Jules VERNE
Published: 2020-09-13
Total Pages: 273
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Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth is one of its author's most beloved works. Engaging the themes of space and time, geology, travel, and discovery, it is a fantastic fusion of science and adventure. This book is part of the series of novels titled Voyages Extraordinaires, which also includes Verne's classics Around the World in Eighty Days (1873) and Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (1870).Not much is known about the origins of the book. An early manuscript exists but remains in private hands, and there are no proofs. Verne's writing took place most likely between January and August of 1864. Unlike Verne's other works, Journey underwent a few revisions after its initial publication. In particular, significant portions of chapters 37-39 were added to the 1867 large-octavo edition to account for changes in the field of prehistory that occurred around 1865.Among Verne's sources and influences for the Journey were Dante's Inferno, Icelandic legends, Chateaubriand, Baudelaire, Virgil, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe, Alexandre Dumas, and Georges Sand. Some scholars have pointed to disturbing textual similarities with Sands' "Laura: Voyage dans le cristal" (Jan. 1864); Verne was also accused of plagiarism by a writer named Leon Delmas, who had written "La Tete de Mimers" under a pseudonym in September 1863 (though Verne won the suit). Beyond relying on these varied literary influences, Verne consulted many scientific texts for this novel as well.