HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Round the Moon (1870)

by Jules Verne

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Gun Club trilogy (2), The Extraordinary Voyages (7)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
8692024,612 (3.56)16
Jules Gabriel Verne (1828 - 1905) is best known for his adventure novels and his profound influence on the literary genre of science fiction.In this sequel to From the Earth to the Moon, Barbicane, Ardan, and Nicholl have decided to take a trip around the moon. But first they have to get to the moon from Earth. Will their trip succeed as they attempt to dodge asteroids and realize that the scientists on Earth have miscalculated their trajectory towards the moon?… (more)
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 16 mentions

English (15)  Spanish (2)  Danish (2)  French (1)  All languages (20)
Showing 1-5 of 15 (next | show all)
Alcuni secondi della vita di Pascal o di Newton sono più preziosi di tutta l'esistenza dell'indigesta folla degli imbecilli...
(pagina 12)

In quell'emisfero di sinistra si stende il «Mare delle Nuvole,» in cui va così di frequente ad annegarsi la ragione umana. Poco lungi apparisce il «Mare delle Pioggie» alimentato da tutti gli intrighi dell'esistenza; più oltre si apre il «Mare delle Tempeste» in cui l'uomo lotta senza tregua contro le sue passioni troppo spesso vittoriose. Poi sfinito dai disinganni, dai tradimenti, dalle infedeltà e da tutto il corteo delle miserie terrestri, che trova egli al fine della sua carriera:? Il vasto «Mare degli Umori,» a mala pena temperato con poche goccie delle acque del «Golfo della Rugiada!» Nuvole, pioggie, tempeste, umori; la vita dell'uomo contiene forse altro e non si riassume tutta con questo quattro parole? L'emisfero di dritta, «dedicato alle signore,» contiene mari più piccoli, i cui nomi significativi riflettono tutti gli incidenti d'una esistenza femminina. Vi è il «Mare della Serenità» sul quale si china la giovinetta; il «Lago dei Sogni» che le riflette un ridente avvenire! E il «Mare del Nettare» coi suoi flutti di tenerezza, le sue brezze d'amore! E il «Mare della Fecondità,» e il «Mare delle Crisi,» poi il «Mare dei Vapori» le cui dimensioni forse sono troppo ristrette, e infine quel vasto «Mare della tranquillità,» dove si assorbono tutte le false passioni, tutti i sogni inutili, tutti i desiderii insoddisfatti ed i cui flutti si versano placidamente nel «Lago della Morte.
(pagina 87)

Agli occhi dei viaggiatori riappariva quell'aspetto arcaico dei passaggi lunari, crudi di toni, senza gradazioni di colore, senza sfumature d'ombre, brutalmente bianchi e neri, poichè la luce diffusa fa loro difetto. Peraltro, la vista di quel mondo desolato li impressionava per la sua stessa singolarità. Essi scorrevano sopra siffatta regione caotica come se fossero trascinati dal soffio d'un uragano. Vedevano le vette sfilare sotto i loro piedi, tuffavano lo sguardo nella cavità, scavalcavano le scanalature, si arrampicavano sulle bastite, scandagliavano le misteriose bocche: ma non era traccia di vegetazione, non apparenza di abitato; nulla, null'altro, fuorchè stratificazioni, canali di lava, piani puliti come specchi immensi, che riflettevano i raggi solari con uno splendore irresistibile. Nulla d'un mondo vivente, tutto d'un mondo morto, dove le valanghe, precipitantisi dalla vetta delle montagne, s'inabissavano senza rumore in fondo alle voragini. Avevano il movimento, ma lo strepito loro mancava ancora.
(pagina 127)
( )
  NewLibrary78 | Jul 22, 2023 |
review of
Jules Verne's Round the Moon
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - July 15, 2017

My complete review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/574470-jules-verne

This is the sequel to Verne's From the Earth to the Moon (1863 or 1865). I'm not sure whether I read that one or not. If I did I might've read it 50 yrs ago. Round the Moon was written in 1869 or thereabouts. I find it interesting partially b/c as far as Verne's Science Fiction goes it's more SCIENCE than it is an adventure story. It seems evident to me that Verne researched this fairly thoroughly & dwelled perhaps a bit too much on presenting astronomical data in a barely fictionalized way. As such, I find it hard to imagine that this was as popular as his other Voyages Extraordinaires. It seems to me that this wd've appealed more to scientists concerned w/ nit-picking his facts than it wd've been to a general readership.

