Journey to the Centre of the Earth
This morning I was in a cave, and last week I (re)read Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth, written in 1864. I do love a bit of Jules Verne.
Note number one, it's really funny.
my uncle persevered, and told me, against my will, of many things I cared nothing about.
This is precisely the sort of style I like.
Note number two, it's really fun.
Fully a third of the book happens before they get underground. Forty percent. There's one chapter at the end of them being back out of the ground. (I also just read Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, which also doesn't kick off in the lost world until the forty percent mark. Around the World in 80 Days, on the other hand, gets them out the door extraordinarily quickly, which is all part of the fun.)
The plot is simple. Get a clue. Journey to the start of the clue. Find a guy. Climb down a volcano. Get lost, nearly die. Get lost again, nearly die again. Go on a raft and see some sea beasts fight. Storm. Nearly die. Find origin of clue. Nearly die. Escape. Denouement.
Does anyone have a character arc? Not really. Axel, the narrator, is a reluctant adventurer the whole way through. Professor Lidenbrock, his uncle, does not change, though Axel does learn new things about him. And the whole point of Hans is that he barely flinches, let alone changes. There's minimal 'agency'. They spend a lot of time lost and more or less accidentally making it though. They literally just ride the wave out of there. Lest it be unclear, these are all positives as far as I am concerned.
Solid advice:
“My opinion is,” I replied disdainfully, “that it is best not to explain it. That is the easiest way to shelve the difficulty.”
There have been some adaptations, I'm surprised there's not more. There's a legacy - The Lost World as already mentioned, many others, and is a notable entry to the subterranean fiction genre. The perfect version for me would have a few more adventurers and, naturally, ladies kissing.