I.
INTRODUCTION
This novel is about the
quest to the centre of the earth. The expedition is led by Professor Otto
Liedenbrock and includes Axel and their Icelandic guide Hans. Liedenbrock
stumbles upon this discovery when he was going through a runic script. In the
runic script he discovers a coded message written by an Icelandic alchemist
Arne Saknussemm, saying that he has been to the centre of the earth. He goes on
to describe how exactly he did it. So Professor Otto Liedenbrock, Axel, and
Hans go to Sneffels where they are let down by cloudy skies. But on the last
day the sun comes out and they enter the correct crater.
Jules Verne was born in
France (1828) and died (1905), spending his life writing many books. After his
first book was published in 1863, he devoted his life to writing. Verne had no
formal training in science. His passion was geography; everything else he
learned from his reading, which included about fifteen newspapers a day. He
took voluminous notes giving him a good sense of the emerging knowledge in many
fields. He was very modest about his ability to predict inventions, saying he
only extended what was already happening at the time.