Journey to the centre of the earth
(Book)

"Reading group guide": p. [197]-[199].

The intrepid Professor Lindenbrock embarks upon the strangest expedition of the nineteenth century: a journey down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the Earth₂s very core. In his quest to penetrate the planet₂s primordial secrets, the geologist₇together with his quaking nephew Axel and their devoted guide, Hans₇discovers an astonishing subterranean menagerie of prehistoric proportions. Verne₂s imaginative tale is at once the ultimate science fiction adventure and a reflection on the perfectibility of human understanding and the psychology of the questor. As David Brin notes in his Introduction, though Verne never knew the term ₃science fiction, ₄ Journey to the Centre of the Earth is ₃inarguably one of the wellsprings from which it all began.