Gisella's School

Book Report

1/30/2026

Journey to the Center of the Earth is a classic science fiction novel written by Jules Verne. This book was first published in French in 1864, and then in English in 1871. It’s more than 150 years old and is still a very interesting read.

Journey to the Center of the Earth is the story of Professor Liedenbrock and his nephew Axel. The inciting incident of the story is when Professor Liedenbrock finds a coded note on a runic manuscript. When Professor Liedenbrock and Axel decipher this 16^th-century code, they found a secret, information about a volcanic tube in a mountain of Iceland that goes to the center of the earth. That’s how their adventure begins.

The story has three major characters, professor Liedenbrock, his nephew Axel, and a servant named Hans, who accompanied them in their journey. The story has first-person narration, narrated by Axel. The paperback edition of this book has a total of 240 pages, and could be finished within a week, considering by an average reader. The language is simple.

What I liked about Journey to the Center of the Earth, was the scientific concepts Jules Verne used to write the story. The scientific details and arguments are so persuasive that, for once, I even believed that the story is based on real eventsand it is possible to travel to the center of the earth. Well, of course, it’s not possible.

I loved the way Jules Verne started the story, a coded message in an ancient language found in an ancient book that shows them the path to the center of the planet. This really made it more exciting. I think ancient things always make a story more interesting.

The second half of the book is also very adventurous, because Professor Liedenbrock and Axel discover dinosaur like ancient animals, face life-threatening dangers, and even lost each other in the story. This is where I found the real fun of reading this. Each and every place that was described in the book made me feel as if I was there with them.

The characters are well designed with their specific weaknesses. For example, Professor Liedenbrock had this weakness: he was very impatient, stubborn, and short-tempered. However, the characters are not so realistic. You can’t expect an aged professor to climb miles down the earth smoothly with the help of ropes. The character of Hans was also unrealistic in the sense that he was emotionless, with no fear, no excitement, no happiness, even though he was going to the center of the earth. It seemed as if Hans had already been to the center several times before. In addition, the first half of the book is somewhat slow and contains unnecessary details; it would have been better if it was written in a condensed form.

But The Journey to the Center of the Earth was written in the 1860s, and for that time, writing this type of story is really unbelievable. The book was certainly ahead of its time. You will love this book if you are especially interested in geology, biology, and physics. But, even if you are not interested in these subjects, you would still find it interesting because of all the adventure.

This evergreen book can be read by children as well as adults. I would recommend this book if you want to read a captivating science-fiction novel or an adventurous book.