Catch 地心游记 Created By Jules Verne Offered In Script

read this because a modern kindle sitelinkThe Maw, by sitelinkTaylor Zajonc, which I finished reading just before this, quotes from it extensively, and obviously took it as its inspiration.
The Maw was an adventure tale exploring a supercave in Africa, on the trail of a famous but of tainted repute explorer who was lost with no trace a century earlier.
Verne's tale is an adventure tale exploring a supercave system, whose expedition was launched based on the lost hints of a learned man who had fallen into disrepute centuries earlier.
. . Yes, so, obviously many points in common, The stories themselves are very different, tho,

Anyway, I love adventure stories, and I haven't read a Verne tale that I haven't enjoyed yet although I've only read a few so far, . . , so I got good enjoyment out of this one,

I admit to being in suspense for much of the novel, waiting to see if their guide would leave them, if the uncle failed to make a Saturday payment to him :p.
Verne made much of the fact that the guide would accept no payment in advance, and would work for the uncle only so long as he was paid every Saturday.
.

Good, fast read,




Note at the beginning of the novel:

“ Redactor's Note: Journey to the Centre of the Earth is number Vin the Taves and Michaluk numbering of the works of Jules Verne.
First published in England by Griffith and Farran,, this edition is not a translation at all but a complete rewrite of the novel, with portions added and omitted, and names changed.
The most reprinted version, it is entered into Project Gutenberg for reference purposes only, A better translation is A Journey into the Interior of the Earth translated by Rev, F. A. Malleson, also available on Project Gutenberg, ”

Hm. This edition, "the most reprinted edition" is "a complete rewrite of the novel, with portions added and omitted, and names changed",

I guess I'll have to try to track down Vsomeday, . . I've tried to make The Journey to the Centre of the earth myself people, and let me tell you, it is fraught with danger! It should be a warning to you that I'm writing this from the bed of a Burns unit by typing with two chargrilled finger stumps, because the centre of the earth is not some wonderfully hollow, sparkly geode, oh no! In reality its a burning hot ball of lava, so hot that it makes the centre of a Pop Tart feel like a skinny dipping spree at the North Pole.
You have been warned. Geology may rock but it can also get bloody warm as well!

If you don't believe me, and are still prone to believe the Jules Verne school of geological thought, I'm backed up by the Wikipedia page :sitelink wikipedia. org/wiki/AJourne
where the person who wrote the entry for the book clearly states that Verne's description of the fantastical middle earth has been "soundly refuted", Let's face it, if the centre of the earth really was some kind of lost world of wonders, Disney would have sunk a two and a half mile deep elevator shaft down there sometime in thes and we'd all be queuing at the edge of a lava tube to payper ticket to get down there.


If on the other hand you are still tempted to make a journey to the centre of the earth from the comfort of your own armchair then I'm sure you'll be charmed and thrilled by the subterranean world of wonders which await.
Lava tubes like dried out waterflumesprovide direct access to the labyrinthine maze of geological fun, Middleworld primordial seas which would have left modern day scientists to ponder the fact that the earth really resembles a partly filled laundry detergent ball, filled with giant fishes the likes of which would have had Hemingway weeping for mercy.
Dinosaurs wander through ancient primeval forests of petrified wood and giant mushrooms and barren shores of bleached bones reveal the true nature of humanities origins, Essentially Verne has gathered together all the best and most interesting bits of Early World Prehistory the bits that you loved as a kid and created a memorable if scientifically confused master piece.
Ok, it's now a bit dated and yes the centre of the earth really is not quite a Verne would have us believe but this is old school story telling at its best.
.Stars
While I prefer,Leagues Under the Sea, I also really enjoyed this novel, I love how Verne writes these cozy classic science fiction books that blend hard science into these exciting adventure stories, I loved the professor sharing his knowledge, even if it was a bit of an "info dump" at times, Also, I really enjoyed the Iceland setting because I'm fascinated by the country,   Jules Verne è sempre una garanzia! Un romanzo di avventura davvero coinvolgente e immaginifico, ma se vi inquietano i luoghi chiusi e stretti sappiate che questo libro mette un sacco di ansia.
I have had a ridiculous amount of fun this year listening to classic novels as audiobooks, When Audible offered a freebie I think it was a freebie of Journey to the Center of the Earth read by Tim Curry, I was excited Tim Curry! Come on.
It almost didn't matter what it was I kind of place Curry in the same class as Tom Baker love the actor, adore the voice, will listen to literally anything read by him.
Though Tom Baker wins by having been The Doctor, of course,

