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01 - My Uncle Makes a Great Discovery - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Journey to the Center of the Earth by Schilvern, Chapter one,
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  Speaker 1: My uncle makes a great discovery. Looking back to all
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  Speaker 1: that has occurred to me since that eventful day, I
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  Speaker 1: am scarcely able to believe in the reality of my adventures.
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  Speaker 1: They were truly so wonderful that even now I am
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  Speaker 1: bewildered when I think of them. My uncle was a German,
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  Speaker 1: having married my mother's sister, an englishwoman. Being very much
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  Speaker 1: attached to his fatherless nephew, he invited me to study
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  Speaker 1: under him in his home in the fatherland. This home
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  Speaker 1: was in a large town, and my uncle a professor
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  Speaker 1: of philosophy, chemistry, geology, mineralogy, and many other ologies. One day,
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  Speaker 1: after passing some hours in the laboratory, my uncle, being
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  Speaker 1: absent at the time, I suddenly felt the necessity of
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  Speaker 1: renovating the tissus. That is, I was hungry and was
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  Speaker 1: about to rouse up our old French cook, when my uncle,
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  Speaker 1: Professor von Hartwick, suddenly opened the street door and came
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  Speaker 1: rushing upstairs. Now, Professor Hartwig, my worthy uncle, is by
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  Speaker 1: no means a bad sort of man. He is, however,
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  Speaker 1: coleric and original. To bear with him means to obey
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  Speaker 1: and scarcely had his heavy feet resounded within our joint domisil.
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  Speaker 1: Then he shouted for me to attend upon him. Hurry, hurry, hurry.
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  Speaker 1: I hastened to obey, But before I could reach his room,
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  Speaker 1: jumping three steps at a time, he was stamping his
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  Speaker 1: right foot upon the landing. Hurry, he cried in a
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  Speaker 1: frantic tone. Are you coming up now? To tell the truth?
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  Speaker 1: At that moment, I was far more interested in the
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  Speaker 1: question as to what was to constitute our dinner than
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  Speaker 1: in any problem of science. To me, soup was more
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  Speaker 1: interesting than soda, an omelet more tempting than arithmetic, and
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  Speaker 1: an artichoke of ten times more value than any amount
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  Speaker 1: of asbestos. But my uncle was not a man to
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  Speaker 1: be kept waiting so adjourning. Therefore all minor questions I
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  Speaker 1: presented myself before him. He was a very learned man. Now,
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  Speaker 1: most persons in this category supply themselves with information, as
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  Speaker 1: peders do with goods for the benefit of others, and
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  Speaker 1: lay up stores in order to diffuse them abroad for
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  Speaker 1: the benefit of society in general. Not so my excellent uncle,
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  Speaker 1: Professor Hartwig. He studied, he consumed the midnight oil. He
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  Speaker 1: poured over heavy tomes and digested huge quartos and folios,
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  Speaker 1: in order to keep the knowledge acquired to himself. There
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  Speaker 1: was a reason, and it may be regarded as a
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  Speaker 1: good one, why my uncle objected to display his learning
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  Speaker 1: more than was absolutely necessary. He stammered, and, when intent
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  Speaker 1: upon explaining the phenomena of the heavens, was apt to
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  Speaker 1: find himself at fault and allude in such a vague
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  Speaker 1: way to sun, moon and stars, that few were able
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  Speaker 1: to comprehend his meaning to tell the honest truth. When
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  Speaker 1: the right word would not come, it was generally replaced
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  Speaker 1: by a very powerful adjective. In connection with the sciences,
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  Speaker 1: there are many almost unpronounceable names, names very much resembling
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  Speaker 1: those of Welsh villages, and my uncle, being very fond
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  Speaker 1: of using them, his habit of stammering was not thereby improved.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, there were periods in his discourse when he
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  Speaker 1: would finally give up and swallow his discomfiture in a
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  Speaker 1: glass of water. As I said, my uncle, Professor Hartwig
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  Speaker 1: was a very learned man, and I now add a
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  Speaker 1: most kind relative. I was bound to him by the
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  Speaker 1: double ties of affection and interest. I took deep interest
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  Speaker 1: in all his doings, and hoped some day to be
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  Speaker 1: almost as learned myself. It was a rare thing for
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  Speaker 1: me to be absent from his lectures. Like him, I
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  Speaker 1: preferred mineralogy to all the other sciences. My anxiety was
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  Speaker 1: to gain real knowledge of the earth. Geology and mineralogy
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  Speaker 1: were to us the sole objects of life, And in
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  Speaker 1: connection with these studies, many a fair specimen of stone, chalk,
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  Speaker 1: or metal did we break with our hammers, steel rods, loadstones,
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  Speaker 1: glass pipes, and bottles of various acids were oftener before
