Works of Jules Verne/Introduction to Volume 2
INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME TWO
AVING won the attention of the public with "Five Weeks in a Balloon," Jules Verne wrote in rapid succession several truly masterly tales. Of these remarkable inventions of the human mind, "A Journey to the Center of the Earth" was the first to be completed in its present form. It was published in 1864, in a series of books by Verne, denominated "Voyages Extraordinaires." This series, started in that year by the publisher Hetzel, has been continued to the present time.
This particular "Voyage" has sometimes been declared our author's masterpiece. In it he for the first time gives free rein to that bold yet scientifically exact imagination whereby he has constructed for us in fancy the entire universe. There is nothing in all the daring visions of this tale which even to-day our scientists would declare impossible. The interior of the earth is still unknown; and there may well be rifts, passages, descending from extinct volcanoes and penetrating far within. There may well be huge cavities, bubbles left in the cooling mass, vast enough to harbor inland seas, and shelter many of the ancient forms of life now extinct upon earth's surface.
The main scientific objection to this, as indeed to most of the more fanciful of Verne's tales, lies in the extravagant means he employs to bring his explorers home again from their reckless ventures. But, as romance obviously demands their return somehow, science discreetly accepts in silence the astonishing accidents and coincidences whereby they escape the doom they have invited.
The other narrative included in the present volume, the first book of "The Adventures of Captain Hatteras," was also published by Hetzel in 1864, being begun even before the "Journey to the Center of the Earth" This vigorous Arctic tale was used to found and introduce a "Magazine of Adventure" which has been continued somewhat irregularly ever since. After the adventures, trials and triumphs of Captain Hatter as had been completed in another tale, the two were revised and republished; and they are here given in their later form.
The first book, "The English at the North Pole," contains an accurate picture of Arctic life and of the Arctic geography known to the world of 1864. The account of the Franklin expedition and of the persistent and heroic search for its relief is carefully studied and complete, only it necessarily fails to include the later investigations of the American expedition under Lieutenant Schwatka. These finally settled the last details of the historic tragedy.
In "The English at the North Pole" as in "Five Weeks in a Balloon" Verne invents little. Here, despite the misleading title, the characters do not penetrate beyond known bounds; and their experiences are just such as our author had read in his careful study of the books of the polar explorers. But these adventures are here made intense and living, and are woven by the born story-teller into a thrilling tale.