Jules Verne: Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Jules Verne: Journey to the Centre of the Earth


Jules Verne (1828-1905) wrote “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” as the second of his 64 novels in the year 1864. I have read many of his work in both Finnish and English, but so far I had always managed to miss this particular novel. Like most of Mr. Verne’s novels, this one also describes an adventure in the form of a long and dangerous voyage, which, in this case, requires enough skill and stubbornness to at least attempt the feat of penetrating our precious planet to the regions deep below its surface.

The first thing that struck me while reading the book was the amusingly multinational atmosphere of it. Our French author placed two German men in the position of the main characters, who are to travel all the way to Iceland via Denmark to meet up with the locals, and finally end up in Italy after making their way thousands of miles beneath Great Britain. The author seems to make a little fun of the habits and ap...