Five Weeks in a Balloon: Or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen
1863
Five Weeks in a Balloon: Or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen
1863
The novel that launched Jules Verne's legendary career began with a spectacularly mad idea: cross unmapped Africa in a balloon. Dr. Samuel Ferguson, an eccentric Victorian explorer with the confidence of a man who has never been proven wrong, persuades his long-suffering friend Dick Kennedy, a skeptical hunter, and Joe, their irrepressibly optimistic servant, to join him in a wicker basket floating above the Dark Continent. What follows is part scientific adventure, part satirical comedy, as Verne skewers the pompous certainties of British imperial exploration while celebrating its glorious audacity. The trio encounters deserts, waterfalls, and wild beasts; the balloon springs leaks; Kennedy doubts everything; Joe remains cheerfully undeterred. Written when Africa remained a blank space on European maps, Five Weeks in a Balloon captures the era's fevered dreams of conquest and discovery, filtered through Verne's characteristic blend of technical imagination and dry wit. It is the first Verne novel to perfect the formula that would define dozens more: science made thrilling, exploration made magical, and human ambition made both ridiculous and magnificent.
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“As for difficulties," replied Ferguson, in a serious tone, "they were made to be overcome.””
— Jules Verne
“We must look upon what is to occur as having already occurred, and see nothing but the present in the future, for the future is but the present a little farther on.””
— Jules Verne
“Death, the beginning of eternal things, is only the end of earthly cares. -Priest””
— Jules Verne
“Besides," said Kennedy, "the time when industry gets a grip of everything and uses it to its own advantage may not be particularly amusing. If men go on inventing machinery they'll end up by being swallowed by their own machines. I've always thought that the last day will be brought about by some colossal boiler heated to three thousand atmospheres blowing up the world.""And I bet the Yankees will have had a hand in it," said Joe.””
— Jules Verne
“The man who was born to be hung will never be drowned!””
— Jules Verne
“If savages had the ways of gentlemen, where would be the difference?””
— Jules Verne
“Huzza for the Queen! Huzza for Old England!””
— Jules Verne
“There will not always be scientific men, perhaps, but there always will be poets.””
— Jules Verne
“Poh! doctor, one has only just to follow things along as they happen, and he can always work his way out of a scrape! The safest plan, you see, is to take matters as they come.””
— Jules Verne
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Verne, Jules. Five Weeks in a Balloon: Or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen. Lex, lex-books.com/book/five-weeks-in-a-balloon-or-journeys-and-discoveries-in-africa-by-three-englishme-b859d322-e2fe-429f-82e5-427ddc82b571.Verne, J. (1863). Five Weeks in a Balloon: Or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/five-weeks-in-a-balloon-or-journeys-and-discoveries-in-africa-by-three-englishme-b859d322-e2fe-429f-82e5-427ddc82b571Verne, Jules. Five Weeks in a Balloon: Or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/five-weeks-in-a-balloon-or-journeys-and-discoveries-in-africa-by-three-englishme-b859d322-e2fe-429f-82e5-427ddc82b571.
