Question about the compass in Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Jules Verne)

Submitted by milly_toons t3_z0b47b in books

At the end of the story, Axel figures out that the compass >!got its poles flipped by the storm on the Lidenbrock Sea. That's why the needle points south instead of north.!<

>!But doesn't this mean that they actually crossed the Lidenbrock Sea as intended, instead of being carried back by the storm to the coast they started from? When they reach land after the storm on the sea, they realize by looking at the compass that they're back where they started. But if the compass did indeed get its magnetization flipped DURING the storm, that means it was pointing the wrong way when they checked after the storm, so they actually didn't end up on the same coast they started from?!<

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jefrye t1_ix5dgcl wrote

Yes, that's the whole point of that "twist": they were on the right path all along.

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milly_toons OP t1_ix5fa2x wrote

That would make sense, but it was weird that Axel didn't make a remark saying "oh so we did cross the sea after all!" at the end. He now understands that they were on the right path all along, which involved crossing the sea (which they actually did but thought they didn't).

But then it doesn't make sense that Axel could recognize some of the landforms once they landed on the beach after the storm. He thought he recognized the place where the Hansbach flowed in, and similar terrain / other areas that he had already seen before when they were at Port Grauben on the supposedly same side of the sea. Was Axel just imagining things and wrongly recognizing unseen landforms as ones he had seen before on the other coast?

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jefrye t1_ix5gxxq wrote

I think Verne is just expecting readers to put it together themselves, but he could have stated it outright.

Axel doesn't actually recognize anything when they "return." They're all a bit confused. He's trying to get his bearings and keeps seeing things that he thinks could be familiar landmarks, but every time he takes a few more steps and sees that they aren't, or they realize if they're where they think they should be finding their own footprints from a few days ago but they aren't. They eventually conclude that they must have returned far down the coast, but can't quite figure it out. It's page 201 in the Wynne translation.

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milly_toons OP t1_ix5jk7f wrote

Thanks, makes sense! I remember they thought they had landed on the same coast but in a different area far away from their original location at Port Grauben, but I wasn't sure if we were meant to believe that Axel's apparent recognition of certain landmarks was correct. I guess we're supposed to consider his perspective unreliable when he says he recognizes certain things.

I read the Baldick translation but will definitely check out either the Wynne or Butcher translation when I re-read this novel in the future.

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jefrye t1_ix5lio2 wrote

Yep, it very much has the vibe of "well the map says we're here so I guess that rock kind of looks familiar?" Finding out the compass was messed up clears up the mystery.

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unlovelyladybartleby t1_ix5bt7m wrote

I don't know, but now it'll drive me mad and I'm going for a reread

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milly_toons OP t1_ix5cp4u wrote

It's driving me mad too! Let me know what you think after you re-read please.

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