From the Earth to the Moon (De la Terre à la Lune) and Around the Moon (Autour de la Lune) are linked novels by Jules Verne. First published in 1865 and 1870 respectively, they tell the story of a journey to the Moon and what three men saw as they orbited it. Jules Gabriel Verne (1825-1905) was French, and was born in Nantes. His other best-known books include Voyage to the Centre of the Earth (1864), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and Around the World in 80 Days (1873), as translated from the French.

From the Earth to the Moon begins by introducing readers to the Gun Club, an American organisation for enthusiasts of guns and other artillery weapons. The Club members are bored following the end of the US Civil War and the consequent lack of opportunity to use their guns. They decide to put their skills to use by firing a projectile at the Moon.

Firstly, the main characters in the novels are as follows:

• Impey Barbicane - the 40-year-old president of the Gun Club. A rich man thanks to his work as a timber merchant, he is described as 'calm, cold, austere'¹.

• Michel Ardan - a French man, 'of about forty-two years of age' with 'a shock of reddish hair, which resembled a lion's mane'. He is keen to travel to the Moon, because he sees a journey into Space as the next step after train travel.

• Captain Nicholl - 'a little dried-up man' with 'an American "goatee" beard'. He is an armour-maker who has been opposed to the work of the Gun Club for many years. He bets against the success of the scheme to fire a projectile at the Moon. A duel between Nicholl and Barbicane is proposed, but instead they agree to join Ardan and experience the success or failure of the journey into space first-hand.

• James T Maston - a man whose hand had been replaced with a steel hook as a result of injuries sustained through his work with the Gun Club. He successfully tests the projectile by living inside it for a week. Disappointed not to be able to join his colleagues on their journey, he devotedly keeps watch on the Moon while they are away.

The first book details the making of the projectile, and the cannon that would be used to fire it into space. It ends with the successful launch of the projectile and hypothesises about what would happen next - would the three adventurers land on the Moon, or orbit around the Moon?

The second book begins with a precis of the first. We then join Ardan, Barbicane and Nicholl inside the projectile. The force of the take-off knocks them unconscious, but they survive. They are able to see out into space through a window, and encounter a meteoroid in orbit around the Earth like a second moon. The travellers sleep, then eat soup and beef, followed by vegetables and 'cups of tea with bread and butter, after the American fashion' (the Earth's gravity is assumed to continue acting on the projectile at this point, so eating and drinking is no problem).

The cargo of the projectile includes various pieces of equipment to enable the travellers to study the Moon. Seeds and plants, and even some animals, have been brought along in case they could be transplanted to the Moon. Ardan brings games (including chess, cards and dominoes) to keep them entertained. And of course Barbicane brings some guns with him.

They discover that the Cambridge Observatory had made errors in calculating the necessary starting speed, in particular not taking into account friction in the Earth's atmosphere². They also discover the meteoroid's gravity had altered their trajectory when it passed by.

The changes to the trajectory mean the inhabitants of the projectile are not able to land on the Moon, but they are able to study the Moon and the stars while they continue travelling in space. They also catch a glimpse of the 'dark side' of the Moon that is not visible from Earth - it is illuminated by the glow of a meteor burning up in the Moon's 'very confined atmosphere' and they see mountains, craters and oceans.

The new trajectory takes the projectile away from the Moon, so it heads back towards the Earth. The projectile travels at high speed, but plunges into the Pacific Ocean, breaking its fall. James T Maston leads the search for it, even travelling in a submarine that descends 20,000 feet below the surface³ before realising that the projectile would float.

Finally, the projectile is found and its crew are feted around the United States. The novel ends with the founding of the National Company of Interstellar Communication, foreshadowing the development of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which became NASA⁴.

Plausible Implausibilities

How do we consider the books as a whole? There are a number of techniques used to create an impression that the tale is true:

• Non-fictional people are mentioned. For example, Cyrano de Bergerac's 1619 novel Voyage dans la lune is referenced, as is Edgar Allan Poe's 1835 story The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall about a man who flies to the Moon in a balloon. William Herschel's son John's studies of the Moon in the 19th Century are referenced, along with those of other astronomers, including Tycho Brahe in the 16th Century. There is even mention of Nadar, a pioneering photographer and friend of Jules Verne, who constructed a hot air balloon to enable him to take aerial photographs⁵.

