French Science Fiction Novels (Book Guide) - A Journey to the Center of the Earth, Facing the Flag, the Begum's Fortune (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Commentary (novels not included). Pages: 25. Chapters: A Journey to the Center of the Earth, Facing the Flag, The Begum's Fortune, From the Earth to the Moon, Off on a Comet, Robur the Conqueror, Paris in the Twentieth Century, Le Vingtieme siecle. La vie electrique, Planet of the Apes, Around the Moon, The Future Eve, Master of the World, The Ice People, The Possibility of an Island, The Chase of the Golden Meteor, Force ennemie, Ravage, Une rose au paradis, Oms en serie, Niourk, A Sentient Animal, Quinzinzinzili, Nous les martiens. Excerpt: A Journey to the Center of the Earth (French: , also translated under the titles Journey to the Centre of the Earth and A Journey to the Interior of the Earth) is a classic 1864 science fiction novel by Jules Verne. The story involves a German professor (Otto Lidenbrock in the original French, Professor Von Hardwigg in the most common English translation) who believes there are volcanic tubes going toward the center of the Earth. He, his nephew Axel (Harry), and their guide Hans encounter many adventures, including prehistoric animals and natural hazards, eventually coming to the surface again in southern Italy. From a scientific point of view, this story has not aged quite as well as other Verne stories, since most of his ideas about what the interior of the Earth contains have since been soundly refuted. However, a redeeming point to the story is Verne's own belief, told within the novel from the viewpoint of a character, that the inside of the Earth does indeed differ from that which the characters anticipate. One of Verne's main ideas with his stories was also to educate the readers, and by placing the different extinct creatures the characters meet in their correct geological era, he is able to show how the world looked a long time ago, stretching from the ice age to the dinosaurs. One English...