Journey into the Interior of the Earth

The following version of Jules Verne's “Journey into the Interior of the Earth” was published by Ward, Lock, &Co., Ltd., London, in 1877. This version is believed to be the most faithful rendition into English of this classic currently in the public domain. The few notes of the translator are located near the point where they are referenced. The Runic characters in Chapter III are visible in the HTML version of the text. The character set is ISO-8891-1, mainly the Windows character set. The translation is by Frederick Amadeus Malleson.

While the translation is fairly literal, and Malleson (a clergyman) has taken pains with the scientific portions of the work and added the chapter headings, he has made some unfortunate emendations mainly concerning biblical references, and has added a few 'improvements' of his own, which are detailed below:

III. ‘pertubata seu inordinata, ’ as Euclid has it.”

XXX. cry, “Thalatta! thalatta!” the sea! the sea! The deeply indented shore was lined with a breadth of fine shining sand, softly

XXXII. hippopotamus. {as if the creator, pressed for time in the first hours of the world, had assembled several animals into one.} The colossal mastodon

XXXII. I return to the scriptural periods or ages of the world, conventionally called 'days,' long before the appearance of man when the unfinished world was as yet unfitted for his support. {I return to the biblical epochs of the creation, well in advance of the birth of man, when the incomplete earth was not yet sufficient for him.}

XXXVIII. (footnote) , and which is illustrated in the negro countenance and in the lowest savages.

XXXIX. of the geologic period . {antediluvian}

(These corrections have kindly been pointed out by Christian Sánchez <chvsanchezarnet.com.ar> of the Jules Verne Forum.)

Norman Wolcott

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Copyright © Zvi Har'El
$Date: 2007/12/27 13:04:45 $