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A Voyage to the Moon
On my return to this my native State, as soon as it was noised abroad that I had met with extraordinary adventures, and made a most wonderful voyage, crowds of people pressed eagerly to see me.
- GenresScience Fiction
196 pages, Paperback
First published July 20, 1827
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 13, 2023
A minor entry into the canon of early science fiction, A Voyage to the Moon: With Some Account of the Manners and Customs, Science and Philosophy, of the People of Morosofia, and Other Lunarians (they loved long titles back in the day) is written by American politician George Tucker. Tucker's best known novel is The Valley of Shenandoah, the first fictionalised account of life in Virginia, which is acclaimed more for its novelty than for its literary merits.
In the age of Mary Shelley, A Voyage to the Moon is a slightly archaic flashback to the satirical moon voyages of 17th century. Written under the pseudonym of Joseph Atterley, it describes how the narrator is shipwrecked off the coast of Burma, where he befriends a brahmin, who starts telling him of his trips to the moon using a space ship of his own invention. After a rather long-winded description of Atterley's captivity and discussions on life and human nature with the brahmin, they finally set off on their moon voyage. Life on the moon is very Earth-like and the lunarians are basically humans, but their society and luminaries are made up by Tucker so that he can satirise contemporary politicians and scientists. The book ends with a seemingly pointless retelling of the brahmin's life on Earth.
What is novel about the book is that it holds the first account of a gravity-defying mineral, here called "lunarium", which propels the space ship. This predates H.G. Wells' famous "cavorite" from First Men in the Moon with over 70 years. Even the spaceship itself seems to be an inspiration for Wells' tale. While it received good reviews in local papers and was fairly successful at the time, the novel's satire is too constrained to specific issues and ideas of the time it was written to really be effective today, and the odd and long-winded frame story of the brahmin makes for a cumbersome story arc. There are some fun observations and novel ideas regarding life on the moon, but a modern reader should attack it as a curio.
In the age of Mary Shelley, A Voyage to the Moon is a slightly archaic flashback to the satirical moon voyages of 17th century. Written under the pseudonym of Joseph Atterley, it describes how the narrator is shipwrecked off the coast of Burma, where he befriends a brahmin, who starts telling him of his trips to the moon using a space ship of his own invention. After a rather long-winded description of Atterley's captivity and discussions on life and human nature with the brahmin, they finally set off on their moon voyage. Life on the moon is very Earth-like and the lunarians are basically humans, but their society and luminaries are made up by Tucker so that he can satirise contemporary politicians and scientists. The book ends with a seemingly pointless retelling of the brahmin's life on Earth.
What is novel about the book is that it holds the first account of a gravity-defying mineral, here called "lunarium", which propels the space ship. This predates H.G. Wells' famous "cavorite" from First Men in the Moon with over 70 years. Even the spaceship itself seems to be an inspiration for Wells' tale. While it received good reviews in local papers and was fairly successful at the time, the novel's satire is too constrained to specific issues and ideas of the time it was written to really be effective today, and the odd and long-winded frame story of the brahmin makes for a cumbersome story arc. There are some fun observations and novel ideas regarding life on the moon, but a modern reader should attack it as a curio.
May 1, 2020
Beginning was promising, then it petered out.
February 22, 2025
I'm not a science fiction fan but I love extremely early science fiction. I was turned onto this book after reading Edgar Allan Poe's The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall. George Tucker and Poe were at the University of Virginia at the same time and apparently Tucker's story was an inspiration to Poe. Poe wrote his story ten years after Tucker's. There really is very little science fiction to this story, just the description of the journey to the moon. The rest of the book is satire similar to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Though I'm not clear on what Tucker is satirizing. Not a great read but I did enjoy reading about views and ideas of the early 19th century.
March 6, 2014
Nutty NUUT and Gutenberg work well together.
Having, by a train of fortunate circumstances, accomplished a voyage, of which the history of mankind affords no example; having, moreover, exerted every faculty of body and mind, to make my adventures useful to my countryman, and even to mankind, by imparting to them the acquisition of secrets in physics and morals, of which they had not formed the faintest conception, - I flattered myself that both the in the character of traveller and public benefactor, I had earned for myself an immortal name.
Fun to read just what the 1820's thought life could be like on the moon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 21, 2011
Aside from another fictionalized account and a speculative treatise about travel to the moon, both written in the 1600s, this is the the earliest novel about space travel. It is a satire, along the lines of Gulliver's Travels, quite accessible to modern readers. The author George Tucker (writing under the pen-name "Joseph Atterley") was a lawyer and formerly a U.S. Congressman. If I were still teaching U.S. Literature, I think I would try to find some way to work this into the course. It really would be a fun springboard to so many literary topics--satire, science fiction, and the development of American English being just a few that I am particularly interested in. But, as a story, it isn't very exciting.
March 17, 2013
A pair of travellers voyage to the Moon in a capsule powered by anti-gravity material and meet the inhabitants. Much philosophising about the differences between Earth and Moon cultures ensues. No, not 'The first men in the Moon' by HG Wells but 'A voyage to the Moon' by George Tucker.
Considered by many to be the first American SF writer, George Tucker wrote this short novel in 1827, over 70 years before Wells' better known work.
Not only does Tucker imagine anti-gravity in the 19th century, he also speculates that the Moon was once part of the Earth - a concept not widely accepted as correct by geologists until quite recently.
If you are into block-busting page turners then this is not for you but for anyone interested in early science fiction it provides a good quick read.
Considered by many to be the first American SF writer, George Tucker wrote this short novel in 1827, over 70 years before Wells' better known work.
Not only does Tucker imagine anti-gravity in the 19th century, he also speculates that the Moon was once part of the Earth - a concept not widely accepted as correct by geologists until quite recently.
If you are into block-busting page turners then this is not for you but for anyone interested in early science fiction it provides a good quick read.
November 19, 2012
Frankenstein, written in 1818, is often viewed as the first true "science fiction". A Voyage to the Moon - written in 1828 - is a cross between the earlier proto-SF and an attempt to give scientific explanations for the voyage & other aspects. What is described on the Moon is more of the social satire and utopian speculation of proto-SF. Much of the satire of the 1800's was lost on me - but the Project Gutenberg edition includes an appendix which clarifies these. One section of the book include Tucker's concept of a utopian society, which is not as archaic as earlier utopian works. The book may be more of interest to those who'd like to view the transition from proto-SF to SF.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews