Customer Reviews

Journey to the Center of the Earth

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Over the decades, I have read "Journey ..." a few times. Despite the years since it was written, it holds up quite well as a fantasy / Adventure! It is an enjoyable book and I think today's teenagers would like it.

This is a great classic novel. It is a fun read and much better than the movies based on it. Give yourself a treat and read this book regardless of what you might have thought of the Hollywood versions.

I bought this classic for my son. He has had his nose buried in since the day I gave it too him.
And I couldnt beat the price. Thanks Amazon !!

I've just recently found out about the different translations of this book. The Sterling Classic is the "good" translation. Wanted to let those interested know since at this time anyway, the 'look inside' feature isn't available for this book.
Here's link to the Jules Verne Society with more information on the translations!
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I was so pleased to add a quality, yet reasonable priced volume to update our classic section in our library.

I have never been a huge fan of Jules Verne, but I decided to give him another shot and while I didn't hate "Journey to the Center of the Earth" I wasn't overly impressed with it either. The stodgy professor character was interesting / entertaining, but the nephew/narrator was a whiney coward for the most part. The parts of the book where they were actually exploring were riveting, but the sections where they were sitting around waiting or rambling about evolution were tedious and the end was just too completely unbelievable. Meh.

typical great classic. terminology is pretty tough for young student reading and they most likely would get discouraged with the 'big' and technical words. describing the stones, minerals, etc at the 'center of the earth' is fairly technical. purchased this, 20,000 leagues under the sea, huck finn. all wonderful classic stories. sturdy hardcover books well packaged.

Be warned, I don't even try and avoid spoilers.

Jules Verne managed to find himself a nice little literary niche. His basic MO was to come up with some kind of spectacular but as yet (circa late 1800's) unperformed human achievement, whether it be traveling into outer space, going around the world in 80 days, moving 20 thousand leagues under the sea or in this case journeying to the center of the Earth. He then applies the science of his era to figure out how it can be done. Verne enjoyed relaying his own scientific knowledge for instance treating the reader to a scientific explanation as to how Iceland's land mass formed. I was however a little surprised that Verne seemed completely ignorant to the effects of high altitude climbing since obviously this was known about in his time. The story centers around Professor Von Hardwigg and his nephew Harry who discover a long lost manuscript written by Icelandic explorer Arne Saknussemm. In the manuscript Saknussemm claims to have traveled to the center of the Earth, some three hundred years ago, entering through the dormant volcano Mt. Sneffels in Iceland so Von Hardwigg, Harry and their superhuman Icelandic guide Hans attempt to duplicate the journey.

The main issue I had with Journey to the Center of the Earth is that Verne can't seem to decide what literary genre he's writing. He seems to be attempting science fiction but the story is so absurd that it feels more like pure fantasy and concludes like a Loony Tunes cartoon. Verne knew that as you descend into the Earth the heat, pressure and lack of breathable air would build to the point where no human can survive but unless he chose to write a book called Journey a Short Distance towards the Center of the Earth he simply had to wave these problems away as if the characters had found a magical path. If Verne had simply gone all out and wrote a fantasy book it would have been better than try to include scientific explanations for all these absurdities.

Let me describe just how ridiculous the book gets. About 120 miles under the Earth the adventurers arrive at a vast saltwater sea. Hans inexplicably manages to build a seaworthy craft in a matter of hours from wood he gathers from an underground forest. Here is where it gets really silly. They travel in the raft an unbelievable 300 miles with no mention of lack of food or water. They come to a tiny and fairly useless island and then set off again for another 600 more miles through a violent storm that lasts three days. So violent in fact that their ears literally bleed and yet still no worries of hunger or a collapse of the raft. A globe of ball lightning menaces the group and even manages to be consumed by Hans causing him to spit fire. The ball lightning magnetizes all the metal on the raft including the rafts nails. Where in the world did Hans get these nails from? Did he carry them all the way on the off chance that he may need to build something and where did the sail come from? After surviving this multi day storm the raft crashes on shore leaving them with almost all their supplies and four months of food. FOUR MONTHS!?!?! Since they've been traveling for at least several months that means they started the trip with over a half a year of food along with huge amounts of rope, pickaxes and ladders. Near the end of the book their passage is blocked by a large boulder and they use 50 pounds of gunpowder to blow it up. Among all the staggering amounts of provisions they had 50 pounds of gunpowder just in case. Had Jules Verne ever gone on a hiking trip in his life? 50 pounds is an enormous amount of weight to lug around particularly 120 miles down into the Earth.

Compared to the above events the appearance of dinosaurs seems downright pedestrian. There never seemed to be any restriction on the amount of supplies they carried they could only proceed thanks to a magical path that supplied light, low pressure and coolness and the book ended with the group riding up the eruption of a volcano blowing out the top and surviving with nary a scratch. Perhaps my greatest disappointment was that they didn't even get close to the Earths core. They descended about 120 miles before shooting up through the volcanic shaft. The books concept is fantastic and it's been made into a least a half dozen movies but the execution here leaves something to be desired.

There is a misprint in the book we received. The name is supposed to be Alex---not Axel.

Amazon is replacing. No problem. Was great to deal with as far as exchanging.

As far as the book itself. Great story. My son loves it. My children love these Classic Unabridged books. They have several in the series and the books are very nice. In the back of each book is a set of questions for the reader. As a parent, home schooling mom, and book collector----I really like these books. They have many more titles for boys and for girls. We have bought some from Vision Forum and some from Amazon.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Jules Verne or sci-fi books. This book will definitely raise your curiosity levels. If you are like me, and are a die hard fan of the unknown, then this book is for you. I recently came across a site that is offering this book in digital format, which gives you the ability to read the book from your cell phone, or any other portable device you may have. Here is the site, JourneyIntoEarth dot com Enjoy!