The story in one page
Professor Hardwigg, a man of aggressive intellectual rigor, cracks a runic code hidden in an ancient manuscript. The parchment describes a route to the Earth's center through a specific volcanic crater in Iceland. He drags his skeptical nephew Harry and a taciturn eider-duck hunter named Hans to the peak of Sneffels. They descend into the planetary crust, navigating coal mines, whispering galleries, and an internal sea teeming with prehistoric reptiles. After an electrical storm wrecks their raft, the trio is ejected through a volcanic shaft by rising magma. They arrive at the surface, though they initially struggle to reconcile their extraordinary findings with the rigid scientific consensus of the nineteenth century.
Who's who
- Professor Hardwigg
A choleric polymath who prioritizes geological discovery over his nephew's safety.
- Harry
The skeptical nephew and narrator who would prefer dinner to subterranean exploration.
- Hans
A practical Icelandic guide whose indifference to danger keeps the party alive.
- Arne Saknussemm
The 16th-century alchemist whose coded parchment serves as the expedition's map.
- Gretchen
The Professor's ward whose impending marriage motivates Harry to return home.
What it's really about
- Science as Will
- Hypotheses are treated as physical mandates regardless of personal peril.
- Deep Time
- Descent into the earth functions as a literal walk backward through history.
Why it's memorable
- A massive battle between a long-necked Plesiosaurus and a sharp-toothed Ichthyosaurus on the central sea.
- The explorers discovering a forest of giant mushrooms forty feet high in the Earth's interior.
The ending, explained
Spoilers — show the ending
The party is expelled from the Earth by a volcanic eruption in Sicily; back in Hamburg, Harry realizes a lightning storm had reversed their compass, explaining their navigational confusion.
For your book club
- Hardwigg's dismissal of 'central heat' theories based on his survival of the journey.
- The contrast between Harry's constant anxiety and Hans's mechanical, unflappable competence.