The Child of the Cavern

The Child of the Cavern is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, part of his Voyages Extraordinaires series, reproduced here from its Standard Ebooks edition.

The Child of the Cavern follows engineer James Starr as he receives a letter from an old friend and co-worker, Simon Ford, requesting that he revisit a depleted coal mine in Scotland that he used to manage. Upon arriving, Starr finds the entire Ford family living in the mine, and Ford explains that a new coal vein has been located. Soon after Starr's return, however, strange events start to occur, which seem to be supernatural. After a startling discovery, the characters continue to investigate these occurrences over the course of several years.

Blending Verne's signature scientific detail with an atmosphere of eerie mystery, the novel builds a slow-burning sense of dread beneath the earth, as Starr and the Fords search for a rational explanation for the uncanny happenings in the depths of the abandoned mine.

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