December's Bookshelf by the Sea

_{Cover photo taken by Ella Zurlo '26} 

Going Beneath the Surface of a Jules Verne Classic: A Review

Written by Leon Stanley '25 

On its surface, Jules Verne’s 1867 novel A Journey to the Center of the Earth is precisely what the title suggests. Written to resemble a travel journal, the book documents three explorers’ slow descent through the earth’s core, encountering the fantastical and harrowing along the way. However, it isn’t the plot that hooked me as much as it was its hilarious writing and unintended horror elements. 

In its time Verne’s prose was utilitarian, relaying exactly what it needed, no frills. The English language, however, has evolved a lot in 150 years, and what once was mundane I found consistently charming. I will never not be entertained when I find sentences such as “I get cramps when I don’t work out,” 19^th century-ified into “I should have a violent attack of the cramp if I were not to have some sort of exercise.” Although shallow, this novelty carried me through a good amount of the book. 

This isn’t to say that Journey is badly written. At its core, it is pulp designed to be entertaining, and at that it succeeds in spades. I was consistently invested in whichever near-death experience our protagonist Henry had gotten into at any given time. The plot is constructed in such a way that despite his wish at every turn to go back, he is consistently ushered downwards. Although this is largely here to keep the plot moving, I began to empathize with him, and once one does, the plot takes a much darker tone. I would be interested to read a version of the story centered more intentionally on his perspective. 

Despite its prestigious reputation, A Journey to the Center of the Earth is cheap, readable fun. I would highly recommend it. 

4/5 Waves!

Leon Stanley ’25 is a day student from Marion, Massachusetts. Out of the classroom, he participates in the fall drama, the musical, and is senior editor of Bowsprit. His “comfort” genre is science fiction. When asked about the best text he’s read for/in a Tabor English class thus far, Stanley answers, “This may be recency bias, but I really loved Frankenstein.” Fun fact: his favorite word is “imbibe.”