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    The First Men in the Moon: With linked Table of Contents
    The First Men in the Moon: With linked Table of Contents
    The First Men in the Moon: With linked Table of Contents
    Ebook275 pages4 hours

    The First Men in the Moon: With linked Table of Contents

    By H. G. Wells

    3.5/5

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    As I sit down to write here amidst the shadows of vine-leaves under the blue sky of southern Italy, it comes to me with a certain quality of astonishment that my participation in these amazing adventures of Mr. Cavor was, after all, the outcome of the purest accident. It might have been any one. I fell into these things at a time when I thought myself removed from the slightest possibility of disturbing experiences. I had gone to Lympne because I had imagined it the most uneventful place in the world. "Here, at any rate," said I, "I shall find peace and a chance to work!" And this book is the sequel. So utterly at variance is destiny with all the little plans of men. I may perhaps mention here that very recently I had come an ugly cropper in certain business enterprises. Sitting now surrounded by all the circumstances of wealth, there is a luxury in admitting my extremity. I can admit, even, that to a certain extent my disasters were conceivably of my own making. It may be there are directions in which I have some capacity, but the conduct of business operations is not among these. But in those days I was young, and my youth among other objectionable forms took that of a pride in my capacity for affairs. I am young still in years, but the things that have happened to me have rubbed something of the youth from my mind. Whether they have brought any wisdom to light below it is a more doubtful matter.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilder Publications, Inc.
    Release dateJun 10, 2015
    ISBN9781633845718
    The First Men in the Moon: With linked Table of Contents
    Author

    H. G. Wells

    H.G. Wells is considered by many to be the father of science fiction. He was the author of numerous classics such as The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The War of the Worlds, and many more. 

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    Reviews for The First Men in the Moon

