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(4) De la terre à la lune (From the Earth to the Moon, 1865) (1 volume) 55K words

From the Earth to the Moon is the fourth novel in Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires. In the first part of his career the author was filled with optimism about scientific knowledge, technology and human progress. Previous novels told awe-inspiring tales of exploration and discovery: the exploration of Africa from the air (Five Weeks in a Balloon), the interior of our planet (Journey to the Center of the Earth), and the North Pole (The Adventures of Captain Hatteras). However, he managed to surpass himself in ambition with this one, turning his eyes towards the Moon. This story is an early example of hard science fiction, and would decades later inspire people like Yuri Gagarin, the Russian cosmonaut who became the first human being to leave the Earth and reach outer space.


First read or reread?: This is a first read for me, although I was familiar with the story from other media.


What is it about? (from wikipedia): The Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil War society of weapons enthusiasts, attempts to build an enormous Columbiad space gun and launch three people in a projectile with the goal of a Moon landing.


While this is an early classic of science fiction, one thing you need to know is that this is a very geeky kind of adventure novel. Basically, the story told here is not about traveling to the Moon, but about the planning and preparation stages. Because of that, there is not a lot of action. All Verne novels have some popular science info-dumps, but this one has more than its share of that. That is quite understandable, given the unprecedented difficulties of the task, but it can make for a less dynamic read. That's why I said this is a geeky kind of novel. A lot of the enjoyment comes not from actual adventure, but from the audacity of the project and from how reasonable and possible Verne makes it sound when he tackles the technical details. There are a lot of planning meetings where the characters discuss the details of the project, and a lot of building and testing.

Despite this lack of action, the novel has several things going for it. There is the already mentioned geeky enjoyment of the planning. Looking at it from a modern perspective, Verne's calculations and plans are surprisingly accurate. The main failing that would make the project impractical is that, in order for the passengers not to die due to the acceleration when the projectile was shot, the barrel of the cannon would have to be much longer, to allow the projectile to reach the same escape velocity with a smaller acceleration.


Another thing worth mentioning is the humor. This is the funniest among the Verne novels that I have read so far. The beginning is quite similar to Five Weeks in a Balloon, with a visionary character making a speech to a scientific society (if we can call the Baltimore Gun Club a scientific society) and describing a daring exploration project. However, the Gun Club plays a much greater role here than the Royal Geographical Society played in Five Weeks in a Balloon, and it allows Verne to use his satirical abilities to the maximum.

The Baltimore Gun Club's members are so absorbed in their hobby/profession that they consider the fact that the Civil War ended and the country is at peace as an outrage and personal insult against themselves and against the art of gunnery. Even their physical descriptions are funny, with the ridiculous amount of mutilations among their members becoming a running gag.

Verne certainly makes fun of Americans in this novel, but in my opinion is a fond kind of satire. He makes fun of Americans while at the same time admiring them for their daring, their can-do attitude, and the greatness of their enterprises. There is a moment in the novel mentioning their dream of planting the American flag on the Moon that would come true in an iconic moment a century after this novel was published.

Another thing Verne does to maintain the reader's interest is introduce some personal conflict among the characters, in this case mainly between Impey Barbicane, the president of the Gun Club and the driving force behind the project of reaching the Moon, and his long-time rival and nemesis, Captain Nicholl of Philadelphia, a designer of plate armor and thus the natural rival of cannon-designers. Their antics and bets, including even a duel, help a lot to advance the plot of the novel in an entertaining way.

This is also the first time Verne uses a Frenchman as one of his main characters, Michel Ardan, a French poet and adventurer who conceives the idea of a human crew inside the projectile. Verne tends to use a lot of Anglo-Saxon characters in his novels, probably out of admiration for the ambition of their exploration projects, as I have mentioned. However, from this novel on, he often includes a French character too.

Another big component of the novel is the public's reaction and enthusiasm for the project. There is a public subscription to finance it, and people from all over the world help, allowing Verne to have some satirical fun describing how much each country contributes and why. This is of course part of Verne's general optimism about science and the human spirit, which makes his work very appealing to me.

The novel ends shortly after the cannon is shot, leaving the story somewhat incomplete. A few years later, Verne would continue and finish the story with a sequel novel (Around The Moon), which I'll review in turn.


Enjoyment factor: I quite enjoyed it. The sense of wonder is very strong here, although it may be harder for modern readers to appreciate since this is retro science fiction. We have already been to the Moon, after all. I understand that this novel is not for everyone, in any case, because of the lack of action and abundance of info-dumps.


Next up: In Search of the Castaways, aka Captain Grant's Children