Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (english reading book .txt) ๐
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A classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne, this work is one of the most well-known subterranean fictions to this day. It inspired many similar works and adaptations. First published in 1864 in French as Voyage au centre de la Terre, it was quickly translated to English by several different publishers in the 1870s. The current edition was based on the translation by Frederick Amadeus Malleson that was published by Ward Lock & Co Ltd. in 1877.
Our protagonist is Axel, whose overcautious and unadventurous spirit contrasts with that of his uncle Professor Otto Lidenbrock, an eccentric professor of geology. When Professor Lidenbrock obtains a mysterious runic-coded note in the manuscript of an Icelandic saga, he is determined to decipher it. Axel inadvertently solves the code and, much to his chagrin, discovers that it is a set of directions left by a sixteenth-century Icelandic alchemist to reach the center of the earth via the volcano Snรฆfelljรถkull. Reluctantly, Axel joins his uncle on a trip to Iceland, and with the aid of a local guide, Hans, begins an adventure towards the center of the earth, where they will encounter giant mushrooms and insects, an island with an enormous geyser, and battle pre-historic reptiles. One of Verneโs most well-known works, this novel is a testament to Verneโs love of geology, science, and cryptography.
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- Author: Jules Verne
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Decidedly, my uncle had answered every one of my objections. I saw that his position on the old parchment was impregnable. I therefore ceased to press him upon that part of the subject, and as above all things he must be convinced, I passed on to scientific objections, which in my opinion were far more serious.
โWell, then,โ I said, โI am forced to admit that Saknussemmโs sentence is clear, and leaves no room for doubt. I will even allow that the document bears every mark and evidence of authenticity. That learned philosopher did get to the bottom of Snรฆfells, he has seen the shadow of Scartaris touch the edge of the crater before the kalends of July; he may even have heard the legendary stories told in his day about that crater reaching to the centre of the world; but as for reaching it himself, as for performing the journey, and returning, if he ever went, I say noโ โhe never, never did that.โ
โNow for your reason?โ said my uncle ironically.
โAll the theories of science demonstrate such a feat to be impracticable.โ
โThe theories say that, do they?โ replied the Professor in the tone of a meek disciple. โOh! Unpleasant theories! How the theories will hinder us, wonโt they?โ
I saw that he was only laughing at me; but I went on all the same.
โYes; it is perfectly well known that the internal temperature rises one degree for every 70 feet in depth; now, admitting this proportion to be constant, and the radius of the earth being fifteen hundred leagues, there must be a temperature of 360,032 degrees at the centre of the earth. Therefore, all the substances that compose the body of this earth must exist there in a state of incandescent gas; for the metals that most resist the action of heat, gold, and platinum, and the hardest rocks, can never be either solid or liquid under such a temperature. I have therefore good reason for asking if it is possible to penetrate through such a medium.โ
โSo, Axel, it is the heat that troubles you?โ
โOf course it is. Were we to reach a depth of thirty miles we should have arrived at the limit of the terrestrial crust, for there the temperature will be more than 2,372 degrees.โ
โAre you afraid of being put into a state of fusion?โ
โI will leave you to decide that question,โ I answered rather sullenly. โThis is my decision,โ replied Professor Liedenbrock, putting on one of his grandest airs. โNeither you nor anybody else knows with any certainty what is going on in the interior of this globe, since not the twelve thousandth part of its radius is known; science is eminently perfectible; and every new theory is soon routed by a newer. Was it not always believed until Fourier that the temperature of the interplanetary spaces decreased perpetually? and is it not known at the present time that the greatest cold of the ethereal regions is never lower than 40 degrees below zero Fahr.? Why should it not be the same with the internal heat? Why should it not, at a certain depth, attain an impassable limit, instead of rising to such a point as to fuse the most infusible metals?โ
As my uncle was now taking his stand upon hypotheses, of course, there was nothing to be said.
โWell, I will tell you that true savants, amongst them Poisson, have demonstrated that if a heat of 360,000 degrees4 existed in the interior of the globe, the fiery gases arising from the fused matter would acquire an elastic force which the crust of the earth would be unable to resist, and that it would explode like the plates of a bursting boiler.โ
โThat is Poissonโs opinion, my uncle, nothing more.โ
โGranted. But it is likewise the creed adopted by other distinguished geologists, that the interior of the globe is neither gas nor water, nor any of the heaviest minerals known, for in none of these cases would the earth weigh what it does.โ
โOh, with figures you may prove anything!โ
โBut is it the same with facts! Is it not known that the number of volcanoes has diminished since the first days of creation? And if there is central heat may we not thence conclude that it is in process of diminution?โ
โMy good uncle, if you will enter into the legion of speculation, I can discuss the matter no longer.โ
โBut I have to tell you that the highest names have come to the support of my views. Do you remember a visit paid to me by the celebrated chemist, Humphry Davy, in 1825?โ
โNot at all, for I was not born until nineteen years afterwards.โ
โWell, Humphry Davy did call upon me on his way through Hamburg. We were long engaged in discussing, amongst other problems, the hypothesis of the liquid structure of the terrestrial nucleus. We were agreed that it could not be in a liquid state, for a reason which science has never been able to confute.โ
โWhat is that reason?โ I said, rather astonished.
โBecause this liquid mass would be subject, like the ocean, to the lunar attraction, and therefore twice every day there would be internal tides, which, upheaving the terrestrial crust, would cause periodical earthquakes!โ
โYet it is evident that the surface of the globe has been subject to the action of fire,โ I replied, โand it is quite reasonable to suppose that the external crust cooled down first, whilst
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