Note: In
the course of reviewing this book, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is
enjoyed best if the reader discovers all of the subterranean wonders at the
same time the protagonists do. So the
potential reader should try and enter into this book knowing as little about
the story as possible. As I’m going to
discuss the story in this review, you should probably not read my review if you
still plan on reading the book.
Or in the
parlance of the Internet:
******SPOILERS
ALERT********
My History With This
Book
I actually read an abridged
version of this book (one of those children’s
classics editions) when I was about 10.
Even in the
abridged version, I remember parts of the book were a bit slow. A good deal of the book is just our
protagonists wandering around in caves and observing rock formations.
And yet,
despite it’s slow pace, the sheer imagination and wonder of the book made such
an impression on me that I still remember it 25 years later. Before reading the book, I had never given
any thought to what might be underneath the ground, and Verne’s ideas of
mushroom forests, a vast subterranean ocean, a whole ecosystem of prehistoric
life and battling giant sea-monsters, all fascinated me.
The fact
that modern science has not borne out Jules Verne’s imaginative subterranean
world does not diminish the wonder of the book.
It’s still fun to imagine a world in which all of this exists underneath
our feet, even if we know it’s pure fantasy.
For years
afterwards, I considered Journey to the
Center of the Earth to be one of my all-time favorite books, even though I
had never actually read the unabridged version.
Now that I’m an adult, a large portion of my reading list consists of
trying to read the official versions of classics that I’m already familiar with
thanks to children’s abridged versions. (I
suspect I’m not the only one.)
So, having
enjoyed Around the World in 80 Days,
I decided to continue on with Journey to
the Center of the Earth.
The Review
I’m probably overdue to re-read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea sometime,
because at this point all I can really remember about the book is that it bored
me once long ago.
A fellow
blogger, Age of Empire, however has
reviewed of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
[LINK HERE], and his review
largely confirms what little I remember—the book is light on plot, and very
heavy on infodumps, and a slog to get through.
So perhaps my own frustration with the book wasn’t solely due to my
childish reading inabilities after all.
Around the World in 80 Days, by
contrast, was a joy from start to finish, but I’m beginning to wonder if that
book was an exception.
Journey to the Center of the Earth can
be a bit of a slog to get through. The
whole beginning of the journey goes painfully slowly, and essentially you’re
about 2/3rds of the way through the book before the protagonists start to
discover anything remarkable.
Even here,
the ideas are often a lot more fascinating then their descriptions.
One scene
from the story that really imprinted itself on my mind as a child was the
battle between the Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus, but although the event
loomed large in my imagination for years afterwards, it only takes up a couple
pages in the actual book.
The
mushroom forest as well, although it’s captured the imagination of plenty of
illustrators throughout the past 150 years [SEE IMAGES HERE, HERE, HERE , HERE , HERE et cetera] also looms larger in the
imagination than it does on the page—Verne only gives it a short description (the mushroom forest only takes up a couple paragraphs).
The great
pleasure in this book is perhaps not so much in Verne’s storytelling abilities
(which could be wished improved), but instead in the ideas behind the prose.
I remember
as a child expecting to find the whole book to be about caves and
tunnels, and then being surprised and filled with wonder when the protagonists
encountered the mushroom forest, and then the underground ocean, and then yet
more fascinated still when prehistoric sea creatures turned out to populate
this underground ocean.
For that
reason, I think, this book is best enjoyed by those who have no clue what is
going to be discovered. (That is, if it
is even possible these days to read a classic book completely unspoiled.)
When I read
the abridged children’s version, I had that wonderful sense of awe. But re-reading the full version, the sense of
wonderment was gone.
Still, it
wasn’t all that bad to read the book again.
The book
does have a slow start, but on the plus side it’s a pretty short read (only 246
pages) so a little patience at the beginning is quickly rewarded, and the whole
book is finished before you know it.
Notes
* Fellow blogger Age
of Empire has reviewed this book as well on his site. [LINK HERE]
* I regret to say there’s at least one note of racism in
this book:
The
protagonists find an ancient human school, and the professor remarks that the
skull is of the white race. Jules Verne’s
footnote at the bottom of the page elaborates: “The facial angle is formed by tow lines; one touching the brow and the
front teeth, the other from the orifice of the ear to the lower line of the
nostrils. The greater this angle, the higher intelligence denoted by the formation
of the skull. Prognathism is that
projection of the jaw-bones which sharpens or lessons the angle, and which is
illustrated in the negro countenance and in the lowest savages.
* I actually ended up teaching this book to an ESL class
last term. But I’ll save my reflections
on teaching this book for the next post.
Stay tuned….
No comments:
Post a Comment