JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH by JULES VERNE

thebbg
Feb 21, 2015
Branje traja 2 min

SUMMARY: Otto Lindenbrock, an eccentric scientist, finds an old piece of paper that has a coded message on it. He and his nephew, Axel spend a lot of time deciphering it and they find out that it’s from Arne Saknussem, a scientist from a couple of centuries ago, and that it talks about his voyage to the centre of the Earth. That supports Lindenbrock’s theory about the interior of the Earth not being liquid. He decides to go to the centre of the planet and he convinces Axel to go with him. They travel to Iceland, since Arne wrote about going to Sneffels (a volcano there) and finding a hole that leads into the Earth. They travel a lot. In Iceland they hire a hunter, Hans, to go with them. He turns out to be great help later on. So they actually find the tunnel Arne was talking about and they go to the middle of the Earth. They find an underground world, full of ancient animals and a huge sea. They sail around it and end up where they started. They even see some ancient people that had been living there but they run away. Lindenbrock wants to go even deeper into the Earth but ends up nearly killing all three of them. They travel into a volcano that is erupts and throws them back onto the surface.

CHARACTERS:

Otto Lindenbrock: Axel’s fiancée’s uncle and a very enthusiastic person. He is a true scientist who wants to get to the bottom of everything.

Axel: He’s a simple person. He’s quite young and complains a lot about the journey.

Hans: He’s a hunter who helps Axel and Otto survive in the middle of the Earth. He’s very calm and introverted. He follows his master everywhere without any questions.

OPINION: I didn’t like this book very much. It’s a bit boring. It has some interesting ideas in it but the whole story is about travelling to their destination. First, Axel and Lindenbrock go to Iceland, then to Sneffels, then down the tunnel, then into another tunnel and back through the volcano. But it is a classic and it’s old so you can impress someone by telling them that you’ve read the book.

The trailer doesn't have much to do with the book but it's quite awesome: