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Five Weeks in a Balloon Jules Verne 1st World Library 1stworld Library 9781421820606 Books

Download As PDF : Five Weeks in a Balloon Jules Verne 1st World Library 1stworld Library 9781421820606 Books

Five Weeks in a Balloon Jules Verne 1st World Library 1stworld Library 9781421820606 Books

Five Weeks in a Balloon was the first novel that made Jules Verne famous. Published in 1963, it is, like all his other famous works, the story of a fantastic journey. In this case, the journey is across what was then known as 'Darkest Africa' in a balloon. All of Verne's great books are about journeys of one sort or another; either Around the World in 80 Days, to the Center of the Earth, beneath the sea in a submarine, through the sky in some form of airship, to the Moon in a cannon shell or, in the case of Michael Strogoff, merely overland across Russia and Central Asia.

Verne has often been called the first science-fiction writer. Perhaps that description is actually quite appropriate, because much of Verne's 'science' is pretty much 'fiction'. That is certainly the case in FWIAB, which was written at a time when the average reading public's knowledge both of the interior of Africa and of ballooning were sketchy at best. There was a reason why people used to refer to interior of Africa as 'Darkest Africa' or 'The Dark Continent', and it had nothing to do with 'race'. Up until the mid 1800s few outsiders had ever been farther inland than a few miles from the coast, so that most of the continent was still a blank space on the map. At the time when Verne wrote FWIAB the newspapers were becoming filled with stories of dauntless explorers penetrating the mysteries of the 'Dark Continent', so it was a natural subject for a fantasist such as Verne. However, at the time the book was written most of the interior of the continent was still unknown, so don't expect to use FWIAB as a source for geographical accuracy. For example, Verne describes a region of arid, water-less desert a position where the Congo River actually is, not that anybody would have known the difference at the time.

Since ballooning was an equally new and exiting activity, it was a natural choice to combine the two. Needless to say, Jules Verne's grasp of ballooning was about as vague as his knowledge of the interior of Africa. Even a rudimentary knowledge of aerostatic theory reveals that the amount of lift generated by the amount of hydrogen in the balloon in FWIAB would have fallen short by about half a ton. In other words, Verne's 'Victoria' would undoubtedly have turned out to have been the original 'Lead Zeppelin'.

Technicalities notwithstanding, what the reader will find here is a charming 'flight of fancy' to strange places with three dauntless, 19th-Century British explorers. Don't look for 21st-Century sensibilities or Dostoyevskian themes and character development, because you won't ever find those things in any of the works of Jules Verne. In other words, so long as the reader doesn't expect too much, just a pleasant story about a fantastic adventure, then the reader won't be disappointed.


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Five Weeks in a Balloon Jules Verne 1st World Library 1stworld Library 9781421820606 Books Reviews

Like many others in this series by Jules Verne, it is a great book. The adventure itself is great. However, it starts out t a bit slow. The author includes an excessive quantity of historical information about the explorers of Africa. I don't know if these are from real accounts or fictitious ones. He also goes into
technical detail of the calculations and materials used, which helps add realism, but can bog down the story at times. All in all, I enjoyed it and thought the characters were great. This would make a great movie.
For Jules Verne's first novel, this is remarkably well-developed. I enjoyed it more than 20,000 Leagues and about as much as the Mysterious Island (a boyhood favorite).

I understand that this is a satire of the African explores and their constant oneupmanship. I've read some of those journals and appreciated Verne's idea of sailing his men far over Livingstone, Burton, and Speke' expeditions in a balloon.

The protagonists' attitudes and references to the Africans seem horribly pejorative to the modern reader (especially one living in Africa), but Verne stoops no lower than the common views of 1863.

The best commendation I can give about this is that it made me want to build my own hydrogen balloon and try to recreate this journey. Some of his scenes were a bit contrived (how did the wind move the balloon in just the right direction to save Joe?) But others were believable enough that it made me wonder what lengths Verne went to in his research.

