Five Weeks in a Balloon

About the book

Doctor Ferguson proposes to link geographical discoveries through an aerial journey across Africa, accompanied by his friend Kennedy and his servant Joe. Their balloon offers an unusual vantage point and a means of crossing obstacles, but also makes wind, water, weight, and mechanical reliability urgent concerns. The travellers' different temperaments supply both disagreement and complementary skills as each new situation tests the plan. Verne combines geographical exposition with episodes of danger, using the imagined machine to turn a map into a sequence of practical problems. The narrative also carries the colonial assumptions and racial stereotypes of its European perspective. This translation is credited to the name William Lackland. The book's central attraction is the continual adjustment between a confident technological project and circumstances that refuse to become entirely predictable.

• Exploration
• Technology and uncertainty
• Companionship

Why read it

For an early Verne adventure built around the practical vulnerabilities of an ingenious means of travel.

Novel · English translation credited to William Lackland