. Well. I thought it was an interesting point!

As with all Penguin Popular Classics books, there is a two-page introduction of biographical details about the author. Personally I like these as they give some brief background information without being so long that it prevents you from getting into reading the actual story.

All in all, what we have here is an interesting but not exactly exciting book. There’s a wry humour throughout, without which this would have been quite an arduous read. For my own part I would probably have veered towards a 4 star rating but for the fact that I found the final action sequence rather unlikely. Considering the scientific knowledge behind almost every sentence in the book, the last set piece just seemed to me to be too far fetched. It’s an enjoyable book but only if you can forgive it’s slowness, so I’m giving it 3 stars. To be fair this is something no self-respecting science fiction fan should go through life without reading, but it has not aged quite as well as H G Wells’ works, which are from a similar (though slightly later) era. (Journey to the Centre of the Earth was first published in 1864, whereas Wells’ The Time Machine was published in 1895.) Recommended but only to those who like sci-fi enough to endure the slowness of the storytelling.

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