1865, the end of the war between the states, as well as the original publishing year for Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne.  I always thought it was ‘A Journey’, but it is not, so from here on out, don’t say it like that, you’ll be harshly corrected by not only me, but your conscience saying how much of an idiot you are for saying it wrong.

This was quite different from Wells’ The Time Machine, mostly due to the fact this was based around scientific theories of the day.  Knowing what I do about geology and the like, it was quite hard for me to suspend belief during certain parts of this adventure story.  Remembering though that any real understanding of what was going on beneath our feet was purely conjecture by even the brightest minds of the 1800′s, it became second nature to forgive Verne his flights of fancy.  In fact, the science part of this fiction was quite well thought out and when coupled with the knowledge of that decade, easily possible.

With that said, I was surprised by the momentum and pacing of the narrative.  A smallish 155 pages, I still expected a lot out of this classic, not to say I was disappointed, it was just different.  There was no happy ending, nor the culminating moment of revelation upon actually getting to the center of the Earth.  As stated in the title, this is a journey, which it truly was.  Our characters are three in number, Professor Lidenbrock, a savant and all around genius, Axel his nephew and an Icelandic hunter named Hans.  Axel is our narrator who relates these events to us some time after their happening.  Each character you learn to like and feel as though you have a good understanding of their motivations, but Hans remains stoic throughout the book, thus at the end when a single line of emotion is expressed, one can feel very strongly for the guardian of our adventurers.

Despite its exploratory nature, Journey is heavy in criticism towards the scientific thought of the time.  From my understanding of history, this was a period when scientists were celebrities and most were comfortable in the discoveries of the day, thinking not much else lay out there to be discovered.  Through Lidenbrock, Jules Verne criticizes such arrogant thinking, allowing his imagination to create a world largely rejected by ‘those in the know’.  I found this a delight, because I often find myself scoffing at ‘the learned’ when they go on about how smart they are.  It is utterly ludicrous to imagine that we have gained all the knowledge that the universe has to offer, no matter our advancements.  For this is the theme that I pulled from Vernes work.

As far as reading goes, it was not as enjoyable as The Time Machine, but my curiosity was greater, for the anxiety within me grew as our adventurers delved deeper into our planets heart.  At times there were lengths of description that I felt were unneeded, but over all Verne wrote with eloquence and in a like-able manner.  I would definitely suggest this book to anyone looking for a good adventure or classic sci-fi.  I will of course return to Verne in the near future, but thus far, Wells comes out crowned king as far as fathers of SF go.  But hey, it’s not a competition.