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  • 7/28/2019 Journey to the Center of the Earth eBook

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    J ourney to the Center of the EarthEbook

    You can download from the link below.

    http://theproductguide.net/books/J ourney-to-the-Center-of-theEarth/

    ourney to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offersuality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtfulesign, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features ofBarnes & Noble

    Classics:

    New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholarsBiographies of the authorsChronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural eventsFootnotes and endnotesSelective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and filmsinspired by the workComments by other famous authorsStudy questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectationsBibliographies for further readingIndices & Glossaries, when appropriate

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    All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of histonterest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences-biographical, historical, and literarynrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.

    Wildly popular, prolific and prophetic, Jules Verne leads his legions of delighted readers on journeys beneath the snd beyond the stars. Here, the grandfather of modern science fiction takes us to the Earth's core. The quest begins

    when irascible but dedicated mineralogy professor Otto Lidenbrock finds a centuries-old parchment inside an evenlder book. His nephew Axel decodes it, and discovers instructions on how to get to the center of the Earth: "Go dnto the crater of Snaefells Yocul," an extinct Icelandic volcano. As they descend, the explorers also travel backwar

    he past, through layers of human history and geologic time, encountering prehistoric plants and animals andltimately coming to understand the origins of humanity itself.

    hough brimming with exciting exploits, this journey is also metaphorical-a spiritual and psychological trip to theenter of the human soul. While many of Verne's scientific speculations have been proven, it is this author'semarkable ability to fashion a rousing tale full of compelling characters, extraordinary adventures, and provocativedeas that ensures he will be read for years to come.

    New original illustrations by Rachel Perkins.

    Ursula K. Heise is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Stanford University. She has published a boChronoschisms: Time, Narrative, and Postmodernism (1997), and numerous articles on contemporary American an

    uropean literature in its relation to science, ecology and new media.

    About The AuthorUrsula K. Heise is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Stanford University. She has published

    book, Chronoschisms: Time, Narrative, and Postmodernism (1997), and numerous articles on contemporaryAmerican and European literature in its relation to science, ecology and new media.

    Biography

    he creator of the roman scientifique, the popular literary genre known today as science fiction, Jules Gabriel Vwas born in the port town of Nantes, France, in 1828. His father, Pierre, was a prominent lawyer, and his mothSophie, was from a successful ship-building family. Despite his father's wish that he pursue law, young J ules wfascinated by the sea and all things foreign and adventurous. Legend holds that at age eleven he ran away froschool to work aboard a ship bound for the West Indies but was caught by his father shortly after leaving por

    ules developed an abiding love of science and language from a young age. He studied geology, Latin, and Grn secondary school, and frequently visited factories, where he observed the workings of industrial machines. Th

    visits likely inspired his desire for scientific plausibility in his writing and perhaps informed his depictions of thsubmarine Nautilus and the other seemingly fantastical inventions he described.

    After completing secondary school, Jules studied law in Paris, as his father had before him. However, during the tw

    ears he spent earning his degree, he developed more consuming interests. Through family connections, he enteredarisian literary circles and met many of the distinguished writers of the day. Inspired in particular by novelists VicHugo and Alexandre Dumas (father and son), Verne began writing his own works. His poetry, plays, and short fictchieved moderate success, and in 1852 he became secretary of the Thtre lyrique. In 1857 he married Honor

    Morel, a young widow with two children. Seeking greater financial security, he took a position as a stockbroker wihe Paris firm Eggly and Company. However, he reserved his mornings for writing. Baudelaire's recently publishedrench translation of the works of Edgar Allan Poe, as well as the days Verne spent researching points of science i

    he library, inspired him to write a new sort of novel: the roman scientifique. His first such novel, Five Weeks in aalloon, was an immediate success and earned him a publishing contract with the important editor Pierre-Jules Het

    or the rest of his life, Verne published an average of two novels a year; the fifty-four volumes published during h

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    fetime, collectively known as Voyages Extraordinaires, include his best-known works,Around the World in EighDays and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Begun in 1865 and published to huge success in 1869, TwentyThousand Leagues has been translated into 147 languages and adapted into dozens of films. The novel also holds thistinction of describing a submarine twenty-five years before one was actually constructed. As a tribute to Verne, rst electric and nuclear submarines were named Nautilus. In 1872 Verne settled in Amiens with his family. During

    he next several years he traveled extensively on his yachts, visiting such locales as North Africa, Gibraltar, Scotlannd Ireland. In 1886 Verne's mentally ill nephew shot him in the leg, and the author was lame thereafter. This incids well as the tumultuous political climate in Europe, marked a change in Verne's perspective on science, exploratind industry. Although not as popular as his early novels, Verne's later works are in many ways as prescient. Touc

    n such subjects as the ill effects of the oil industry, the negative influence of missionaries in the South Seas, and txtinction of animal species, they speak to concerns that remain urgent in our own time.

