Audiobook · read by volunteers
From the Earth to the Moon
Jules Verne (1828–1905)
Read by Alex Patterson, nielsbohred, Esther, Chris Langston, Laurie Anne Walden, Lizzie Driver, Meredith Hughes, Leonie Rose · 27 chapters · 4 h 38
About the book
In the years after the American Civil War, the members of the Baltimore Gun Club find themselves without any wars to fight. Their president, Impey Barbicane, has a bold idea: build a gigantic cannon and fire a projectile at the Moon. From that first announcement, the story rushes forward with a mixture of calculation, comedy and engineering optimism. Jules Verne delights in numbers, in public enthusiasm and in rivalries, and the result is a witty early work of science fiction, in which a handful of daring men prepare an unprecedented journey. Twenty-seven short parts and over four and a half hours, shared among eight readers, take you from the Gun Club’s first meeting to the very moment of launch. The sequel, Around the Moon, continues the voyage. A fine, cheerful entry in the Voyages extraordinaires.
Introduction
Jules Verne, who lived from 1828 to 1905, was a French writer and one of the great pioneers of science fiction. He wrote a long series of novels known as the Voyages extraordinaires, which sent readers to the centre of the Earth, under the sea and around the world. From the Earth to the Moon, published in 1865 with the French title De la Terre à la Lune, is among his earliest and best known.
The book is a humorous science fantasy. It tells of three well-to-do members of a post-American Civil War gun club who build an enormous sky-facing columbiad and ride a spaceship fired from it to the Moon. Verne takes pleasure in the detail of the preparations: the choice of location, the casting of the great cannon, the scientific debates and the public excitement. The tone is lightly satirical, particularly toward the Americans of the story, who are shown as enthusiastic and slightly reckless.
Although the physics of Verne’s cannon would not work in practice, the book has an important place in the history of imaginative literature, and it anticipated many themes later explored by space exploration. A sequel, Around the Moon, appeared a few years later.
This LibriVox recording has twenty-seven parts, beginning with The Gun Club, and lasts about four and a half hours. It is read by eight volunteers, among them Alex Patterson, nielsbohred and Esther. It makes a pleasant, intelligent listen for anyone curious about the roots of space fiction. Its optimism about science and its good humour make it a pleasant companion, and it is easy to see why the book has charmed so many generations of readers.
Public domain
Jules Verne died in 1905: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text