I just finished reading Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864) by Jules Verne, translated by Frank Wynne. It was a great and entertaining adventure and brimmed with that boyish optimism, perhaps born out of the rapidly expanding world of science, shared by similar books of the era. 

I was a bit surprised at how much I enjoyed reading it. The compact briskness of Verne’s prose felt fresh, and there were a few moments of sublime description that took hold of my imagination in a way I haven’t experienced recently.

I tried a few different translations before settling on the one I ended up reading to the end. I found out afterwards from the introduction that many of the translations of his works in the public domain are not exactly exemplary, and sometimes suffer from expurgation and poor translation. I am glad I landed on the translation I did, and recommend it to others who may want to read the story.

‘There it is!’ roared the professor. ‘There it is!’ before adding in Danish: ‘Onward, to the centre of the earth!’