An adventurous geology professor chances upon a manuscript in which a 16th-century explorer claims to have found a route to the earth’s core. Professor Lidenbrock can’t resist the opportunity to investigate, and with his nephew Axel, he sets off across Iceland in the company of Hans Bjelke, a native guide. The expedition descends into an extinct volcano toward a sunless sea, where they encounter a subterranean world of luminous rocks, antediluvian forests, and fantastic marine life — a living past that holds the secrets to the origins of human existence. Considered a classic in the science-fiction and fantasy genre, Jules Verne’s epic novel is an enduring tale of man’s desire to uncover the great unknowns of life and nature. Jules Verne (1828–1905) was born in France. Around the World in Eighty Days has long been his most popular novel. Verne is credited with creating the genre of science fiction with such other works as Journey to the Center of the Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.