Journey to the Centre of the Earth (The World's Classics) [Paperback]

Jules Verne (Author), William Butcher (Editor)

Book Description

Series: The World's Classics | Publication Date: November 1992

This new translation is faithful to the lyricism, verve, and humour of the original, and is the only annotated edition available. This book is intended for students of French literature; those taking courses in science fiction, the adventure novel.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Good confidence-builders for reluctant readers, this series provides a quick way into a range of classics. The Bookseller Back to School Supplement --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

"In 1864 Jules Verne published 'Journey to the Center of the Earth,' the charming narrative of the adventures of a party of three, led by a German professor of mineralogy - the irascible mad-scientist type - who have lowered themselves into an extinct volcanic crater." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr (T) (November 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192829009
• ISBN-13: 978-0192829009
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (181 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,025,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Different Versions?, June 19, 2005

By 

Susie Day "smIsle" (Roseburg, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Signet classics) (Paperback)

Yes there are different versions, The best one is the original in French. There are more than one translations into english, one with the Main character's name as Harry, the other as Axel.

I read the 'Harry' version first, but only partway through as it was terrible! I thought Verne was a bad writter or something. But, when I was older, I found another copy (Puffin Classics btw), and I thought I'd give it another go. That was one of the best books I had ever read, it funny and imaginative. The characters even had character!

Well, I looked into it, and compared my new version with the first book I had read and both of them with the original. Mine was pretty close. The names were kept the same, most of the sentences were similar in structure (so that someone like me who can't read french could tell that they were the same book).

The 'Harry version' however, invented entire chapters out of thin air, discarded others and changed significant plot points. I hope this helps some of you decide which one to get, and that there is more than one translation.

If the book starts with:

"ON 24 May 1863, a Sunday, my uncle, Professor Lidenbrock, came rushing back towards his little house at No.19 Konigstrasse, one of the oldest streets..."

You know you have the good version.

Otherwise, I love this book and would recomend it to anyone, whether a science fiction fan or not.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Three explorers go to the center of the earth, August 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Journey to the Center of the Earth (Paperback)

This is a classic novel by Jules Verne. In the story, Professor Hardwigg and his nephew Harry discover an ancient parchment by an alchemist named Arne Saknussemm. They travel to Iceland and climb an extinct volcano called Sneffels. With them is the Icelandic hunter Hans. They journey into the center of the earth, in which Harry gets lost. They come upon and ocean and cross it. While they are on the sea they witness a battle of ancient sea monsters. Eventually they are thrown out of a volcano on Stromboli, an island in Italy. This was a wonderful book, but sometimes it went into too much detail. Still, a classic five star book. I don't see why anyone would give it 4 1/2 stars. It is simply absurd. I recommened this book to anyone with a good imagination.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The science has aged hard, but it's still a good story, June 6, 2010

By 

T. Simons (Columbia, SC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Kindle Edition)

This kindle edition is based on the 1871 translation which slightly abridged and altered Verne's original (for example, the Professor is here named Hardwigg, rather than the original's Lidenbrock, and his niece is here named Gretchen rather than Grauben). That's probably the most generally known English translation (it's the one I read obsessively as a child), and it's still a great read, but sticklers for textual accuracy might want to do a little more searching.

As to the novel itself, while unquestionably one of Verne's masterpieces in terms of story, it's probably the one that's aged the hardest of all Verne's works, and almost all of the science in this text has been exploded, modified, or simply changed by the intervening hundred and fifty-odd years of scientific development. Because Verne was in part intending this book to be a source of scientific education, the characters spend a lot of time talking about geology, archaeology, etc., to each other, and since most of that's outdated now, modern readers may want to skip over the more scientific chunks of the book and simply read it as an exploration tale.

From that perspective, the most interesting thing about this book might be that it's arguably the progenitor of the "Lost Prehistoric World" genre, and readers who want more in that vein might want to look up later books that focused more squarely on modern-explorers-in-dinosaur-country stories, such as Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, or Edgar Rice Burrough's novel _The Land that Time Forgot_ or his _Pellucidar_ series (explicitly set in the hollow interior of the globe).