Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (english reading book .txt) ๐
Description
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.
Read free book ยซJourney to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (english reading book .txt) ๐ยป - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
- Author: Jules Verne
Read book online ยซJourney to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (english reading book .txt) ๐ยป. Author - Jules Verne
I waited a few minutes. No Professor came. Never within my remembrance had he missed the important ceremonial of dinner. And yet what a good dinner it was! There was parsley soup, an omelette of ham garnished with spiced sorrel, a fillet of veal with compote of prunes; for dessert, crystallised fruit; the whole washed down with sweet Moselle.
All this my uncle was going to sacrifice to a bit of old parchment. As an affectionate and attentive nephew I considered it my duty to eat for him as well as for myself, which I did conscientiously.
โI have never known such a thing,โ said Martha. โM. Liedenbrock is not at table!โ
โWho could have believed it?โ I said, with my mouth full.
โSomething serious is going to happen,โ said the servant, shaking her head.
My opinion was, that nothing more serious would happen than an awful scene when my uncle should have discovered that his dinner was devoured. I had come to the last of the fruit when a very loud voice tore me away from the pleasures of my dessert. With one spring I bounded out of the dining-room into the study.
III The Runic Writing Exercises the ProfessorโUndoubtedly it is Runic,โ said the Professor, bending his brows; โbut there is a secret in it, and I mean to discover the key.โ
A violent gesture finished the sentence.
โSit there,โ he added, holding out his fist towards the table. โSit there, and write.โ
I was seated in a trice.
โNow I will dictate to you every letter of our alphabet which corresponds with each of these Icelandic characters. We will see what that will give us. But, by St. Michael, if you should dare to deceive meโ โโ
The dictation commenced. I did my best. Every letter was given me one after the other, with the following remarkable result:
mฬ.rnlls esrevel seecIde sgtssmf vnteief niedrke kt,samn atrateS saodrrn emtnaeI nvaect rrilSa Atsaar .nvcrc ieaabs ccrmi eevtVl frAntv dt,iac oseibo KediiIWhen this work was ended my uncle tore the paper from me and examined it attentively for a long time.
โWhat does it all mean?โ he kept repeating mechanically.
Upon my honour I could not have enlightened him. Besides he did not ask me, and he went on talking to himself.
โThis is what is called a cryptogram, or cipher,โ he said, โin which letters are purposely thrown in confusion, which if properly arranged would reveal their sense. Only think that under this jargon there may lie concealed the clue to some great discovery!โ
As for me, I was of opinion that there was nothing at all, in it; though, of course, I took care not to say so.
Then the Professor took the book and the parchment, and diligently compared them together.
โThese two writings are not by the same hand,โ he said; โthe cipher is of later date than the book, an undoubted proof of which I see in a moment. The first letter is a double m, a letter which is not to be found in Turllesonโs book, and which was only added to the alphabet in the fourteenth century. Therefore there are two hundred years between the manuscript and the document.โ
I admitted that this was a strictly logical conclusion.
โI am therefore led to imagine,โ continued my uncle, โthat some possessor of this book wrote these mysterious letters. But who was that possessor? Is his name nowhere to be found in the manuscript?โ
My uncle raised his spectacles, took up a strong lens, and carefully examined the blank pages of the book. On the front of the second, the title-page, he noticed a sort of stain which looked like an ink blot. But in looking at it very closely he thought he could distinguish some half-effaced letters. My uncle at once fastened upon this as the centre of interest, and he laboured at that blot, until by the help of his microscope he ended by making out the following Runic characters which he read without difficulty.
โArne Saknussemm!โ he cried in triumph. โWhy that is the name of another Icelander, a savant of the sixteenth century, a celebrated alchemist!โ
I gazed at my uncle with satisfactory admiration.
โThose alchemists,โ he resumed, โAvicenna, Bacon, Lully, Paracelsus, were the real and only savants of their time. They made discoveries at which we are astonished. Has not this Saknussemm concealed under his cryptogram some surprising invention? It is so; it must be so!โ
The Professorโs imagination took fire at this hypothesis.
โNo doubt,โ I ventured to reply, โbut what interest would he have in thus hiding so marvellous a discovery?โ
โWhy? Why? How can I tell? Did not Galileo do the same by Saturn? We shall see. I will get at the secret of this document, and I will neither sleep nor eat until I have found it out.โ
My comment on this was a half-suppressed โOh!โ
โNor you either, Axel,โ he added.
โThe deuce!โ said I to myself; โthen it is lucky I have eaten two dinners today!โ
โFirst of all we must find out the key to this cipher; that cannot be difficult.โ
At these words I quickly raised my head; but my uncle went on soliloquising.
โThereโs nothing easier. In this document there are a hundred and thirty-two letters, viz., seventy-seven consonants and fifty-five vowels. This is the proportion found in southern languages, whilst northern tongues are much richer in consonants; therefore this is in a southern language.โ
These were very fair conclusions, I thought.
โBut what language is it?โ
Here I looked for a display of learning, but I met instead with profound analysis.
โThis Saknussemm,โ he went on, โwas a very well-informed man; now since he was not writing in his own mother tongue, he would naturally select that which was currently adopted by the choice spirits of the sixteenth century; I mean Latin. If I am mistaken, I can but try Spanish, French, Italian, Greek, or Hebrew. But the savants of the sixteenth century generally wrote in Latin. I am therefore entitled to pronounce this, a priori, to be Latin. It is Latin.โ
I
Comments (0)