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Annotated Jules Verne: From the Earth to the Moon
Annotated Jules Verne From the Earth to the Moon Author:Walter James Miller First published in France in 1865. — Written almost a century before the daring flights of the astronauts, Jules Verne's prophetic novel of man's race to the stars is a classic adventure tale enlivened by broad satire and scientific acumen. When the members of the elite Baltimore Gun Club find themselves lacking any urgent assignments at the clos... more »e of the Civil War, their president, Impey Barbicane, proposes that they build a gun big enough to launch a rocket to the moon. But when Barbicane's adversary places a huge wager that the project will fail and a daring volunteer elevates the mission to a "manned" flight, one man's dream turns into an international space race.
A prophetic work where Verne?s astounding imagination is presented. The project escalates into world-wide excitement and wagers. Verne gives us the beautifully detailed steps and procedures used to make the plan workable. It is astounding that, over 100 years before the flight to the moon became technically feasible; Verne did such a remarkable job of presenting some of the details of what it would take to make the flight possible.
115 illustrations throughout text, 50 of them from original French editions.
Jules Verne (1828-1905) is best known for his science fiction stories, at the time called "tales of imagination", even though he also wrote several historical novels.
Father of modern science fiction and eminent French novelist, Verne?s works gained world-wide popularity and remain popular to this date. With this work, Verne inspired the first science fiction film, 1902's Le Voyage dans la lune, and accurately predicted that that ideal location for a space base is in Florida.
As one of the first science fiction writers, his novels show the basics of good science fiction - good plot, good characterization, sound science, and good projections of scientific trends.
His ability to project the future of science was remarkable. Among his projections were the modern submarine, television, guided missiles, satellites, and the airplane. His accuracy was not only in the invention but in the uses to which they were put.« less