    Verne continued writing actively throughout his life, despite failing health, the loss of family members, and financiroubles. At his death in 1905 his desk drawers contained the manuscripts of several new novels. Jules Verne is burn the Madeleine Cemetery in Amiens.

    uthor biography from the Barnes & Noble Classics edition ofTwenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

    Good To Know

    n 1848, Verne got his start writing librettos for operettas.

    When Verne's father found out that his son would rather write than study law, he cut him off financially, andules was forced to support himself as a stockbroker -- a job he hated but was fairly good at. During this period, heought advice and inspiration from authors Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo.

    Verne stands as the most translated novelist in the world -- 148 languages, according to UNESCO statistics.

    ReviewsIn this fully dramatized adaptation of J ules Verne's classic, J ourney to the Center of the Earth, Leonard Nimo

    ohn de Lancie, and cast members from Star Trek feature films and all four TV series take you on an incredourney. Journey to the Center of the Earth is the story of Professor Lindenbrock, his nephew Axel and their qufor the secrets contained at the earth's core. Led by Hans, their Icelandic guide, Lindenbrock and Axel descen

    eeper into the planet than anyone has ever gone before...but will they make it back to the surface alive? Featuvirtuoso performaces from the entire cast, riveting sound effects and original music, Alien Voices' production o

    J ourney to the Center of the Earth is an adventure in sound.

    his book was written very well.I am a very big fan of Jules Verne so if you are you better read this book.It was vexciting and filled with suspense.I believe this is one of his best novels.Time travel has always been fantasized but

    Vernes brings it to life!This was a great book.

    f you have read other reviews of this book you noticed that some people find it repugnant and others delightful. Ths a book for those who truly love to read and who are truly eager to learn. It is best to describe a book in a sentencwo if possible, so here's my try at it: Upon discovering a remarkable map, the nervous Henry and his eccentric Uncre off to Iceland, where the ancient map leads them to a dormant volcano that witholds the path to the center of tharth. Along with them is their guide, Hans, who, being always calm and cool, leads them imperterbably through fief diamonds, underground animal habitats, and dangerous encounters. The reader soon finds, along with thentertaining characters, that successfully descending to the earths center will not be as difficult as ascending back tohe earth's crust! Again, don't bother reading this book if your attention span is minimal, Jules Verne does sometim

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    et pedantic! That is why I have given this book four stars. It really is a shame to waste 12 dollars, so I ask that yoresponsible reader and know your interests. If scientific things are not for you than find something else. If your a

    cience-fiction reader, you know that sometimes the author lavishes you with details. So there, I hope this is helpfu

    his book is about a professor who finds strange documents that say and prove that going to the center of the Earthossible. The professor wastes no time and journeys to Iceland's greatest mountain, where the document says there

    assage to the center of the Earth. The professor drags along his nephew and hires a mountain guide.

    he author catches your interest and keeps it. His writing is effective but some of the sections in the book are hard ead because of the difficult vocabulary. The strength of this book is it's true facts such as the many mineralsntroduced. I found this book dull at some parts but very interesting and adventurous in other parts. I recommend thook to people that love science and suspense. This book is the type of book where you have to like science to be ao follow it. Because of the difficult vocabulary, I would say that 7th graders on up should read this wonderful book

    he book left questions in my head such as: Can you possibly reach the center of the Earth? This is theoretically noossible, but is still fun to think about. All in all, it was wonderful to read.

