The more difficult reading gets at the philosophy and the message of the work: glorifying the triumphant inventions of science, but showing that science, badly used, can bring death and devastation.

This publication is the first translation (in any language as far as we know) of Journey Through the Impossible, and is certainly the first to restore Act II, Scene 7 ("The Platform of the Nautilus"). Thus the complete script is now available to readers ... and later perhaps to spectators.

erne has selected the most striking incidents of his romantico- scientific productions, such as "Doctor Ox," Journey to the Center of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon, and Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea.

In a little town in Denmark lives the Widow Traventhal, whose daughter Eva is betrothed to young George Hatteras. George is a son of that famous Captain Hatteras whose voyage in search of the North pole terminated fatally. His friends have always concealed the parentage: they feared lest the example of the father might tempt the child. But it is all in vain; no man can escape his destiny. The blood of the bold navigator courses through his veins; he thirsts after the unknown. Hatteras lives in the midst of maps and charts and globes, and in his delirium dreams of exploration such as none other has ever imagined. He would attempt the impossible.

"Quite mad!" say his fellow-citizens. "Certainly very sick!" reply Madame and Mademoiselle Traventhal, who immediately send for Dr. Ox and ask him to prescribe. Now, Dr. Ox is an excellent scientist by reputation but, instead of administering chloral or bromide of potassium, he works up the diseased brain of his patient, first, by revealing to Hatteras his connection with the deceased Arctic explorer; second, by the assurance that he can help Hatteras to realize his desire.

The doctor is a species of Mephistopheles; and he, too, is in love with Eva. The savant's scheme is truly diabolical. He administers an elixir that emancipates the youth from subjection to physical laws that hamper ordinary human beings, but his real object is to get rid of his rival by killing him or rendering him incurably mad. In vain does the organist Volsius try to snatch George from this sinister influence. He tries music, he tries argument, but he might as well have left both untried. George persists, and then, with a noble spirit of self-sacrifice, he assures the disconsolate maiden that he, too, will share the perils of her lover's peregrinations.

Volsius will protect Hatteras, he swears, in spite of himself, and this he does in a series of avatars wherein he appears as Professor Lidenbrock (Act I), Captain Nemo (Act II), Michel Ardan, and a citizen of the Planet Altor (Act III).

The struggle between the doctor and the musician is intended to illustrate the conflict between good and evil. But Eva is not altogether satisfied; she fears entrusting Hatteras to Volsius alone, and so she, too, with her a friend of the family, one Tartelet, the dancing master, takes a dose of the magic mixture, and in the twinkling of an eye Dr. Ox, Hatteras, Volsius, Eva, and the dancing master are transported to the foot of Mount Vesuvius, and there begins the first ballet.

The tourists, whose party is reinforced by a traveler from Denmark, whom they meet at Naples, Monsieur Valdemar by name, begin their excursions by a visit to the "entrails of the earth" in search of the "central fire." Three "entrails" are visited in this journey, of which a fissure in the volcano is the starting point. The first entrail is a rocky cavern, while the second appears to be made of granite. The third is represented by a most fantastic subterranean vegetation, with the atmosphere rendered peculiarly luminous, resulting from an underground rivulet of extraordinary light and color. These regions are inhabited by the Troglodytes, a degenerate class of beings, ugly, but picturesque, with long hair, mud-tinted faces, and silver hands.

Next step: The harbor of Goa, with Indian pavilions, and in the background the city and the sea. Here, Monsieur Valdemar, the funny man, does a monologue expressive of his satisfaction with the "diamond picked up 5,000 feet below the surface of the earth." Then the Nautilus, a cigar-shaped craft, steams in: the travelers go on board, and in the eleventh setting are seen seated around the hospitable table of Captain Nemo-the third incarnation of Volsius. The Nautilus plunges, and her passengers walk out of their cabins into the magic city of the Atlantides. The citizens of this realm are rising up in a revolution, and they want a king. Having chosen one of their own, they are about to crown him when the prophetess of Atlantis plots with Dr. Ox and Hatteras to make a coup d'etat, which results in the selection of George and his immediate coronation, all serving as a pretext for more dancing, more marble staircases, porphyry columns, minarets, and stage props in general.

For the next part of the journey, the Gun Club, offers nothing specially interesting or original. The members amuse themselves by shooting pistols while the big gun is being made ready. A servant enters, and the Columbiad is prepared.