A Journey to the Centre of the Earth

A scrap of medieval parchment falls out of an old book, and on it, in runic cipher, a dead alchemist claims to have found a passage to the centre of the earth. For one obsessive German professor, that is all the proof required. Dragging his reluctant nephew and a magnificently unshakeable Icelandic guide along, he descends into the crater of an extinct volcano, and down, and down, into a world no map has ever shown.

What they find below defies everything the science of their day allowed: caverns the size of countries, a subterranean ocean, storms without sky, and living things that should have been extinct for millions of years. Verne's underground epic is claustrophobia and wonder in equal measure, narrated by a young man who never wanted to be there, which makes every marvel and every catastrophe hit twice as hard.

At roughly 86,300 words, A Journey to the Centre of the Earth runs about 9½ hours at 1x narration speed. That figure is an estimate based on a typical narration pace. The exact length depends on the voice and the playback speed you choose.

A Journey to the Centre of the Earth is in the public domain, so the complete text is free on Project Gutenberg and LoudReader has the entire Project Gutenberg catalog built in. To listen:

1. Download LoudReader for Mac or iPhone (free, no account).
2. Search for “A Journey to the Centre of the Earth” in the built-in catalog and add it to your library.
3. Press play. A natural offline voice reads the book while each word highlights on screen, and your place is saved between sessions.

LoudReader reads with natural offline voices, so the whole book works on a plane or underground. It is fully on-device and private, your library never leaves your device. Listening is unlimited on the free tier.