Beneath the ash of an Icelandic volcano lies a passage to another world. When Professor Otto Lidenbrock deciphers a cryptic sixteenth-century manuscript, he and his reluctant nephew Axel set out for the crater of Snæfellsjökull—and descend, step by impossible step, into the Earth itself. What awaits them below is a marvel of the Victorian imagination: a subterranean ocean, luminous skies, giant mushrooms, and living relics of prehistory. Here presented in its COMPLETE, UNABRIDGED original text, this 1864 classic pairs Jules Verne's breathless adventure with a new introduction and reader's notes that illuminate the geology, paleontology, and scientific debates of Verne's age—and the daring of a novelist who let real science carry him to impossible places. Whether you are returning to a beloved favorite or descending for the first time, this edition invites you to follow the compass needle down. Part of The Founding Texts Library.