A very Vernian adventure…
H.G. Wells published his version of a moon shot quite a few
years after Jules Verne…but the two both exhibit that 19th century,
“steampunkian” charm of Victorian Era space travel…namely, so out of touch with
reality that man was inspired to do it for real 70 or so years later…
Wells was probably inspired by Jules Verne to write a
science fiction novel taking men to that big round of cheese in the sky, and
his novel went on to inspire the next generation of writers, just as Verne had
inspired his. The story revolves around a mysterious substance called
“Cavorite” developed by Mr. Cavor. This material defies gravity and
allows humans and objects to float and travel off into the cosmos.
It is an interesting story and you can see the influence of
Verne in the plot, in fact, Georges Méliès used both books, Verne’s From
the Earth to the Moon and The First Men in the Moon, to
craft his 1902 film A Trip to the Moon.
The book went on to inspire C.S. Lewis and his sci-fi space trilogy as well as
providing inspiration for one of the oddest of early science fiction
novels, Menace from the Moon by Bohun Lynch.
A first edition is readily available online for this Wells
classic. It was originally published in The Strand Magazine,
December 1900 to August 1901, with the published book following that same year…
