Jules Verne's novel From the Earth to the Moon follows the Baltimore Gun Club who, after the Civil War, decide to build a giant gun to launch a rocket to the Moon. However, their plans escalate when a rival places a bet against their success and a volunteer signs up for a manned mission. The story captures the excitement of early ideas about the possibility of space travel through humor and scientific accuracy, inspiring the concept of science fiction.

1. Written almost a century before the daring flights of the astronauts, Jules
Verne’s prophetic novel of man’s race to the stars is a classic adventure tale
enlivened by broad satire and scientific acumen.
When the members of the elite Baltimore Gun Club find themselves lacking
any urgent assignments at the close of the Civil War, their president, Impey
Barbicane, proposes that they build a gun big enough to launch a rocket to
the moon. But when Barbicane’s adversary places a huge wager that the
project will fail and a daring volunteer elevates the mission to a “manned”
flight, one man’s dream turns into an international space race.
A story of rip-roaring action, humor, and wild imagination, From the Earth to
the Moon is as uncanny in its accuracy and as filled with authentic detail and
startling immediacy as Verne’s timeless masterpieces 20,000 Leagues Under
the Sea and Around the World in Eighty Days.
This classic tale is one of the first that suggested traveling to the moon was
possible and inspired the concept of space flight, and more importantly,
science fiction.
Illustrated with works by Henry de Montaut
from the 1868 edition.
Well, I feel that we should always put alittle
art in to what we do. It’s better that way.
“
JULESVERNE
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered
the genre of science-fiction. Verne wrote about space,
air, and underwater travel before navigable aircraft
and practical submarines were invented, and before
any means of space travel had been devised. He is the
third most translated author of all time, behind Disney
Productions and Agatha Christie. His prominent novels
have been made into films. Verne, along with H. G. Wells,
is often referred to as the “Father of Science Fiction”.
Book Design By: Robin Yawn
Penguin Classics
penguinclassics.com
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