Journey to the Centre of the Earth is a classic science fiction novel. It was originally published in French. The story is about a professor who leads his nephew and a guide down a volcano in Iceland to the 'centre of the Earth'. They encounter many adventures, including prehistoric animals and natural hazards before they come up to the surface again in southern Italy. From a scientific point of view, most of Verne's ideas about what the interior of the Earth contains have since been proven wrong. However, the story is interesting because of Verne's own belief, told within the novel from the viewpoint of a character, that the inside of the Earth does indeed differ from that which the characters expect to encounter. This classic of nineteenth century French literature has been praised for its style and its vision of the world. Professor Liedenbrock and his nephew Axel travel across Iceland, and then down through an extinct crater toward a sunless sea where they enter a world where the past is alive and they come face to face with the origins of man. This novel can also be read as an individual's search for meaning in life, for the journey itself is as important as arrival or discovery.
