Because I recently read "The First Men in the Moon" by Herbert George Wells, I thought it would be just fair to check out his famous literary predecessor. Now, Jules Verne is of course an author usually connected to childhood and teenage years, when one reads adventure novels - however, it turned out that I am more familiar with his work trough the movies and cartoons ("Classics Illustrated") than actual books. It has been several decades since, but with a complete conviction I could name only a few of his novels that I have actually read:
- In Search of the Castaways (1868) correctly translated as "Children of Captain'Grant"
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1869)
- Around the World in Eighty Days (1873)
- Michael Strogoff (1876) translated as "The Tzar's Courier"
It turned out my theoretical knowledge of Jules Verne is by far bigger that my actual acquaintance with his work. So to correct this, I decided to turn my attention to "The First Men in the Moon" written some 30 years earlier than Wells. Since Goodreads is constantly reminding me that I am lagging behind my 2023 reading challenge, I did the same like with "The Wind in the Willows" and started listening to an audio book.
This was a very good decision, because I completely forgot how obsessed with scientific experiments, details and measurements Verne was. I actually don't remember him being so scientific or technical - as a kid, I have probably just skipped everything and focused on adventures - if I was reading this as a physical book, I might have skipped it all over again - but since I was walking lulled with a pleasant voice of certain Mark F. Smith, this didn't really bother me. In the beginning it took me a while to get accustomed to so much encyclopedic knowledge (do we really need to know name of every singe bank who contributed to finance of the project?) but I grew to like it a lot and eventually started really enjoying myself. I do must confess this is a very old fashioned, flowery writing style with a tons of encyclopedic digressions into all sorts of informations, calculations and technical knowledge - in fact, author often appears far more delighted with these scientific explorations than with the plot itself, hence the huge amount of research and only occasional return to the story. I would say, Verne's novel is 70% science and 30% story. As a society, we have changed a lot since - I don't think that kids today have patience or enough focus for such long-winded literature, it tested even my patience as a grown up man.
So is it "From the Earth to the Moon" any good?
Yes, its delightful but the reader must accept that Jules Verne exist in his own universe, where scientific details and constant technical digressions matter more than the story itself. There is a cute satire with idle members of Baltimore Gun Club joining together to finance construction of cannon that could be projected to the moon. There is a president Barbicane, his enemy Captain Nicholl and heroic French adventurer Michel Ardan (whose identity I still didn't understand, he seems to come out of nowhere), all sorts of complications around them and building of huge cannon in Florida (Texas was another possibility). There is so much of science and engineering, that the whole story almost collapses under the sheer weight of it, but Verne adds surprising touches of humour and satire that keeps the reader engaged. I was surprised how much a novel from 1865 deals with stereotypes that are perfectly recognisable even today - Americans are gun crazy and of course, a French is a hero. This was so charming that I immediately continued with a sequel. Because, dear reader, the whole book is about construction about the cannon - the journey is described in the sequel.
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