"Descend, bold traveler, into the crater of Snæfellsjökull, which the shadow of Scartaris tastes before the Kalends of July, and you will attain the center of the earth; which I have done."
Arne Saknussemm
Journey to the Center of the Earth was first published in Paris, in 1864, as
Voyages au Centre de la Terre and later became known as part of the
Voyages Extraordinaires, Jules Verne's series of scientific adventures. It was
Jules Verne then, who set the stage for all who would come searching for a new world at the center of the Earth.
THE STORY: We follow irascible German scholar Professor Otto Lidenbrock (Professor Von Hardwigg in the most common English translations), his reluctant nephew Axel, and their unflappable Icelandic guide Hans as they encounter many adventures on their descent through underground passages deep into the center of the world. The prehistoric animals and natural hazards they meet reflect geological time; just as the rock layers become older and older the deeper they travel, the animals become more and more ancient the closer the characters approach the center.
Our intrepid adventurers encounter many strange phenomena and great dangers, including a chamber filled with combustible gas, and steep-sided wells around the "path". After they take a wrong turn, and run out of water and Axel almost dies, but Hans taps into a neighboring subterranean river. Lidenbrock and Axel name the resulting stream the "Hansbach" in his honor and the three are saved. At another point, Axel becomes separated from the others and is lost several miles from them. Luckily, a strange acoustic phenomenon allows him to communicate with them from some miles away, and they are soon reunited. They continue the descent for many miles, following the course of the Hansbach, they eventually reach an unimaginably vast cavern. This underground world is lit by electrically charged gas at the ceiling, and is filled with a very deep subterranean ocean, surrounded by a rocky coastline covered in petrified trees and giant mushrooms.
The travelers build a raft out of trees and set sail. The Professor names this sea as the Lidenbrock Sea. Whilst on the water, they see several prehistoric creatures such as a giant Ichthyosaurus, which fights with a Plesiosaurus and wins.
After the battle between the monsters, the party comes across an island with a huge geyser, which Lidenbrock names "Axel Island". A lightning storm again threatens to destroy the raft and its passengers, but instead throws them onto the coastline. This part of the coast, Axel discovers, is alive with prehistoric plant and animal life forms, including giant insects and a herd of mastodons. On a beach covered with bones, Axel discovers an oversized human skull. Axel and Lidenbrock venture some way into the prehistoric forest, where Professor Lidenbrock points out, in a shaky voice, a prehistoric human, more than twelve feet in height, leaning against a tree and watching a herd of mastodons. Axel cannot be sure if he has really seen the man or not, and he and Professor Lidenbrock debate whether or not a proto-human civilization actually exists so far underground. The three wonder if the creature is a man-like ape, or an ape-like man. The sighting of the creature is considered the most alarming part of the story, and the explorers decide that it is better not to alert it to their presence as they fear it may be hostile.
The travelers continue to explore the coastline, and find a passageway marked by Saknussemm as the way ahead. However, it is blocked by what appears to be a recent cave-in and the three despair at being unable to hack their way through the granite wall. The adventurers plan to blast the rock with gun cotton and paddle out to sea to escape the blast. Upon executing the plan, however, they discover that behind the rockfall was a seemingly bottomless pit, not a passage to the center of the earth. The travelers are swept away as the sea rushes into the large open gap in the ground. After spending hours being swept along at lightning speeds by the water, the raft ends up inside a large volcanic chimney filling with water and magma. Terrified, the three are rushed upwards, through stifling heat, and are ejected onto the surface from a side-vent of a volcano. When they regain consciousness, they discover that they have been ejected from the active volcano on the Isle of Stromboli. They return to Hamburg to great acclaim — Professor Lidenbrock is hailed as one of the great scientists of history, Axel marries his sweetheart Gräuben, and Hans eventually returns to his peaceful life in Iceland. The Professor has some regret that their journey was cut short.