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  Speaker 1: us than our meals. My uncle Hartwig was once known
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  Speaker 1: to classify six hundred different geological specimens by their weight, hardness, fusibility, sound, taste,
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  Speaker 1: and smell. He corresponded with all the great learned and
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  Speaker 1: scientific men of the age. I was therefore in constant
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  Speaker 1: communication with, at all events the letters of Sir Humphry Davy,
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  Speaker 1: Captain Franklin, and other great men. But before I state
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  Speaker 1: the subject on which my uncle wished to confer with me,
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  Speaker 1: I must say a word about his personal appearance, alas
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  Speaker 1: my readers will see a very different portrait of him
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  Speaker 1: at the future time, after he has gone through the
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  Speaker 1: fearful adventures yet to be related. My uncle was fifty
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  Speaker 1: years old, tall, thin and wiry, large spectacles hid to
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  Speaker 1: a certain extent, is passed round and goggle eyes, while
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  Speaker 1: his nose was irreverently compared to a thin pile. So
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  Speaker 1: much indeed did it resemble that useful article that a
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  Speaker 1: compass was said in his presence to have made considerable
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  Speaker 1: n nasal deviation the truth being told. However, the only
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  Speaker 1: article really attracted to my uncle's nose was tobacco. Another
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  Speaker 1: peculiarity of his was that he always stepped the yard
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  Speaker 1: at a time, clenched his fists as if he were
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  Speaker 1: going to hit you, and was, when in one of
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  Speaker 1: his peculiar humors, very far from a pleasant companion. It
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  Speaker 1: is further necessary to observe that he lived in a
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  Speaker 1: very nice house in that very nice street, the kernig Strasse,
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  Speaker 1: at Hamburg. Though lying in the center of a town,
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  Speaker 1: it was perfectly rural in its aspect, half wood, half
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  Speaker 1: bricks with old fashioned gables, one of the few old
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  Speaker 1: houses spared by the great Fire of eighteen forty two.
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  Speaker 1: When I say a nice house, I mean a handsome house,
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  Speaker 1: old tottering and not exactly comfortable to English notions. A
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  Speaker 1: house a little of the perpendicular and inclined to fall
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  Speaker 1: into the neighboring canal, exactly the house for a wandering
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  Speaker 1: artist to depict, all the more that you could scarcely
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  Speaker 1: see it for ivy and a magnificent old tree which
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  Speaker 1: grew over the door. My uncle was rich. His house
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  Speaker 1: was his own property, while he had a considerable private income.
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  Speaker 1: To my notion, the best part of his possessions was
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  Speaker 1: his god daughter Gretchen, and the old cook, the young lady.
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  Speaker 1: The professor and I were the soul inhabitants. I love mineralogy,
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  Speaker 1: I loved geology. To me, there was nothing like pebbles.
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  Speaker 1: And if my uncle had been in a little less
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  Speaker 1: of a fury, we should have been the happiest of families.
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  Speaker 1: To prove the Excellent Hartwick's impatience, I solemnly declare that
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  Speaker 1: when the flowers in the drawing room pots began to grow,
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  Speaker 1: he rose every morning at four o'clock to make them
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  Speaker 1: grow quicker by pulling the leaves. Having described my uncle,
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  Speaker 1: I will now give an account of our interview. He
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  Speaker 1: received me in his study, a perfect museum containing every
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  Speaker 1: natural curiosity that can well be imagined. Minerals, however, predominating
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  Speaker 1: every one was familiar to me, having been cataloged by
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  Speaker 1: my own hand. My uncle, apparently oblivious of the fact
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  Speaker 1: that he had summoned me to his presence, was as
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  Speaker 1: in a book. He was particularly fond of early editions,
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  Speaker 1: tall copies, and unique works. Wonderful, he cried, tapping his forehead. Wonderful, wonderful.
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  Speaker 1: It was one of those yellow lead volumes now rarely
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  Speaker 1: found on stalls, and to me it appeared to possess
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  Speaker 1: but little value. My uncle, however, was in raptures. He
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  Speaker 1: admired its finding, the clearness of its characters, the ease
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  Speaker 1: with which it opened in his hand, and repeated aloud
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  Speaker 1: half a dozen times that it was very, very old.
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  Speaker 1: To my fancy, he was making a great fuss about nothing,
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  Speaker 1: but it was not my province to say so. On
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  Speaker 1: the contrary, I professed considerable interest in the subject and
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  Speaker 1: asked him what it was about. It is the high
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  Speaker 1: scringlows no retarless on, he said the celebrated Icelandic author
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  Speaker 1: of the twelfth century. It is a true and correct
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  Speaker 1: account of the Norwegian princess who reigned in Iceland. My
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  Speaker 1: next question related to the language in which it was written.
