Free eBooks Journey To The Center Of The Earth Available To Downloads
Journey to the Center of the Earth is a classic 1864 science fiction novel by Jules Verne. The story involves German professor Otto Lidenbrock who believes there are volcanic tubes going toward the centre of the Earth. He, his nephew Axel, and their guide Hans descend into the Icelandic volcano Snæfellsjökull, encountering many adventures, including prehistoric animals and natural hazards, before eventually coming to the surface again in southern Italy, at the Stromboli volcano. From a scientific point of view, this story has not aged quite as well as other Verne stories, since most of his ideas about what the interior of the Earth contains have since been disproved, but it still manages to captivate audiences when regarded as a classic fantasy novel.
Paperback: 146 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (December 16, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1505573947
ISBN-13: 978-1505573947
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.3 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (683 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #45,545 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #62 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Classics #1528 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics
This kindle edition is based on the 1871 translation which slightly abridged and altered Verne's original (for example, the Professor is here named Hardwigg, rather than the original's Lidenbrock, and his niece is here named Gretchen rather than Grauben). That's probably the most generally known English translation (it's the one I read obsessively as a child), and it's still a great read, but sticklers for textual accuracy might want to do a little more searching. As to the novel itself, while unquestionably one of Verne's masterpieces in terms of story, it's probably the one that's aged the hardest of all Verne's works, and almost all of the science in this text has been exploded, modified, or simply changed by the intervening hundred and fifty-odd years of scientific development. Because Verne was in part intending this book to be a source of scientific education, the characters spend a lot of time talking about geology, archaeology, etc., to each other, and since most of that's outdated now, modern readers may want to skip over the more scientific chunks of the book and simply read it as an exploration tale. From that perspective, the most interesting thing about this book might be that it's arguably the progenitor of the "Lost Prehistoric World" genre, and readers who want more in that vein might want to look up later books that focused more squarely on modern-explorers-in-dinosaur-country stories, such as Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, or Edgar Rice Burrough's novel _The Land that Time Forgot_ or his _Pellucidar_ series (explicitly set in the hollow interior of the globe).
The free Journey to the Center of the Earth ebook is a very poor translation with a main character named Harry. The plot is butchered and the narrative is a mess. If you would like to shell out a couple of dollars and get a very good translation and a much better read, you should look in to the Literary Classics Collection version (Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Full Version (Illustrated and Annotated) (Literary Classics Collection)) or the SF Classic edition ( Journey to the Center of the Earth (Illustrated Collectors Edition) (Active Table of Contents) (New Translation) (53 Illustrations) (SF Classic) ). Regardless, the main characters in the "good" translation should be Axel and professor Lidenbrock.
This translation of the classic book is a very poor representation of the story.It is disjointed, hard to read, and altered by the translator.The grammar is terrible. The personalities don't fit. Entire chapters have been deleted by the translator, and other chapters have been entirely made up by the translator. And, some portions of the text appear to be transliterations, rather than conceptual translations. That renders some portions nearly unreadable.This translation is not a -bad- story, but there are other versions that are FAR better.The most fluid, flowing, and faithful English translation is that of Frederick Amadeus Malleson, titled "Journey to the Interior of the Earth" (or "A Journey Into the Interior of the Earth"). That should be no surprise, considering his translation was published in 1877, alongside the original French version.The Malleson translation is not currently available on , but can be found by following 's link to archive.org (on 's "Free eBook Collections" page).
Clearly, no care & attention was put in by the publishers when putting this version together. Aside from multiple formatting issues, awful & confusing placement of footnotes and more, they don't even manage to keep the main character's name consistent throughout the book! In one translation of this text, the character's name is Harry, in another, Henry. In this version, the character is mostly called Harry, but every now & then it switches for no apparent reason.Failing to even translate the character's names consistently within the same version shows massive disregard for both the text and the reader. It is saddening that a publisher would be so lazy.
Being that this science fiction work was written over 150 years ago and during a time when there was not the advanced technology we are acquainted with today I had in good conscience given the read its due in stars. I imagine it captured the imagination of the reader of the time and it would have been very entertaining. The author creates a plot which takes the reader down into the bowels of the earth and captures the adventure with all it's enthusiasm as well as the despair. Only three main characters were created, the staunch uncle who cannot be dissuaded in this venture, the hesitant and somewhat of a whiny wimpy sort of fellow and the hired hand so to speak, Hans who acts according to the wishes of the uncle and although he doesn't have much to say is most important to the story. The narrator is Harry, the nephew and it's through him we are given the details of the story. I have seen the visual production circa 1959 based on this work and between the book and movie, I would have to say the movie wins hands down and thank goodness for the screenwriter. I would recommend this read to those who enjoy this genre and hope that they would keep in mind the audience it was written to entertain in 1864 and be a bit flexible in their expectations.
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