[VERNE, JULES]. From the Earth to the Moon Direct in 97 Hours 20 Minutes: And a Trip Round It. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, 1873.
FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. Cloth-bound, hardcover, octavo, pp. 323. English text, translated by Louis Mercier and Eleanor E. King, with numerous illustrations throughout. Bound in publisher's original green pictorial cloth gilt, page edges gilt, wood-engraved frontispiece with tissue-guard and 79 plates. Condition: GOOD. Binding secure and square. Slight rubbing to spine ends and points. Interior with some light scattered foxing. Scarce.
Notes: First English edition of Verne’s classic novel which preceded the first American edition by one year. Regarded as one of the founding fathers of science fiction, Verne wrote this story almost a century before the flights of the astronauts, Verne's prophetic novel of man's race to the stars is a classic adventure tale enlivened by broad satire and scientific acumen. From the Earth to the Moon is “the first interplanetary novel to focus on the technical and organizational preparations for the voyage, using the actual blast-off as a climax, introducing thereby a new narrative realism… And a Trip Around It continues the story by describing the experiences of the intrepid voyagers as they observe the Moon en passant before a slingshot effect hurls them earthward again. The couplet is one of the definitive foundation stones of the science fiction genre” (Barron:II:1180).
