Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne [easy readers TXT] 📗

Journey to the Center of the Earth

By Jules Verne.

Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint I: The Professor and His Family II: A Mystery to Be Solved at Any Price III: The Runic Writing Exercises the Professor IV: The Enemy to Be Starved Into Submission V: Famine, Then Victory, Followed by Dismay VI: Exciting Discussions About an Unparalleled Enterprise VII: A Woman’s Courage VIII: Serious Preparations for Vertical Descent IX: Iceland! But What Next? X: Interesting Conversations with Icelandic Savants XI: A Guide Found to the Centre of the Earth XII: A Barren Land XIII: Hospitality Under the Arctic Circle XIV: But Arctics Can Be Inhospitable, Too XV: Snæfells at Last XVI: Boldly Down the Crater XVII: Vertical Descent XVIII: The Wonders of Terrestrial Depths XIX: Geological Studies In Situ XX: The First Signs of Distress XXI: Compassion Fuses the Professor’s Heart XXII: Total Failure of Water XXIII: Water Discovered XXIV: Well Said, Old Mole! Canst Thou Work i’ the Ground So Fast? XXV: De Profundis XXVI: The Worst Peril of All XXVII: Lost in the Bowels of the Earth XXVIII: The Rescue in the Whispering Gallery XXIX: Thalatta! Thalatta! XXX: A New Mare Internum XXXI: Preparations for a Voyage of Discovery XXXII: Wonders of the Deep XXXIII: A Battle of Monsters XXXIV: The Great Geyser XXXV: An Electric Storm XXXVI: Calm Philosophic Discussions XXXVII: The Liedenbrock Museum of Geology XXXVIII: The Professor in His Chair Again XXXIX: Forest Scenery Illuminated by Electricity XL: Preparations for Blasting a Passage to the Centre of the Earth XLI: The Great Explosion and the Rush Down Below XLII: Headlong Speed Upward Through the Horrors of Darkness XLIII: Shot Out of a Volcano at Last! XLIV: Sunny Lands in the Blue Mediterranean XLV: All’s Well That Ends Well Endnotes List of Illustrations Colophon Uncopyright Imprint

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I The Professor and His Family

On the 24th of May, 1863, my uncle, Professor Liedenbrock, rushed into his little house, No. 19 Königstrasse, one of the oldest streets in the oldest portion of the city of Hamburg.

Martha must have concluded that she was very much behindhand, for the dinner had only just been put into the oven.

“Well, now,” said I to myself, “if that most impatient of men is hungry, what a disturbance he will make!”

“M. Liedenbrock so soon!” cried poor Martha in great alarm, half opening the dining-room door.

“Yes, Martha; but very likely the dinner is not half cooked, for it is not two yet. Saint Michael’s clock has only just struck half-past one.”

“Then why has the master come home so soon?”

“Perhaps he will tell us that himself.”

“Here he is, Monsieur Axel; I will run and hide myself while you argue with him.”

And Martha retreated in safety into her own dominions.

I was left alone. But how was it possible for a man of my undecided turn of mind to argue successfully with so irascible a person as the Professor? With this persuasion I was hurrying away to my own little retreat upstairs, when the street door creaked upon its hinges; heavy feet made the whole flight of stairs to shake; and the master of the house, passing rapidly through the dining-room, threw himself in haste into his own sanctum.

But on his rapid way he had found time to fling his hazel stick into a corner, his rough broadbrim upon the table, and these few emphatic words at his nephew:

“Axel, follow me!”

I had scarcely had time to move when the Professor was again shouting after me:

“What! Have you not come yet?”

And I rushed into my redoubtable master’s study.

Otto Liedenbrock had no mischief in him, I willingly allow that; but unless he very considerably changes as he grows older, at the end he will be a most original character.

He was professor at the Johannæum, and was delivering a series of lectures on mineralogy, in the course of every one of which he broke into a passion once or twice at least. Not at all that he was overanxious about the improvement of his class, or about the degree of attention with which they listened to him, or the success which might eventually crown his labours. Such little matters of detail never troubled him much. His teaching was as the German philosophy calls it, “subjective”; it was to benefit himself, not others. He was a learned egotist. He was a well of science, and the pulleys worked uneasily when you wanted to draw anything out of it. In a word, he was a learned miser.

Germany has not a few professors of this sort.

To his misfortune, my uncle was not gifted with a sufficiently rapid utterance; not, to be sure, when he was talking at home, but certainly in his public delivery; this is a want much to