And I was right, Curry was fabulous. His performance and it was in every way performance was incredibly enjoyable, and accounted for a good part of my rating, The voices he gave to the characters were dead on the emotion with which he invested some scenes elevated them it's purely because of his voice that I don't completely loathe the two main characters of this book, Axel and his Uncle/Professor Otto Liedenbrock.
Not completely

I do dislike them intensely, though, Even Tim Curry couldn't prevent that,

I will absolutely grant that part of my dislike for the book was some inability to separate myself as astcentury woman with a very basic high school education in geology from myself as reader of a book published and I assume set in.
From the former point of view it's an absurd figment of science fantasy, I know, I know I have no problem accepting vampires as long as they don't sparkle, werewolves, thousandyearold druids andyearold Time Lords, I never said I was consistent,

Still, despite the initial headmeetsdesk reaction I had to a forest many leagues below the surface of the earth, not to mention a lifefilled ocean and the mastodonherding giants still, it was fun.
It felt like a Disney version of science, crossed with Lewis Carroll fall down the universe's biggest rabbit hole, and land in an impossible, improbable wonderland, I was able to enjoy some of the fantasy,

The parts I could enjoy were simply outweighed by the stupidity of the characters, The two sobrilliant scientists, Axel and his uncle, were textbook examples of booksmart vs, streetsmart. I mean, what moron goes on any expedition into the unknown with only a little water Good God, people, don't you watch Les Stroud and Bear Grylls Well, no, obviously not, but common sense, men! "Oh, don't worry, we'll find freshwater springs": probably the last words of many a dim adventurer.


And the subject of stupid adventurers brings me straight to Axel, Good grief. In my Goodreads updates I referred to him as a damsel in distress, and also TSTL: Too Stupid To Live, Bringing that boy on an expedition I keep wanting to write a WinniethePoohesque "expotition" is like taking a penguin to the Bahamas, I lost count of the number of times he fell or got lost or otherwise needed rescuing and every single time there was poor old Hans, probably thinking "ach du lieber or the Icelandic equivalent thereof, we should just put the fool on a leash.
" I can't imagine why his uncle brought him in the first place, unless he didn't realize what a Moaning Myrtle the boy would become, in addition to being a hazard to himself and all those around him.
Every step of the way he complained and protested and fretted and despaired, The fact that he happened to be right in some of his complaints as, for example, when he protested the minimal amount of water they were toting doesn't make his constant whingeing easier to tolerate.


And the Professor a more overbearing, pompous, irritating, foresightless windbag I don't remember in my reading, Did I mention it was his decision to bring only a little water with them And also to chuck most of their gear down an apparently bottomless hole, confident that they would catch up to it in the climb.
And also to set off across an apparently limitless ocean in a boat I wouldn't sail in a bathtub rather than try to trek the shoreline, And then to pause at random intervals and pontificate as if in front of an audience,

Oh, and to take few or no specimens of their discoveries, "Center of the earth, eh, Liedenbrock Riiiight, "

My list, made early on in the read/listen, for tips on a hypothetical Journey to the Center of the Earth:
, Bring water
. Lots
. Lots and lots humans are not camels,
. Be sure to pay guide/servant/lifesaver weekly, even if he can't spend the money
, Give guide/etc raise after he saves your butt after you disregardedamp
, Do not bring nephew he is prone to both hysterics and despair
, Do not bring uncle/professor, as he confuses humans with camels also: twit
, Do bring Tim Curry, because he just makes everything sound good,

I don't think the uncle and nephew actually did give Hans any kind of monetary reward for saving their rear ends, on several more occasions than just the water situation.
The uncle paid him promptly every week not that he was able to spend or bank or otherwise appreciate said payment, miles below the surface of the earth and probably lost it all in their adventures.