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  Speaker 1: I hoped, at all events it was translated into German.
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  Speaker 1: My uncle was indignant at the very thought, and declared
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  Speaker 1: he wouldn't give a penny for a translation. His delight
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  Speaker 1: was to have found the original work in the Icelandic tongue,
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  Speaker 1: which he declared to be one of the most magnificent
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  Speaker 1: and yet simple idioms in the world, while at the
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  Speaker 1: same time its grammatical combinations were the most varied known
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  Speaker 1: to students. About a Esars German was my insidious remark.
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  Speaker 1: My uncle shrugged his shoulders. The letters, at all events,
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  Speaker 1: I said, are rather difficult of comprehension. It is a
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  Speaker 1: Runic manuscript, the language of the original population of Iceland,
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  Speaker 1: invented by Odin himself, cried my uncle, angry at my ignorance.
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  Speaker 1: I was about to venture upon some misplaced yoke on
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  Speaker 1: the subject, when a small scrap of parchment fell out
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  Speaker 1: of the leaves, like a hungry man snatching at a
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  Speaker 1: morsel of bread. The professor seized it. It was about
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  Speaker 1: five inches by three and was scrawled over in the
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  Speaker 1: most extraordinary fashion. The lines shown here are an exact facsimila.
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  Speaker 1: What was written on the venerable piece of parchment, and
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  Speaker 1: have wonderful importance, as they induced my uncle to undertake
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  Speaker 1: the most wonderful series of adventures which ever fell to
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  Speaker 1: the lot of human beings. My uncle looked keenly at
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  Speaker 1: the document for some moments, and then declared that it
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  Speaker 1: was Runic. The letters were similar to those in the book,
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  Speaker 1: But then what did they mean? This was exactly what
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to know now, as I had a strong
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  Speaker 1: conviction that the Runic alphabet and dialect were simply an
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  Speaker 1: invention to mystify poor human nature. I was delighted to
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  Speaker 1: find that my uncle knew as much about the matter
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  Speaker 1: as I did, which was nothing at all. Events, the
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  Speaker 1: tremulous motion of his fingers made me think so, and
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  Speaker 1: yet he muttered to himself, it is old Icelandic. I
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  Speaker 1: am sure of it. And my uncle ought to have known,
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  Speaker 1: for he was a perfect polyglotictionary in himself. He did
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  Speaker 1: not pretend, like a certain learned pundit to speak the
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  Speaker 1: two thousand languages and four thousand idioms made use of
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  Speaker 1: in different parts of the globe. But he did know
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  Speaker 1: all the more important once. It is a matter of
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  Speaker 1: great doubt to me now to what violent measures my
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  Speaker 1: uncle's impetuosity might have led him, had not The clock
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  Speaker 1: struck two, and our old French cook called out to
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  Speaker 1: let us know that dinner was on the table. Mother
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  Speaker 1: the dinner, cried my uncle, but as I was hungry,
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  Speaker 1: I sallied forth to the dining room, where I took
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  Speaker 1: up my usual quarters. Out of politeness, I waited three minutes,
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  Speaker 1: but no sign of my uncle. The professor. I was surprised.
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  Speaker 1: He was not usually so blind to the pleasure of
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  Speaker 1: a good dinner. It was the acme of German luxury,
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  Speaker 1: parsley soup, a ham omelet with sorrel trimmings, an oyster
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  Speaker 1: of veal stewed with prunes, delicious fruit, and sparkling moselle.
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  Speaker 1: For the sake of pouring over this musty old piece
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  Speaker 1: of parchment, my uncle and forebore to share our meal.
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  Speaker 1: To satisfy my conscience, I ate for both. The old
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  Speaker 1: cook and housekeeper was nearly out of her mind after
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  Speaker 1: taking so much trouble to find her master not appear
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  Speaker 1: at dinner was to her a sad disappointment, which, as
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  Speaker 1: she occasionally watched the havoc I was making on the
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  Speaker 1: vines became also alarm if my uncle were to come
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  Speaker 1: to table after all. Suddenly, just as I had consumed
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  Speaker 1: the last apple and drank the last glass of wine,
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  Speaker 1: a terrible voice was heard at no great distance. It
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  Speaker 1: was my uncle, roaring for me to come to him.
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  Speaker 1: I made very nearly one leap of it, so loud,
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  Speaker 1: so fierce was his tone. End of Chapter one