Verne posits a gun club founded during the American Civil War membership in wch involves inventing or modifying a cannon or other weapon.

"Then the war comes to an end—a black day for the members of the Gun Club. What future is there for its unique services to the military arts? The club's President, Impey Barbicane, calls a special meeting, assuring members that there will be an announcement of the greatest importance. He lays before them a proposal which takes their collective breath away : the Gun Club will sponsor a monster cannon which will fire a projectile to the moon!" - p 6

The above quote is from Robert A. W. Lowndes's introduction. One of the strange things about it is that the club's president is referred to as "Barbicane" while everywhere else in the bk he's "Barbican".

"A few years ago the world was suddenly astounded by hearing of an experiment of a most novel and daring nature, altogether unprecedented in the annals of science. THE BALTIMORE GUN CLUB, a society of artillerymen started in America during the great Civil War, had conceived the idea of nothing less than establishing direct communication with the Moon by means of a projectile! President Barbican, the originator of the enterprise, was strongly encouraged in its feasibility by the astronomers of Cambridge University, and took upon himself to provide all the means necessary to secure its success. Having realized by means of a public subscription the sum of nearly five and a half millions of dollars, he immediately set himself to work at the necessary gigantic labors." - p 9

Ha ha! The stage is set, the recap is in place. According to an online inflation calculator, $5,500,000 in 1869 wd be worth $93,173,707.43 in 2016. Given that I'm from BalTimOre this whole biz about the Baltimore Gun Club titillates me (or something). BalTimOre is a city of violence (& extreme narrow-mindedness) & I'm sure that the preponderance of guns there contributes to that enormously. As such, when the former Mayor of BalTimOre turned Governor turned Presidential candidate, Martin O'Malley, came out in favor of gun control in his presidential campaigning I was both pleasantly surprised & sure he knew what he was talking about. I rue the day that guns were invented & wd like to see arms merchants shot to the moon in a cannon under the conditions described in this novel. The recap continues by stating that the projectile/spacecraft:

"had not reached its mark, though it had approached near enough to be affected by the Lunar attraction; and that, its rectilinear motion having become circular, it should henceforth continue to describe a regular orbit around the Moon, of which in fact it had become the Satellite." - p 11

That having been the case, our heros the astronauts died off pretty quickly & that was that. Really there's no further reason to even discuss the novel (JUST KIDDING!). Now, of course, this having been written in 1869 it's bound to be a bit short on the scientific end of things considering the developments in the almost 150 yrs that've elapsed since then. There are some phenomenal DUH moments that're so far-fetched that they're practically unforgivable even as plot devices in the mid 19th century. One of them is that the astronauts don't even give a thought to what they're going to do once they get to the moon (other than land on it) nor do they give a thought about how they're going to get back. That's just unbelievably stupid, even for members of the Baltimore Gun Club.

"how were they ever to get back? Could they ever get back? or ever even be heard from?" - p 12

""See here, friends!" cried the Captain; "this going to the Moon is all very well, but how shall we get back?"

"His listeners looked at each other with a surprised and perplexed air. The question, though a very natural one, now appeared to have presented itself to their consideration absolutely for the first time." - p 77

Right. Do you really expect us to believe that Mr. Verne?! Even dogs on the Moon seems believable by comparison.

"["]Compel those Selenites to acknowledge, on spite of themselves, that the terrestrial race of canines is far superior to that of the very best Moon dog among them!"

""Dogs in the Moon!" sneered McNicholl, "I like that!"

""Plenty of dogs!" cried Ardan, "and horses too, and cows, and sheep, and no end of chickens!"

""A hundred dollars to one there isn't a single chicken within the whole lunar realm, not excluding even the invisible side!" cried the Captain, in an authoritative tone, but never taking his eye off the chronometer." - p 17

Verne might be on slightly more solid ground when he imagines the propulsive force necessary: ""Oh! four and a half little minutes!" went on Ardan. "Only think of it! We are shut up in a bullet that lies in the chamber of a cannon nine hundred feet long. Underneath this bullet is piled a charge of 400 thousand pounds of gun cotton, equivalent to 1600 thousand pounds of ordinary gun powder!["]" (p 18) Then again, maybe he isn't, I'd be no judge.

The following passage made me think of The Hunt for the Meteor, wch was the last Verne bk I reviewed ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2027470957 ):

""It is a simple bolide, but one of such enormous dimensions that the Earth's attraction has made it a satellite."

""What!" cried Ardan, "another satellite besides the Moon? I hope thyere are not more of them!"