Definitely worth reading for fun.
I read this book on my kindle after it being recommended to me by a coworker. I enjoy a variety of books and this classic is no exception. I love the idea of travelling across Africa in a balloon and guessed from the beginning that there would be some adventures and troubles along the way. The way the book is written can be a bit much for the casual reader. I nearly gave up on it in sheer boredom when the mechanics of the balloon were described in sickeningly tedious detail. The only reason I kept going was because my coworker promised it would enthrall me. I cannot say that it enthralled, but it did keep me reading until I was rooting for the characters to complete their quest and be on the ground and safe. My hero in the book is the gentleman who is clearly a slave, but he is the most amazing person, full of courage and heart. I do hate the ending, but it was worth my time to experience it. It will be worth your time as well.
It can be fun to read how the writers of the past imagined things and places they had never seen and experienced. But unlike Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon" or "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", "Five Weeks in a Ballon" (FWiaB) is overloaded with history and anecdotes from this era, when Africa was being explored. In many chapters there is far too much fact and not enough imaginative fiction, for me anyway. Due to this, it was difficult to separate fact from fiction. This blurring is sometimes a fine literary tool, but here when describing the natives and their customs I found it difficult to read.

As intelligent and accurate as Verne is with his science, he obviously has no idea about hunting, dressing, butchering, and cooking wild animals. Very laughable. Also amusing is the oh-so-cordial way that Verne's characters treat each other. A much more polite time perhaps. Or maybe only in Verne's imagination?

I much prefered his 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to this book. 20K earns five stars to FWiaB 's three stars
Five Weeks in a Balloon was the first novel that made Jules Verne famous. Published in 1963, it is, like all his other famous works, the story of a fantastic journey. In this case, the journey is across what was then known as 'Darkest Africa' in a balloon. All of Verne's great books are about journeys of one sort or another; either Around the World in 80 Days, to the Center of the Earth, beneath the sea in a submarine, through the sky in some form of airship, to the Moon in a cannon shell or, in the case of Michael Strogoff, merely overland across Russia and Central Asia.

Verne has often been called the first science-fiction writer. Perhaps that description is actually quite appropriate, because much of Verne's 'science' is pretty much 'fiction'. That is certainly the case in FWIAB, which was written at a time when the average reading public's knowledge both of the interior of Africa and of ballooning were sketchy at best. There was a reason why people used to refer to interior of Africa as 'Darkest Africa' or 'The Dark Continent', and it had nothing to do with 'race'. Up until the mid 1800s few outsiders had ever been farther inland than a few miles from the coast, so that most of the continent was still a blank space on the map. At the time when Verne wrote FWIAB the newspapers were becoming filled with stories of dauntless explorers penetrating the mysteries of the 'Dark Continent', so it was a natural subject for a fantasist such as Verne. However, at the time the book was written most of the interior of the continent was still unknown, so don't expect to use FWIAB as a source for geographical accuracy. For example, Verne describes a region of arid, water-less desert a position where the Congo River actually is, not that anybody would have known the difference at the time.

Since ballooning was an equally new and exiting activity, it was a natural choice to combine the two. Needless to say, Jules Verne's grasp of ballooning was about as vague as his knowledge of the interior of Africa. Even a rudimentary knowledge of aerostatic theory reveals that the amount of lift generated by the amount of hydrogen in the balloon in FWIAB would have fallen short by about half a ton. In other words, Verne's 'Victoria' would undoubtedly have turned out to have been the original 'Lead Zeppelin'.

Technicalities notwithstanding, what the reader will find here is a charming 'flight of fancy' to strange places with three dauntless, 19th-Century British explorers. Don't look for 21st-Century sensibilities or Dostoyevskian themes and character development, because you won't ever find those things in any of the works of Jules Verne. In other words, so long as the reader doesn't expect too much, just a pleasant story about a fantastic adventure, then the reader won't be disappointed.