Jules Verne
An unmarried by mathematically precise Englishman dismisses his valet for heating his shaving water two degrees cooler than usual. He hires a French valet to replace him and the two of them set off to travel around the world in eighty days - a supposedly possible feat, now that the Indian railways have been built. If they succeed they will win a fortune off the other members of the Reform Club.
Although The Mysterious Island is technically a sequel to Vernes' enormously popular Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, this novel offers a vastly different take on similar thematic motifs. As with all of Verne's best-known works, The Mysterious Island is a masterpiece of the action-adventure genre, with a heaping dash of science fiction influence thrown in for good measure.
A Journey to the Center of the Earth, also translated as A Journey to the Interior of the Earth, follows a man, his nephew and their guide down an Icelandic volcano into the center of the earth. There they encounter an ancient landscape filled with prehistoric animals and natural dangers. There is some discussion as to whether Verne really believed that such things might be found in the center, or whether he shared the alternate view,
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