""They are pretty numerous," replied Barbican; "but they are so small and they move with such enormous velocity that they are seldom seen.["]" - p 30

I don't know how obvious some of the stupidities of the astronauts wd've been to the 19th century reader, probably not very, but to this 21st century reader Verne plays the the-reader-is-smarter-than-the-characters card a bit too much:

""What do you know?" cried the Captain, stretching over and seizing him by the left.

""The reason why we did not hear the report!"

""Well, why did we not hear it!" asked both rapidly in the same breath.

""Because we were shot up 30 times faster than sound can travel!"" - p 35

That was 'painfully' obvious to this reader many pages before the characters ever had the epiphany. Given that the speed of sound is reputed to've been discovered in 1640 that knowledge was presumably not that obscure over 300 yrs later when this bk was written. The projectile still has fairly Earth-like gravity until it reaches the gravipause between the Earth & the Moon. "Every now and then, he would climb up, by means of iron pins fixed in the wall, to inspect his treasures" (p 42) It's my understanding that they wd've experienced zero gravity long before then. Then again, I can just look that up on the internet. Didn't Verne know how to use the internet? Sheesh, those 19th century people were retarded. Well, ok, I take that back. They did know how to use Integral Calculus:

""It means," said the Captain, now taking part in the discussion, "that the half of v prime square minus v squared equals gr multiplied by r over x minus one plus m prime over m multiplied by r over d minus x minus r over d minus r ........that is———"" - p 48

Verne gets into quite a bit of what is to me abstruse math. This is endearing to me but reinforces my assertion that "I find it hard to imagine that this was as popular as his other Voyages Extraordinaires" A footnote on the bottom of page 52 is interesting in this light:

"NOTE. In the French edition, the algebraical formulas having been very incorrectly printed, it cost the Translator a good deal of time and trouble to rectify them. The idea of explaining in the text how they had been arrived at, though at first seriously entertained, was soon abandoned. Doing so might perhaps have gratified the curiosity of some rare scientific student, but it would certainly have exhausted the patience of the general reader. For the benefit of our friend the student, however, we here append another of the means for solving the problem, over which the Cambridge men had so woefully blundered. It is furnished by one of our mathematical teachers." - p 52

The problem solving for this goes on for another 1.5 pages. I'm grateful for it even tho I didn't understand enuf of it for it to be of any value to me.

The dig at the "Cambridge men" is interesting. Their miscalculation cd've cost the whole mission's success. There are 3 astronauts, 2 Americans & one Frenchmen. Verne was French. He uses the Frenchman for comic relief & gives the Americans the serious scientist characteristics. That seems politically motivated on his part. He essentially predicts that the Americans will reach the moon 100 yrs before it happened. I have to wonder why he picked the "Cambridge men" to be blunderers. That seems to be potentially touchy. Maybe somebody at Cambridge gave a bk of his a bad review.

"How could they imagine that the Observatory men had committed such a blunder? Barbican would not believe it possible. He made the Captain go over his calculation again and again; but no flaw was to be found in it. He himself carefully examined it, figure after figure, but he could find nothing wrong. They both took up the formula and subjected it to the strongest tests but it was invulnerable. There was no denying the fact. The Cambridge professors had undoubtedly blundered in saying that the initial velocity of 12,000 yards a second would be enough to carry them to the neutral point. A velocity of nearly 18,000 yards would be the very lowest required for such a purpose. They had simply forgotten to allow a third for friction." - pp 54-55

Interesting. Verne has scientists making mistakes. This is realism, maybe it's even a realism that appears in other Verne bks but I don't remember that happening. Round the Moon is full of things going wrong & human error. That's one of the things I like the most about it. It's not populated by scientific super-beings but more by regular humans. Well, actually, they're a bit on the dumb side:

"["]When we get to the Moon, what shall we do there? How are we going to amuse ourselves? I'm afraid our life there will be awfully slow!"

"His companions emphatically disclaimed the possibility of such a thing.

""You may deny it, but I know better, and knowing better, I have laid in my stores accordingly. You have but to choose. I possess a varied assortment. Chess, draughts, cards, dominoes—everything in fact, but a billiard table."

""What!" exclaimed Barbican; "cumbered yourself with such gimcracks?"

