FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON JULES VERNE'S EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGES

FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON

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Best known for '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' and Around The World In Eighty Days, Jules Verne also authored a number of other popular novels, that made it onto the big screen, such as 'The Mysterious Island,' and 'Journey To The Centre Of The World.'

Five weeks in a balloon is a travel adventure by a scholar and explorer, Dr. Samuel Fergusson, accompanied by his manservant Joe and his friend professional hunter Richard "Dick" Kennedy, sets out to travel across the African continent — still not fully explored — with the help of a balloon filled with hydrogen. He has invented a mechanism that, by eliminating the need to release gas or throw ballast overboard to control his altitude, allows very long trips to be taken.

This voyage is meant to link together the voyages of Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke in East Africa with those of Heinrich Barth in the regions of the Sahara and Chad. The trip begins in Zanzibar on the east coast, and passes across Lake Victoria, Lake Chad, Agadez, Timbuktu, Djenné and Ségou to St Louis in modern-day Senegal on the west coast. The book describes the unknown interior of Africa near modern-day Central African Republic as a desert, when it is actually savanna.

'Five Weeks in a Balloon' book cover

A good deal of the initial exploration is to focus on the finding of the source of the Nile, an event that occurs in chapter 18 out of 43. The second leg is to link up the other explorers. There are numerous scenes of adventure, composed of either a conflict with a native or a conflict with the environment. Some examples include:

- Rescuing a missionary from a tribe that was preparing to sacrifice him.

- Running out of water while stranded without a wind over the Sahara.

- An attack on the balloon by bearded vultures, leading to dramatic developments as Joe leaps out of the balloon.

- The actions taken to rescue Joe later.

- Narrowly escaping the remnants of a militant army as the balloon dwindles to nothingness with the loss of hydrogen.

- The shooting of a bluebuck, now known to be anachronistic since the species was by then already extinct.

In all these adventures, the protagonists overcome by continued perseverance more than anything else. The novel is filled with coincidental moments where trouble is avoided because wind catches up at just the right time, or the characters look in just the right direction. There are frequent references to a higher power watching out for them.

The balloon itself ultimately gives out before the end, but makes it far enough across to get the protagonists to friendly lands, and eventually back to England, therefore succeeding in the expedition. The story abruptly ends after the African trip, with only a brief synopsis of what follows.

Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, A Journey of Discovery by Three Englishmen in Africa (French: Cinq semaines en ballon) is an adventure novel by Jules Verne, published in 1863. It is the first novel in which he perfected the "ingredients" of his later work, skillfully mixing a story line full of adventure and plot twists that keep the reader's interest through passages of technical, geographic, and historic description. The book gives readers a glimpse of the exploration of Africa, which was still not completely known to Europeans of the time, with explorers traveling all over the continent in search of its secrets.

Public interest in fanciful tales of African exploration was at its height, and the novel was an instant hit; it made Verne financially independent and led to long-term contracts with Pierre-Jules Hetzel's publishing house, which put out some sixty more books of his over the next four decades.

'Five Weeks in a Balloon' is, in a measure, a satire on modern books of African travel. So far as the geography, the inhabitants, the animals, and the features of the countries the travelers pass over are described, it is entirely accurate. It gives, in some particulars, a survey of nearly the whole field of African discovery, and in this way will often serve to refresh the memory of the reader. The mode of locomotion is, of course, purely imaginary, and the incidents and adventures fictitious. The latter are abundantly amusing, and, in view of the wonderful "travelers' tales" with which we have been entertained by African explorers, they can scarcely be considered extravagant; while the ingenuity and invention of the author will be sure to excite the surprise and the admiration of the reader, who will find Jules as much at home in voyaging through the air as in journeying 'Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas.'

Jules Verne was the author of many adventure stories:

1 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Full text Part 1, Part 2
2 Around the World in Eighty Days - Full text Index
3 Journey to the Center of the Earth - Full text Index
4 The Mysterious Island (Extraordinary Voyages #12) Full text Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
5 From the Earth to the Moon
6 Michael Strogoff (Extraordinary Voyages, #14)
7 In Search of the Castaways; or the Children of Captain Grant (Extraordinary Voyages, #5)
8 Five Weeks in a Balloon

9 Round the Moon (Extraordinary Voyages, #7)
10 Adrift in the Pacific: Two Years Holiday (Extraordinary Voyages, #32)
11 The Master of the World (Extraordinary Voyages, #53)
12 The Adventures of Captain Hatteras
13 Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine; The Tribulations of a Chinese in China (Extraordinary Voyages, #19)
14 The Lighthouse at the End of the World
15 Mathias Sandorf (Extraordinary Voyages, #27)
16 Off On A Comet (Extraordinary Voyages, #15)
17 Los quinientos millones de la Begún (The five hundred million of the Begún)
18 Facing the Flag (Extraordinary Voyages, #42)
19 Un capitán de quince años (A fifteen year old captain)
20 El Testamento de un excentrico (The Testament of an eccentric)

Jules Verne is also known as the Father of Science Fiction

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FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON - JULES VERNE