The translation used by Audible was an odd one, The only example I noted was this: "His absolute silence increased every day, " If it's absolute, it can't increase, though, can it The edition Goodreads links to has it as: "But his habit of silence gained upon him day by day" which works.
I would be interested in either reading or listening to another version, to see if anything improves but no, The language wasn't the problem, The problem was that I spent over eight hours alternately smiling happily at Tim Curry's performance and wanting to reach through my iPod and shake Axel and Otto until their ears flapped.
It's another of those "couldhavebeen" books, It could have been so much fun, It just wasn't. ”The tension between the armchair and adventure, between security and possibility, lies at the heart of Verne, as of his agean age of scientific, technical , industrial, colonial expansion, but also of questioning and reverie.
. . The template of Vernes great novels is a fusing of myth and the real a new, modern, awestruck apprehension of the manmade and the natural a dreamyet sometimes nightmareof the possibilities of mankind, technology and the sublime.
” From the introduction by Tim Farrant

As I was reading Journey to the Center of the Earth, I kept thinking to myself about those Victorian Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, and Europeans of all stripes, who were feeling the thrill of adventure as they sat in their favorite reading chairs and cracked open the latest scientific thriller from Jules Verne.
This particular book was first published in, The Civil War in America was still raging to its bloody conclusion, and Im sure there were many Americans of means who couldnt wait to escape to wherever Jules Verne was willing to take them.


The Victorian age was an age of discovery, Men were tramping to the deepest heart of Africa, to the highest peaks in Tibet, and courting death in the Sahara Desert, all in an attempt to be the first to discover something.
Nothing, of course, existed until a white man laid eyes on it, These days, nothing has been seen unless one has taken a selfie with it, Believe me, the great Victorian explorers would have loved to travel with an iPhone X to faithfully record all of their feats of valor and chronicle the dark mysteries they unraveled.


No one better exemplifies the Victorian explorer than the radical geologist, Dr, Otto Lidenbrock, who suffers strongly from an incurable case of bibliomania, He has discovered a pamphlet, hidden within another wonderful literary acquisition, a runic text written by an Icelandic writer that proposes that the center of the earth is not a fiery ball of flame, but a hidden world of wonders.
He proposes to his nephew that they leave for Iceland immediately and begin a descent into the extinct volcano Snaefell, Axel, a much more cautious person than his uncle, would much rather laze about in his uncles study, sucking on his hookah and contemplating exactly how he is going to win the permanent affections of his uncles beautiful, young

ward, Gräuben.


Of course, if his uncle dashes off to Iceland and becomes incinerated in the fiery hells of the Earth, it will hardly endear himself to the young lady.


Axel soon finds himself reluctantly caught up in his uncles mad adventure, With the help of their Icelandic guide, they descend into what Axel feels will be certain death,

Jules Verne writes with verve:
”The rain is like a roaring cataract between us and the horizons to which we are madly rushing, But before it reaches us, the cloud curtain tears apart and reveals the boiling sea and now the electricity, disengaged by the chemical action in the upper cloudations networks of vivid lightnings ceaseless detonations masses of incandescent vapour hailstones, like a fiery shower, rattling among our tools and firearms.
The heaving waves look like craters full of interior fire, every crevice darting a little tongue of flame, ”

What made Verne so popular with readers during the later part of theth century was his gift for blending known facts with his very plausible flights of fancy.
He must have subscribed to every scientific journal available at the time, and any article could prove to be the basis for his next book, The plausibility is such a key element because the armchair traveler he was taking along with him must be able to see himself in the midst of the action, A grocer dreaming of a life beyond potatoes and tomatoes, too, could descend into the bowels of the earth and hopefully return with a tale worth telling,

Next book in this Everymans collection is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, one of my all time favorite Verne stories, I will definitely be rereading that one,

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