Journey to the Center of the Earth epitomizes the subterranean fiction genre. Author Jules Verne leads readers deep below the world's surface to the core of his inventive, visionary mind. An adventurous geology professor chances upon a manuscript in which a 16th-century explorer claims to have found a route to the earth's core. Professor Lidenbrock can't resist the opportunity to investigate, and with his nephew Axel, he sets off across Iceland in the company of Hans Bjelke, a native guide. The expedition descends into an extinct volcano toward a sunless sea, where they encounter a subterranean world of luminous rocks, antediluvian forests, and fantastic marine life - a living past that holds the secrets to the origins of human existence.
