From the Earth to the Moon & Around the Moon (Wordsworth Classics) [Paperback]

This is a review of the 1970 Heritage Press edition of Jules Verne's _From the Earth to the Moon_ and _Around the Moon_. The first novel was originally published in 1865, the second in 1870. The book does not credit a translator, but various bibliographies credit Harold Salemson and rate his translation as "excellent". There is a good introduction by Verne's grandson, Jean Jules-Verne and lovely (if somewhat modernistic) color illustrations by Robert Shore. The Heritage Press edition, then, would make a great gift package for even the most persnickety of Verne purists.

I would like to addresss a characteristic of these novels that is frequently overlooked: They are funny. It has been said that much of the humor is in the form of an anti-war satire, and I believe that this is partly true. Early in _From the Earth to the Moon_, the members of the Baltimore Gun Club (most of whom have missing limbs) mourn the end of the Civil War and wish ardently for a new war that will allow them to design new cannons that will kill hundreds of people at a time.

Later, when the ever-impetuous J.T. Maston wants to join the other travelers on the trip to the Moon, Michel Aden gently explains to him that he is "incomplete" (167), since he is missing an arm:

"Imagine our meeting some of the inhabitants up there! Would you like to give them such a melancholy notion of what goes on down here? To teach them what war is, to inform them that we employ our time chiefly in devouring each other, in smashing arms and legs, and that too on a globe which is capable of supporting a hundred billion inhabitants, and which actually does contain barely two hundred million? Why, my worthy friend, they would feel they had to turn us away!" (167)

But I believe that it is more accurate to say that Verne is laughing at _enthusiasms_. To be sure, some of these enthusiasms are from people who want to go to war with another country at the drop of a hat. But some enthusiasms lead to wild public support for a shell to be fired at the Moon (Americans want to plant their flag their and to make it a new state), a rivalry between Texas and Florida for the honor of the launching site, and members of a crowd proposing to "invent the necessary machines, and rectify the Earth's axis!" (142). Enthusiasms lead to the building of an observatory in the Rockies (though not at Palomar) and to the willingness of three men to risk their lives on a fantastic voyage. One of them at one point says that he doesn't plan to come back. Enthusiasm inspires a crowd of five million people to gather at the site of the launching, while bartenders hawk mint-juleps, claret sangarees, and cocktails.

On a more personal level, enthusiasms lead President Impey Barbicane and Captain Nicholl to challenge one another to a duel and then to absentmindedly get sidetracked. Barbicane and Nicholl also engage in in a rather elaborate wager that has to be seen to be believed. Enthusiasm inspires Michel Alden to proclaim that he would be willing to aquit a thief who demonstrated a sense of esthetics and to suggest that the spacecraft be populated with animals like Noah's ark.

But the single most enthusiastic character in the novels is J.T. Maston. He wishes to go to war with Mexico to gain a launching site, he burns his feet during the casting of the launch cannon, he almost falls down the bore of the cannon once it has cooled, and he is blown 120 feet in the air when the cannon fires. But he is also the one man who never gives up hope when it seems that the space travelors will be lost in space forever. And his hope is justified.

Perhaps it would be worthwhile to close with some attention given to Verne's scientific details. I am not referring here to a critique of what things Verne "got wrong" versus the things that he "got right".* What I am talking about here is Verne's _credibility_. He piles on detail upon detail so that he makes the planning of the launch, the casting of the cannon, the blastoff, the voyage, and the splashdown all seem believeable. We are able to willingly suspend our disbelief; it is never hung by the neck until dead.

*For an excellent essay of this sort, see Gregory Benford's introduction to the Bantam Classic edition of _From the Earth to the Moon_.

The original 1872 English translation by Rev. Lewis Page Mercier omits about 20% of the story, including all the science and mathematics which Verne included. This restored translation, uncredited, but listed in bibliographies as by Harald Salemson, is a restored version including the material which Mercier left out and correcting many of his blunders. This edition converts all of Verne's various units into English units and Fahrenheit degrees, thus destroying part of the original flavour of the book. Also the French expletives do not translate well into English equivalents. Long out of print, this 1970 edition is the first in the 19th century to do justice to the original French of Jules Verne. If you grew up with the original Mercier version, you may want to read this to see what you missed.