""Such gimcracks are not good to amuse ourselves with, but are eminently calculated also to win us the friendship of the Selenites."" - p 57

Despite Verne's obvious attempts to be as scientifically accurate as possible throughout most of this (when he's not just being silly) things like this drinking-in-zero-gravity description aren't very convincing:

"A slight effort carried him sailing over to the side of the Projectile. Opening a cupboard and taking out a bottle and a few glasses, he placed them in a tray. Then setting the tray itself in the air as on a table in front of his companions, he filled the glasses, passed them around, and, in a lively speech interrupted with many a joyous hurrah, congratulated his companions of their glorious achievement in being the first that ever crossed the lunar line." - p 90

It's easy to be critical of a description like this 148 yrs later. I'm sure that if I were to try to describe a situation 148 yrs in the future it wd be ridiculous. Still, how, exactly, did Ardan, the French adventurer, pour the alcohol? If the glasses were staying still in mid-air wdn't the booze also stay still in the bottle when it was turned upside-down? Wdn't this, then, necessitate applying some force to the bottom of the bottle to eject the alcohol in the direction of the glasses & wdn't that force then move the glasses as the booze hit it? Still, Verne does get into such thing as changes in relative muscular power:

""Shall my muscular strength dimish in the same proportion?" was the next question.

""On the contrary, it will be relatively so much the more increased that you can take a stride 15 feet in width as easily as you can now take one of ordinary length."

""We shall be all Samsons, then, in the Moon!" cried Ardan.

""Especially," replied McNicholl, "if the stature of the Selenites is in proportion to the mass of their globe."

""If so, what should be their height?"

""A tall man would hardly be twelve inches in his boots!"

""They must be veritable Lilliputians then!" cried Ardan; "and we are all to be Gullivers! The old myth of the Giants realized! Perhaps the Titans that played such famous parts in the prehistoric period of out Earth, were adventurers like ourselves, casually arrived from some great planet!"" - p 92

As much as I'm pleased to see Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels referred to & as much as I'm pleased by Ardan's theory re Titans, I have to say that these speculations about the size of "Selenites" as based on the same relativities of humans, as well as on humanoid form, are a bit too silly for me. For one thing, everyone knows that Moon people are all female & scantily clad & that they listen to Theremin music all day. Where Verne really starts to get tedious is where he gets into the history of Moon mapmaking. Still, I appreciate that he goes to such scholarly lengths:

"A few years afterwards, Hevel of Dantzic (1611-1688), a Polish astronomer—more generally known as Hevelius, his works being all written in Latin—undertook to correct Galileo's measurements. But as his method could be strictly accurate only twice a month—the periods of the first and second quadrant—his rectifications could hardly be called successful.

"Still it is to the labors of this eminent astronomer, carried on uninterruptedly for fifty years in his own observatory, that we owe the first map of the Moon. It was published in 1647 under the name of Selenographia." - p 104

Verne was obviously preoccupied w/ whether people actually observe the Moon or not. I respect that, I think that people take for granted many things in their life w/o ever bothering to observe them closely. I'm sure I do.

""Have you ever seen the Moon?" said a teacher ironically one day in class to one of his pupils.

""No, sir," was the pert reply; "but I think I can safely say I've heard it spoken about."

"Though saying what he considered a smart thing, the pupil was probably perfectly right. Like the immense majority of his fellow beings, he had looked at the Moon, heard her talked of, written poetry about her, but in the strict sense of the term, he had probably never seen her—that is canned her, examined her, surveyed her, inspected her, reconnoitered her—even with an opera glass!" - p 106

As our heroes get closer to the Moon in their projectile they get to observe color. This, of course, wd be Verne's extrapolations from the observations of astronomers whose work he wd've read.

"In certain spots the greenish tint was quite decided, particularly in Mare Serenitatis and Mare Humorum, the very localities where Schmidt had most noticed it. Barbican also remarked that several large craters, of the class that had no interior cones, reflected a kind of bluish tinge, somewhat like that given forth by a freshly polished steel plate. These tints, he now saw enough to convince him, proceeded really from the lunar surface, and were not due, as certain astronomers asserted, either to the imperfections of spy-glasses, or to the interference of the terrestrial atmosphere." - p 125

Verne spent a great deal of time on scientific detail in Round the Moon. I reckon he wanted to get that pert student to actually look at & think about the Moon.

"Toward five in the morning, the northern limit of Mare Imbrium was finally passed, and Mare Frigoris spread its frost-colored plains far to the right and to the left. On the east the travellers could easily see the ring-mountain Condamine, above 4,000 feet high, while a little ahead on the right they could plainly distinguish Fontenelle with an altitude nearly twice as great."

