Journey to the Center of the Earth – Book Reviews
The book, Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne, tells as the story of an amazing journey of three brave men to the core of the Earth. This story shows as the relationships between three absolutely different men,
who travel together through impediments and dangers. From the beginning to the end of the story Jules Verne, opens to us unbelievable occurrences and describes tiny details of a fantasy world that lay deep inside in the center of the Earth. Author describe in this story a lot of science inventions that were incredible for that time, but today we can see these inventions in our everyday life. Journey to the Center of the Earth is an adventure story that has some elements of fantasy and science fiction. These qualities make this story exciting and unpredictable to the last page of the book. I chose this book because fantasy and science fiction are my favorite genres, but at the same time, I like story with unpredictable and happy end, and Journey to the Center of the Earth is one of that kinds of stories.
The main idea of this story is to show to us that there is nothing impossible and unbelievable if you are brave and believe in your convictions without any doubts. For me the most exciting episode in this story it is the voyage on a self-made raft in the subterranean ocean during a storm. This episode is an example of boldness of three travelers who continually struggles with enormous troubles on their way to the goal. Moreover, writer demonstrates meaning of a friendship between people in a difficult situation. During the journey travelers together, solve many difficult tasks. Thus, when Henry lost his last hope to be rescued he heard a voice of his uncle and Hans who were searching for him all this time when he was sitting in this gloomy place.
Once a genius scientist Professor Liedenbrock and his nephew Harry found in an old book one strange piece of paper with a secret codified map. This story started on the 24th of May, 1863, into a little house, No. 19 Konigstrasse, one of the oldest streets in the oldest portion of the city of Hamburg, but continued in a mountain of Iceland. This story describes us a long and dangerous journey through rocky cliffs and deep precipices to the crater, which contains the shaft that leads to the center of the Earth. Journey to the center of the Earth open to us a new clandestine world with new creatures and gigantic people that live in the center of the Earth. This journey last about four month, but the most exciting thing in this journey is that it started in one crater in Iceland and finished in another crater in Sicily that laid about 1200 km from the first one.
The real journey to the center of the Earth started in a mountain of Iceland where Professor and Harry found a guide Hans who was a native Icelander. First, they achieved the mountain Sneffels in Iceland it was the place where they found an enter to the subterranean world. When they achieved the Sneffels, they disclosed another problem, they were not sure about which of the three shafts was that shafts that lead to the center of the Earth, so they spent some days solving this problem nevertheless they found the right way to the core of the Earth.
The main goal that Professor Liedenbrock and his nephew Harry set was to achieve the center of the Earth, but finally this expedition exceeded all their expectation. They found subterranean world with ocean, dinosaurs and giant people. However, the most important event of their journey was the discovery that they made in a core of the Earth, they proved that inside of our Earth there is a secret world. When they came back home, people met them like a heroes.
The main character of this story is Professor Liedenbrock. Professor Liedenbrock is a scientist who worked in a sphere of geology, it is necessary to mention that he was one of the most famous experts in geology of that time. He is a tall and spear man of iron constitution with restless eyes that always in a constant motion. He belongs to that kind of people who always do that they decided before and it is very difficult to change their decision. In all difficult situations, he is a leader who always makes a right decision, but this property of his temper sometimes is unbearable for his companions. Another character of this story is Harry, he is very young and smart, and he always trying to dispute with his uncle Professor Liedenbrock. During the entire journey, he is thinking about dangers that lie and wait for them in the center of the Earth, and this quality sometimes does not let him think sensibly. The third character it is an Icelandic guide Hans. For me it is the most interesting person in this story because he took part in this dangerous adventure just because of money and the most comical thing that Professor Liedenbrock paid him his salary every week even when all of them were on the edge of death. His main dignity is that he has a talent to be calm and coolheaded in very dangerous situations.
I think that this book is excellent. This story is fast paced, exciting, original and charming. When I read this book I it was very simple for me to imagine the pictures that were describing in this book. As a matter of fact, this book is outstanding because it was written in 1864 and at that time, it was impossible to imagine a journey to the center of the earth, so this book is really cool. Therefore, we can understand how far ahead of his time Jules Verne was in comprehending science.
Before reading this book, I have not ever thought that inside our planet may be something like a hidden world with oceans and ancient animals, but now it is not very hard for me to imagine this. Consequently, this book has changed my imagination and understanding of the world in general.
When I try to place myself on the place of one of the characters and imagine myself deep under the Earth, my heart sinks and I am starting to understand feelings of Harry who was alone in the heart of the planet. And I also think, that this book shows very well the deep knowledge of sciences of the author who wrote this excellent book. When you read it, you learn a lot of new information about geology and physic.
I have a very good impression of this book because I have learnt a lot of new information about world, I read about national traditions of people who leave in a mountain of Iceland. And it was also very interesting to read a story that was written more then hundred years ago. Therefore I want to advise everybody to read this book.