Journey to the Centre of the Earth
HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.‘From that hour we had no further occasion for the exercise of reason, or judgment, or skill, or contrivance. We were henceforth to be hurled along, the playthings of the fierce elements of the deep.’In Verne’s science-fiction classic, Professor Lidenbrock chances upon an ancient manuscript and pledges to solve the mysterious coded message that lies within it. Eventually he deciphers the story – that of an Icelandic explorer who travels to the centre of the earth, finding his way there via a volcano.Inspired by the manuscript, The Professor is determined to follow in the explorer’s footsteps and builds a crew of men which includes his nervous nephew Axel. Together they begin their journey to the centre of the earth, facing fearsome danger and adventure at every turn.
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JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH
Jules Verne
Contents
CHAPTER 1: The Professor and His Family
CHAPTER 2: A Mystery to be Solved at any Price
CHAPTER 3: The Runic Writing Exercises the Professor
CHAPTER 4: The Enemy to be Starved into Submission
CHAPTER 5: Famine, then Victory, Followed by Dismay
CHAPTER 6: Exciting Discussions about an Unparalleled Enterprise
CHAPTER 7: A Womanâs Courage
CHAPTER 8: Serious Preparations for Vertical Descent
CHAPTER 9: Iceland! but what Next?
CHAPTER 10: Interesting Conversations with Icelandic Savants
CHAPTER 11: A Guide Found to the Centre of the Earth
CHAPTER 13: Hospitality Under the Arctic Circle
CHAPTER 14: But Arctics can be Inhospitable, too
CHAPTER 16: Boldly Down the Crater
CHAPTER 18: The Wonders of Terrestrial Depths
CHAPTER 19: Geological Studies in Situ
CHAPTER 20: The First Signs of Distress
CHAPTER 21: Compassion Fuses the Professorâs Heart
CHAPTER 22: Total Failure of Water
CHAPTER 24: Well Said, Old Mole! Canst Thou Work Iâ the Ground so Fast?
CHAPTER 26: The Worst Peril of All
CHAPTER 27: Lost in the Bowels of the Earth
CHAPTER 28: The Rescue in the Whispering Gallery
CHAPTER 29: Thalatta! Thalatta!
CHAPTER 30: A New Mare Internum
CHAPTER 31: Preparations for a Voyage of Discovery
CHAPTER 32: Wonders of the Deep
CHAPTER 33: A Battle of Monsters
CHAPTER 36: Calm Philosophic Discussions
CHAPTER 37: The Liedenbrock Museum of Geology
CHAPTER 38: The Professor in His Chair Again
CHAPTER 39: Forest Scenery Illuminated by Electricity
CHAPTER 40: Preparations for Blasting a Passage to the Centre of the Earth
CHAPTER 41: The Great Explosion and the Rush Down Below
CHAPTER 42: Headlong Speed Upward Through the Horrors of Darkness
CHAPTER 43: Shot Out of a Volcano at Last!
CHAPTER 44: Sunny Lands in the Blue Mediterranean
CHAPTER 45: Allâs Well that Ends Well
CLASSIC LITERATURE: WORDS AND PHRASES adapted from the Collins English Dictionary
On the 24th of May, 1863, my uncle, Professor Liedenbrock, rushed into his little house, No. 19 Königstrasse, one of the oldest streets in the oldest portion of the city of Hamburg.
Martha must have concluded that she was very much behindhand, for the dinner had only just been put into the oven.
âWell, now,â said I to myself, âif that most impatient of men is hungry, what a disturbance he will make!â
âM. Liedenbrock so soon!â cried poor Martha in great alarm, half opening the dining-room door.
âYes, Martha; but very likely the dinner is not half cooked, for it is not two yet. Saint Michaelâs clock has only just struck half-past one.â
âThen why has the master come home so soon?â
âPerhaps he will tell us that himself.â
âHere he is, Monsieur Axel; I will run and hide myself while you argue with him.â
And Martha retreated in safety into her own dominions.
I was left alone. But how was it possible for a man of my undecided turn of mind to argue successfully with so irascible a person as the Professor? With this persuasion I was hurrying away to my own little retreat upstairs, when the street door creaked upon its hinges; heavy feet made the whole flight of stairs shake; and the master of the house, passing rapidly through the dining-room, threw himself in haste into his own sanctum.
But on his rapid way he had found time to fling his hazel stick into a corner, his rough broadbrim upon the table, and these few emphatic words at his nephew:
âAxel, follow me!â
I had scarcely had time to move when the Professor was again shouting after me:
âWhat! not come yet?â
And I rushed into my redoubtable masterâs study.
Otto Liedenbrock had no mischief in him, I willingly allow that; but unless he very considerably changes as he grows older, at the end he will be a most original character.
He was professor at the Johannæum, and was delivering a series of lectures on mineralogy, in the course of every one of which he broke into a passion once or twice at least. Not at all that he was over-anxious about the improvement of his class, or about the degree of attention with which they listened to him, or the success which might eventually crown his labours. Such little matters of detail never troubled him much. His teaching was, as the German philosophy calls it, âsubjectiveâ; it was to benefit himself, not others. He was a learned egotist. He was a well of science, and the pulleys worked uneasily when you wanted to draw anything out of it. In a word, he was a learned miser.
Germany has not a few professors of this sort.
To his misfortune, my uncle was not gifted with a sufficiently rapid utterance; not, to be sure, when he was talking at home, but certainly in his public delivery; this is a want much to be deplored in a speaker. The fact is, that during the course of his lectures at the Johannæum, the Professor often came to a complete standstill; he fought with wilful words that refused to pass his struggling lips, such words as resist and distend the cheeks, and at last break out into the unasked-for shape of a round and most unscientific oath: then his fury would gradually abate.