"if we remember that Tycho, though nearly a quarter of a million miles distant, is such a luminous point on the lunar disc, that almost any moonlit night it can be easily perceived by the unaided terrestrial eye. What then must have been its splendor in the eyes of our travellers whose telescopes brought it actually four thousand times nearer!" - p 180

""Now what is the consequence of this law? If the orbit were a circle, the satellite would always preserve the same distance from its primary, and its velocity should therefore be constant. But the orbit being an elipse, and the attracting body always occupying one of the foci, the satellite must evidently be nearer to this focus in one part of its orbit than in another. The Earth when nearest to the Sun, is in her perihelion; when most distant, in her aphelion. The Moon, with regard to the Earth, is similarly in her perigree, and her apogee. Analogous expressions denoting the relations of the Projectile towards the Moon, would be periselene and aposelene. At its aposelene the Projectile's velocity would have reached its minimum; at the periselene, its maximum. As it is to the former point that we are now moving, clearly the velocity mist keep on diminishing until that point is reached. Then, if it does not die out altogether, it must spring up again, and even accelerate as it reapproaches the Moon. Now the great trouble is this: If the Aposelenetic point should coincide with the point of lunar attraction, our velocity must certainly become nil, and the Projectile must remain relatively motionless forever!"" - p 200 ( )
  tENTATIVELY | Apr 3, 2022 |
Another overly scientific Verne book. Yes its interesting how he anticipated certain aspects of the space program but while he does the science well the story loses out, as it often seems to in my experience. ( )
  wreade1872 | Nov 28, 2021 |
Around the moon published in 1869 is the sequel to Verne's From the Earth to the Moon published four years earlier. It qualifies as the first real hard science fiction novel containing at one point an algebraic equation as proof of the speed necessary for the three adventures to leave the earths atmosphere. This sequel takes up the story of the earlier novel where the three adventurers (they cant really be called astronauts) are waiting for the enormous cannon to be fired that will launch their hollowed out bullet like capsule towards the moon. Two Americans: Barbican the President of the gun club and Nicholl the scientist along with the Frenchman the bon viveur Michael Ardan are resting on their water filled couches and awaiting the explosion. The cannon is successfully fired and the three men gradually regain consciousness and check their calculations to ensure that they will hit the moon.

On the journey to the moon they are knocked off course by a tiny asteroid and find themselves in orbit around the moon with their hopes dashed of making a landing and resigned to being entombed in a satellite that will forever circle the moon. It is at this point when the three men particularly the scientists have considered all their options that the Frenchman says 'There is only one thing that we can do - we must sit down and have lunch' and he cracks open a bottle of good quality french wine.

It is of course a preposterous story from the vantage of our 21st century knowledge of a journey to the moon, but Verne spends a large part of this novel bombarding the reader with factual detail, which includes a potted history of the use of telescopes and calculations of distances and speeds needed for a trip to the moon, much of this would appear to be accurate, but don't ask me as my eyes started to glaze over when I came across that equation. Perhaps Verne was trying to convince his readers in 1869 that such a trip under the circumstances that he imagined was possible, but all that will be lost on todays readers and all that is left for us to do is to verify what he got right. The devil may care attitude of the characters also rings hollow, although there are some amusing moments. This is a story where scientific detail gets in the way of a good story line - sounds like hard science fiction to me and so 3 stars. ( )
2 vote baswood | Sep 13, 2020 |
Not as mathy as the previous book, From the Earth to the Moon, and not as boring either but it was still a bit boring. Since they could only make observations from their capsule it's really just a lot of talking about the topography of the moon and what not. ( )
  LynnK. | Aug 4, 2020 |
Showing 1-5 of 15 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Verne, JulesAuthorprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Bayard, Émile-AntoineIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Walter, Frederick PaulTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
During the year 186-, the whole world was greatly excited by a scientific experiment unprecedented in the annals of science.
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
This is not a short story.
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

Jules Gabriel Verne (1828 - 1905) is best known for his adventure novels and his profound influence on the literary genre of science fiction.In this sequel to From the Earth to the Moon, Barbicane, Ardan, and Nicholl have decided to take a trip around the moon. But first they have to get to the moon from Earth. Will their trip succeed as they attempt to dodge asteroids and realize that the scientists on Earth have miscalculated their trajectory towards the moon?

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.56)
0.5
1 2
1.5
2 10
2.5 5
3 55
3.5 8
4 47
4.5 2
5 24

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,187,408 books! | Top bar: Always visible