    Read An Excerptrom Ursula Heise's Introduction toJourney to the Center of the Earth

    raveling to the center of the Earth would involve a downward trip of about 4,000 miles that would cut through thearth's crust and its mostly solid, rocky mantle into a liquid core of iron alloy, then end at a solid inner core of ironnd nickel. Pressure and temperature would rise with increasing depth, and temperatures would reach about 10,300egrees Fahrenheit at the Earth's center-hardly a climate that many geo-tourists would enjoy! Much of this knowlebout the geophysical structure of the Earth was acquired in the course of the twentieth century, long after Jules VeublishedJourney to the Center of the Earth. In 1864, when the book appeared, different hypotheses about the natuf the Earth competed with each other. Even then, though, in light of any of the contemporary scientific theories, aourney to the Earth's core belonged to the realm of the fantastic. Why then did Verne, who was intensely interestedhe science and technology of his day, choose this idea as the founding assumption of what was to become one of h

    most famous novels? And why is this journey undertaken not by a dreamer or a madman, but by a hard-core scienprofessor of mineralogy and geology who is thoroughly familiar with the scientific debates of his time?

    or a reader who first encountersJourney to the Center of the Earth at the beginning of the twenty-first century, thnthusiasm of Professor Otto Lidenbrock, his nephew Axel, and even Lidenbrock's goddaughter Graben for

    mineralogical specimens and geological theories may seem nothing short of eccentric. After Alfred Wegener's theorontinental drift-originally proposed in the 1920s-had been generally accepted in the 1960s, geology disappeared fublic awareness as a science that could bring about exciting new discoveries and theories. But in the middle of theineteenth century, geology was a brand-new branch of knowledge rife with the opposing theories and opinions ofome of the best minds of the day. Far from being an arcane branch of scientific knowledge of mostly academicnterest, it touched upon the most basic questions of the origin of life and human beings and the nature of the very hey walk upon. Not just scholars but public and religious authorities believed they had a vital stake in the outcomeeological controversies.

    As a scientific discipline, geology had in fact only come into being in the first half of the nineteenth century. Beforhat, mineralogists had been just about the only scientists to study the inanimate environment, conducting their

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    nvestigation of the Earth most frequently in the context of French and German mining schools. Their study consistf a mix of natural philosophy, theology, and the beginnings of empirical observation, without the benefit of anstablished academic framework. Abraham Gottlob Werner, a German professor at the Mining School of Freiberg ihe late eighteenth century, combined the study of rock formations with the biblical account of Genesis. The Scottisaturalist, chemist, and geologist James Hutton opposed Werner's theories and grounded his own account of theevelopment of the Earth on observable processes and on the principle of uniformitarianism-that is, the idea that throcesses that had gone into the shaping of the Earth over immensely long periods of time had not fundamentallyhanged and could still account for geological development. Hutton's work was followed by that of Scottish geolog

    Charles Lyell, whose classic bookPrinciples of Geology, published in 1830, laid down the foundations of a new,

    mpirically based science of the Earth.

    ut the Earth is so vast and all-encompassing that it often appeared complicated to infer its general operatingrinciples from the processess observable in one particular place. Indeed, huge areas of geology-the 70 percent of tarth's surface that is under water, as well as its interior-are simply inaccessible to direct human observation. (Lyelnce joked that an amphibious observer who could inhabit both land and sea would be a more suitable geologist thuman being.) For these reasons, divergent theories about the nature of the Earth continued to rage throughout theineteenth century. While some scholars argued that the interior of the Earth had to be mostly liquid, with the solidround a mere thin crust not unlike ice on lake water, others replied that on mathematical grounds the Earth could ne anything but for the most part solid. The age of the Earth was similarly subject to vastly divergent estimations, ahis issue became part of the violent controversy over Darwin's theory of evolution in the 1850s and 1860s. Biolog

    volution occurs over immense periods of time, and in general, the development of the physical structure of the Eaver hundreds of thousands or even millions of years contradicts creationist accounts of a much shorter time span fhe origins of the Earth.

    n Verne's day, therefore, geological theories about the origin and gradual shaping of the Earth, along with biologicnsights into the evolution of life, were what genetic engineering and nanotechnology are for us today: innovative axciting areas of scientific research that have a profound bearing on the way we think about our own identity andxperience our everyday lives. Verne's familiarity with these debates shows up in every chapter ofJourney to the

    Center of the Earth, which abounds in references to the leading scientific minds of his day, from naturalists andeologists such as Georges Cuvier to explorers such as Alexander von Humboldt and archaeologists such as Jacqueoucher de Perthes. Caught up in the evolving plot, a contemporary reader's attention might easily slide over such

    eferences unawares. But their presence is the equivalent of mentions of James Watson and Francis Crick, Stephen

    Hawking, or Bill Gates in a novel written today.

    You can download from the link below

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