Journey to the Center of the Earth: Style 1 key example

The pacing of the narrative is fast and sharp. Verne never lets his reader rest for long, as the novel transitions from dreamy, romantic descriptions of natural wonders to the clipped, rapid diction of emergencies. His diction is highly scientific. Axel describes the world around him in terms related to the paleontology and geology that he and his uncle study. The book is densely populated with both well-known and obscure scientific allusions. In every chapter, Verne makes multiple references to earth sciences, physics, and mineralogy. These matter-of-fact moments tie the book to the popular scientific culture of the Victorian period. They also lend an air of possibility—if not plausibility—to the narrative. The fantastical and the factual are both described in the same tones of scholarly interest, as Axel presents his findings to the reader.

Verne’s vivid sensory language complements this balance. He paints the smells, sounds, and sights of the novel's various landscapes in striking detail. His descriptions of sprawling underground caverns—phosphorescent light, craggy stalactites and stalagmites, endlessly foaming underground seas—are rendered with surgical precision, making them feel almost tangible to the reader. This fusion ensures that the novel feels both scientific and magical. Even when the novel is describing the different layers of soil under the grass Axel walks on, it doesn't lose its sense of wonder at the grandeur of the natural world.