Just Finished Reading: A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

When Professor Von Hardwigg (for some reason renamed Oliver Lindenbrook in the 1959 movie adaptation and played by James Mason) discovers a secret message in a recent book purchase it leads him and his nephew (played by Pat Boone – yes honestly!) to the extinct Icelandic volcano of Mt Sneffels. There they discover a shaft reputed to lead to the very centre of the Earth itself! Accompanied by their trusty guide Hans (played by Peter Ronsen – an actual Icelandic citizen!) they begin their perilous journey never knowing if the Saknussemm letter was a hoax or if the ancient explorer had actually reached the amazing depths he claimed.

This is only my second Verne book and, again, I was impressed by the readability of this novel despite its age and the fact that it was translated from the original French. Other things of course surprised me rather more however. For one thing the book was vastly different from the only movie version I had seen. Apart from various name changes the number of characters in the book was simply 3 – if you don’t count the love interest back home or the Professors housekeeper. The film, it seemed, seethed with characters including a sub-plot of Arnie Saknussemm’s descendent attempting to be the first to the centre by any means possible. Also, despite a comparatively short length of 250 pages it took in the region of 75 pages just to get to Iceland!

Something that really stuck in my mind – and honestly intrigued me – was the throw-away line of the expectation of seeing British and French gunboats in Reykjavik harbour yet being disappointed that they were at sea protecting the whaling fleets. From what or who I thought? Written in 1864 it would, of course, have been contemporary with the American Civil War and his readers of that time would probably have known that Confederate Commerce raiders operated on this side of the Atlantic and that the Icelandic whaling fleet would have been a prime target – which I frankly found fascinating! Somewhat less fascinating, and radically incorrect for obvious reasons, was the regular speculation and theorising by the Professor in particular regarding the history of the Earth as they passed through various types of rock and when they, much later, encountered various ‘prehistoric’ creatures. Considering that this was only published a mere 5 years after Origin of Species it is hardly surprising that Verne got much of his science dead wrong. But you can gloss over those bits or, like me, read them as bits of the history of science rather than anything integral to the novel itself.

When all is said and done this was an interesting read rather than an enjoyable one. Page after page of three people (one of whom barely spoke) trudging through endless miles of caverns hardly makes for gripping reading – which is why the movie injected some extra drama no doubt. It is however interesting from the history of ideas point of view and is well written enough for the story to flow at a reasonable enough pace to keep the reader engaged. There will definitely be more Verne to come!