2. A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, French
Voyage au centre de la Terre, novel by prolific
French author Jules Verne, published in 1864. It is
the second book in his popular series Voyages
extraordinaires (1863–1910), which contains novels
that combine scientific facts with adventure fiction
and laid the groundwork for science fiction.
3. Axel Lidenbrock, the teenage narrator of the story, lives in
Hamburg, Germany, with his uncle, Professor Otto
Lidenbrock, an impetuous and single-minded professor of
geology.
Otto Lidenbrock
4. The story, set in May 1863, opens as the latter rushes home
to show Axel his latest acquisition: a runic manuscript by
the renowned Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson. They
find hidden within its pages a separate note which, when
translated into Latin and read backward, appears to be the
Icelandic alchemist Arne Saknussemm’s record of a passage
leading to the centre of the Earth in a crater of Snaefell, a
dormant volcano in Iceland.
5. The crater containing the passage, however, is only
revealed by shadows at noon during the last few days of
June, just a month away. Otto rushes off to the area,
dragging a very reluctant, pessimistic, and skeptical Axel
with him.
6. They eventually reach Reykjavík, where they hire the
Icelandic eider hunter Hans Bjelke to guide them on the
long journey to the volcano. After an arduous climb to
Snaefell’s summit, the trio locates the correct crater, and
they descend and find the passage. When they reach a
fork, Otto chooses the eastern tunnel, but after three days
they enter a cavern in which the history of the
Carboniferous Period is visible, and Otto realizes that he
was mistaken.
7. They return and head down the other tunnel. The
adventurers exhaust their water supplies, but Hans
locates a subterranean river, and they follow that
thereafter. One day Axel takes a wrong turn and gets lost,
but eventually an acoustic phenomenon allows him to
speak to Otto and Hans, and he is able to rejoin them.
8. The trio finds a vast lake or sea, and along the shore they
encounter a forest of giant mushrooms and lycophytes. On
the ground are mastodon bones. Hans builds a raft of
partially petrified wood, and the three men set sail, hoping
to cross the sea. They catch fish of extinct species, and,
after several days of sailing, they come across an
ichthyosaur and a plesiosaur fighting.
9. As Hans repairs the raft, Otto and Axel explore the area.
They find shells and bones of long-extinct animals and also
discover a human skull. Soon they come across a fossilized
human. As they continue, they spot a herd of mastodons,
and suddenly they see a giant man shepherding the beasts.
They flee back to the shore, where they find a marking
indicating Saknussemm’s path.
10. With the barrier removed, the explorers are carried past it
on a torrent for hours, and then they find themselves being
pushed upward. Two months after entering the
underground world, the men are carried by a volcanic
eruption to the surface of Stromboli Island, off the coast of
Italy.
11. Axel
Professor Lidenbrock's nephew and assistant, Axel is the protagonist and narrator
of the story. Axel lives with his uncle because his parents died when he was young;
his uncle decided to take care of him in their stead.
Prof. Otto/Lidenbrock
Lidenbrock is Axel's uncle and mentor, a man who works as a professor in geology
and mineralogy. He is so famous that people come from around the world to attend
his lectures.
Hans
Hans is the Icelandic guide who accompanies Axel and Lidenbrock during their
journey to the center of the Earth. He is a calm, wise, stoic man, and does not talk
much during the trip.
12. Are loyality, teamwork and obedience.
Prof. Otto, Hans and Axel worked as a team in order
to succeed in their journey.