Journey To The Centre Of The Earth......

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mosaix

Shropshire, U.K.
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It was my 60th birthday in March (yes I really am that old). Someone got me a £50 book token. :)

I'd read all the H.G. Wells classic SF over the years but the books had been leant out or lost so I decided to buy the lot - The Invisible Man, The First Men In The Moon, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds and the Sleeper Awakes. But whilst I was in the shop I also bought Journey to The Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne.

I started reading it today and I'd forgotten how good it was. I can't recommend it too highly. It starts with the narrator and his uncle having to decypher a coded message and I just love codes and codebreaking.

Anyone else into the true SF 'classics'.
 
I've never read Journey To The Centre Of The Earth but I remember many moons ago reading 20 000 Leagues Under The Sea.

I'm also a lover of Wells' work - particularly War Of The Worlds.

You should get yourself a copy of Richard Mathieson's The Shrinking Man - another true classic:)
 
Yep I'm big fan of Wells and Verne and Center of the Earth is a masterly drawn piece of subterranean adventure.

I had read the Wells and Verne novels before but I recently accquired a handsomely bound collection edited and compiled by Ursual LeGuin featuring 26 short stories by HG Wells. Not as much seems to be known of his short stories but they're really excellent!!

Following this I happened to come across a DVD compilation (4 hours) of several of Wells stories produced by Hallmark Entertainment. It was most interesting comparing the original stories to the adapations and I think overall they did an excellent job. Highly recommended. I think the title was "The Strange Worlds Of HG Wells".
 
I've found many of the Verne book in Palm database form for free on the net. They make wonderful luch hour reads at work where I can't actually have a book (and it doesn't look like one). I've also caught quite a bit of Welles and ER Burroughs the same way. I have no guilt on similarly priced stuff for authors who can no longer get their cut.
 
The story is told by a lad named Axel who accompanies his uncle, Professor Lidenbrock. Axel has a fiance called Grauben.

The book was written in 1864 and there's a great line in Chapter 7 that would have had Verne linched if it was written in modern times.

Grauben: I would gladly come with you uncle and you, if it weren't that a girl would only be in the way.

LOL
 
Have always loved Verne and very recently re-read both 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. I read them back-to-back and the styles are absolutely different. It's almost as if two different people write them.

Captain Nemo is one of my favourite classics characters along with Herman Melville's Ahab. They are both amazing, complex portraits of men who have made a rather unique choice in life and who then go all out and give their everything to live it, irrespective of the consequences.

Am currently re-reading HG Wells' Time Machine so that I can read Stephen Baxter's sequel to it entitled The Time Ships.

The Island of Dr Moureau was frightening then and it is still frightening today despite everything else that has been written on the subject. It still manages to send shivers down my spine, especially now with all the advances that have been made in the field of genetics and the experiments in cloning.
 
HG Wells is one of my favourite authors - his short stories are amazing. As for Jules Verne, I didn't read Journey to the Centre of the Earth, but did read 20 000 Leagues and Captain Grant's Children. Enjoyed them a lot :]
 
Nesacat said:
Am currently re-reading HG Wells' Time Machine so that I can read Stephen Baxter's sequel to it entitled The Time Ships.
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AH...I was wondering what the latest on that was. Baxter certainly compares quite well to Wells in this novel I found.

Offtopic: That mammoth trilogy you mentioned isn't easy to track down in bookshops. Theyhave heaps of Baxter novels but not those. However I mangaed to get 1 of the 3 books from Borders. I could probably order them in but there's still the second hand bookshops to scour. Cheers...:)
 
I think the three oldest books I've read are H.G. Well's The Time Machine, and Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and A Journey to the Center or the Earth. The latter is by far my favorite, it's worldbuilding without our own planet and that's pretty cool. I would love to read something similar to this novel.
 
Yes , 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was and still is a great read. :cool:
 
I also like the 1959 film adaptation Journey to the Center of the Earth Not a pergfect rendering of the book but it does capture the sprit of Verbs novel very nicely. And I thought the Iguana's did a very good stand in job for Dimetrodons.:cool:
 
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Vince W said:
The one with Kirk Douglas? I've always loved that film. I think I need to watch it again soon. (y)
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The 1954 film is still the best adaptation of 20,000 Leagues . It had everything , The cast had, big Hollywood names like Kirk Douglass, and James Mason which for a science fiction film in that era of Hollywood was amazing in and of itself and ,the special effects and production values in that film were the best that could rendered at that time. And had it Richard Fleich who was a very good director. Its a great film and a true classic of the big screen. :cool:(y)
 
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