• Non-fictional places around the world are mentioned. The Observatory of Cambridge in Massachusetts provides scientific advice. Florida is selected as the ideal location for the launch of the projectile, foreshadowing the creation of the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. On its return to Earth, the projectile lands in the bay of San Francisco.

• Details of craters and other features on the Moon are provided, thanks to the maps that had been produced earlier in the 19th Century, especially the Mappa Selenographica of 1835.

• Descriptions of the building of the cannon to fire the projectile into space, and the amount of gunpowder needed to give it enough speed to leave the Earth's atmosphere, are provided in minute detail. Mathematical considerations of the projectile's trajectory are described, including formulae for deriving what their initial speed should have been to enable them to reach the Moon and land on it.

This all helps the reader to 'suspend disbelief' when the more imaginative concepts are introduced. For example, there is consideration of how to move around in space, but the force of gravity between the Earth and the Moon is assumed to affect the projectile - the people inside are not weightless until they reach 'the point of equal attractions' where the gravitational pull of the Earth on the Moon is cancelled out by the pull of the Moon on the Earth. At that point, Nicholl drops a glass - 'the glass, instead of falling, remained suspended in the air' (then the travellers somehow pour a drink into the floating glass so they can raise a toast). Various chemicals are used to generate breathable air inside the projectile. When the travellers are in space, they open a hatch and throw items out - 'Scarcely a particle of air could have escaped'. Other inconsistencies are less noticeable as a result of Verne's efforts to 'blind the reader with science'. Notably, in the first book the protagonists work out that a hollow projectile made of aluminium will weigh 19,250 pounds - in the second book, the projectile, laden with three crew members and associated provisions, also weighs 19,250 pounds.

The tale includes some humour - in particular around national stereotypes. The plot is based around Americans' love of guns. The countries who donated to Barbicane's scheme are listed in the first novel with comments. Russia had 'scientific taste'. France provided 'a thousand stale puns and a score of ballads' before contributing more than a million Francs. Austria was 'generous in the midst of her financial crisis'. Denmark gave '9,000 ducats, proving her love for scientific experiments'. 'Belgium distinguished herself among the second-rate states by a grant of 513,000 francs - about two centimes per head of her population.' Spain gave only 110 reals as 'it is still in a backward state'. Finally, 'The English have but one soul for the whole twenty-six millions of inhabitants which Great Britain contains... And they did not subscribe a single farthing'.

JT Maston's clumsiness is also a recurring source of jokes - he nearly gets roasted by flames, nearly falls into the cannon, and nearly needs rescue from a ship when his hook gets stuck. Another amusing scene occurs when too much oxygen is generated inside the projectile - the inhabitants sing Yankee Doodle and the Marseillaise and dance like 'the boneless clowns in the circus'.

In summary these books are readable⁶ with mild excitement and humour. Surprisingly this Researcher found the book was not readily available in public libraries, but it is available in online stores and in e-book form.

This Entry could conveniently end here, except that various visual adaptations inspired by the novels have been made since 1872.

Adaptations

The first (loosely-based) adaptation was an operetta by Jacques Offenbach entitled 'Le voyage dans la lune' (1875). That in turn influenced the Georges Méliès 1902 film of the same name.

From the Earth to the Moon was a 1958 film featuring Joseph Cotten as Victor Barbicane, George Sanders as Stuyvesant Nicholl, Don Dubbins as Ben Sharpe and Debra Paget as Nicholl's daughter Virginia.

Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon (also known as Those Fantastic Flying Fools) was released in 1967. Again only loosely inspired by the works of Jules Verne, being a comedy farce, it features Burl Ives as Phineas T Barnum, Jimmy Clitheroe as the proposed projectile pilot General Tom Thumb, and Terry-Thomas as Captain Sir Harry Washington-Smythe.

From the Earth to the Moon was also used as the title of a television series presented by Tom Hanks. However, the series was about the actual Apollo Space Missions rather than Jules Verne's fictional works.