A Journey to the Center of the Earth

A Journey to the Centre of the Earth is the story of a secret expedition beneath the earth’s surface, down through geologic space and time to an imagined subterranean world. Narrated by Axel Lidenbrock, one of the three adventurers, it tells how he, Professor Otto Lidenbrock, and their guide, Hans Bjelke, descend the chimney of an extinct volcano near Reykjavik, Iceland, proceed to unknown regions, and then, miraculously, survive a volcanic eruption which shoots them to the surface again from the mouth of Mount Etna.

Excerpt:

But on entering this study now I thought of none of all these wonders; my uncle alone filled my thoughts. He had thrown himself into a velvet easy-chair, and was grasping between his hands a book over which he bent, pondering with intense admiration.

"Here's a remarkable book! What a wonderful book!" he was exclaiming.

These ejaculations brought to my mind the fact that my uncle was liable to occasional fits of bibliomania; but no old book had any value in his eyes unless it had the virtue of being nowhere else to be found, or, at any rate, of being illegible.

"Well, now; don't you see it yet? Why I have got a priceless treasure, that I found his morning, in rummaging in old Hevelius's shop, the Jew."

"Magnificent!" I replied, with a good imitation of enthusiasm.