    3.5/5

    15 ratings16 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Very early sci-fi - reflecting the era & world-views of its times.Read Dec 2006
    • 2/5
      I don't believe I have ever read H.G. Wells work before, though I grew up with the original War of the Worlds movie on heavy replay. I think this is a case where I can say I read a classic work and I am grateful that it was a quick read. I found it curious how Wells got some details right, like the lack of gravity in space, even as his moon is populated by verdant flora during the daytime and subterranean bug-like aliens. The colonialism aspect of it all made me cringe but the ending was not unsatisfying in this regard.
    • 4/5
      Early science fiction novel that describes a trip to the moon. Surprisingly bleak in the end.
    • 4/5
      A sort of Trip to the Moon meets First Contact story. Amazing to think it was written in 1901. It was probably hard SF of its day and even now sounds very plausible in its ideas except obviously for life on the moon.
    • 4/5
      Rereading H.G. Wells has been quite an experience. When I first read this one, I remember, I was most impressed by the adventure story. This time around, 45 years later, I was struck by Wells' humor. There were times I almost laughed out loud while reading, a reaction not to the pseudo-science but to Wells deft handling of social satire and irony. A very good read.
    • 3/5
      Following his success with The Invisible Man, The Time Machine and War of the Worlds, H G Wells turned his attention to space travel. Like his three previous novels; First Men in the Moon is firmly set in late Victorian England and it is an unconventional scientist who once again proves to be the catalyst for the story. Mr Cavor working in his country house with a team of untrained assistants, invents a material that negates the effects of gravity, which he names Cavorite. His lonely walks along the sea front attract the attention of Bedford, a bankrupt business man and the two men soon become associates and so starts their mad adventures fuelled by a sort of comic book fantasy that is never remotely believable.The two men are soon hard at work in Cavor’s backyard building a space capsule which will feature window shutters made of Cavorite with which they will be able to manipulate in such a way as to escape the earth’s gravitational pull and fly to the moon. Today this sounds like pure hokum and it cannot have sounded any better in 1901 when Well’s book was published. This is what Well’s astronaughts were wearing inside their sphere:“The interior was warm, the thermometer stood at eighty, and as we should lose little or none of this by radiation, we were dressed in shoes and thin flannels. We had however, a bundle of thick woollen clothing and several thick blankets to guard against mischance.”They did take some oxygen cylinders, but these were not needed when they found breathable atmosphere on the moon. Yes of course they made it to the moon and with some desperate manoeuvrings with the Cavorite blinds managed to land safely enough. This is Mr Cavor on the moon enjoying it’s lesser gravitational pull:“Good we cried to each other ‘Good’ and Cavor made three steps and went off to a tempting slope of snow a good twenty yards and more beyond. I stood for a moment struck by the grotesque effect of his soaring figure - his dirty cricket cap, and spiky hair, his little round body, his arms and his knicker-bockered legs tucked up tightly - against the weird spaciousness of the lunar scene. A gust of laughter seized me, and then I stepped off to follow. Plump! I dropped beside him.”Wells is having tremendous fun with his “Boys Own” adventure and this is the main problem with his book. There are some passages where the characters reflect on the folly of man and his rapacious needs and there is the juxtaposition between the two characters, but I never got the sense that this is what the book was really about. The story is told by Bedford in the first person, now safely back on earth and so we realise that at least one of the adventurers lived to tell the tale. Our two unlikely protagonists find life on the moon which is a honeycomb of tunnels and caves inhabited by the Selenites: sort of intelligent ant like beings. It is Cavor by his dispatches from the moon that describes their society their natural history and finally his meeting with their ruler: The Grand Lunar.First Men in the Moon has the feel of a pot boiler; Wells seems here to have taken his fantasy writing as far as it would go and is stretching all bounds of possibility with this novel. It is however never dull and Well’s easy flowing style carries the reader along with him. It is amusing and if you don’t mind the silly story it is a fun read. 3 stars.
    • 4/5
      I loved this book.Its about two men who end up traveling to the moon in a glass sphere using Cavorite. It's such a classic. Obviously we now know that none of the things that happened in the book can actually happen on the moon, but its still a great read. I really enjoyed the way the two main characters interacted with each other and the strange insect moon people. The story was engrossing and I would definitely recommend it to others.
    • 3/5
      In The First Men in the Moon, by H.G. Wells, a scientist named Cavor develops a substance named cavorite, which shields the force of gravity. He and a businessman friend, Bedford, construct a spherical structure using cavorite and travel to the Moon. They discover a Moon that has enough oxygen in its atmosphere for humans to breathe and a reduced gravity that enables them to travel quickly by taking extremely long jumps. They also discover an active biosphere with rapidly growing plants, and intelligent human-insect creatures called Selenites. The Selenites live inside the Moon, not on its surface. Cavor and Bedford are taken captive by the Selenites, but Bedford escapes from captivity and manages to fly the sphere back to Earth along with a quantity of gold that makes him a wealthy man. He tried to rescue Cavor before he left the moon, but could not find him. Instead he found a note from Cavor and some blood the made him believe Cavor was dead. However, it turns out that Cavor was not dead, and he eventually sends a series of radio messages to Earth, which are very descriptive of the Selenite society and life on the Moon. This is a classic work of science fiction and Wells includes very creative descriptions of the vessel that carries Cavor and Bedford to the Moon and brings Bedford back to Earth. He also provides detailed descriptions of the Moon and its environment. Wells created a very interesting habitat and society on the moon, which is remarkable for a book published in 1901. The last twenty-five percent of the book, consisting primarily of Cavor’s messages describing the moon and the Selenite physiology and society, was the most interesting part of the book for me. I would probably categorize this book as a fantasy because today’s scientific knowledge of the Moon negates most of Wells’ descriptions. However, it still conveys his amazing creativity and I’m glad I finally read it.
    • 4/5
      As some have created barriers to heat or sound or water, so our heroes have created a barrier against gravity. This material, called Cavorite, it then used to create a spherical capsule to ferry them to the moon. There they find life, of course, because if they found what's really on the moon (i.e., nothing), we would have no story. The aliens were interesting enough, but what really fascinated me was the idea of the atmosphere freezing into snow at night, then thawing into thin-but-breathable air each day. I felt real suspense as the characters desperately searched for shelter as the deadly sunset approached. While Wells is most known for his visionary science fiction, what I love is the interaction between the two main characters, particularly Bedford's outrage at Cavor's absent-minded apathy. This short book may not be one of his more famous works, but I definitely enjoyed it.
    • 4/5
      Fun story about two English men (one a brilliant but unknown scientist, the other an unlucky business man) who devise a spherical space ship and ride it to the moon. On the moon, they discover a race of intelligent beings, the Selenites, who capture them and take them into an underground world. Before much can happen, the non-scientist runs amok and escapes back to Earth in the ship, marooning the scientist for ever.
    • 4/5
      Before I review this book I want to say two things: 1) I am new to the sci-fi genre, so I don't have a lot to compare this with, and 2) I do not really care about how scientifically accurate the facts are. That being said, I thought this was a really good book. It began a little slowly, but once it picked up, it was hard to put down. The book sort of felt like a social commentary, and I couldn't help but identify strongly with the Selenites and I was angered with the way the main character treated them. The ending couple of chapters are the best chapters of the whole book, and the last paragraph left me with chills. Also, the book was easy to read for someone not familiar with science; I did not feel lost at any point in the book, and science has always been a weaker subject for me.
    • 5/5
      This is not science fiction so much as fantasy. Even 100 years ago, Wells's contemporaries knew there was no atmosphere on the moon. To create a world within the planet is a fantastic idea, but there are so many holes in the idea that it smells like swiss cheese (which is what many alleged the moon was made of for awhile). Cavorite, a substance named after its inventor Cavor, is something else. This is science of a sort. It may be possible to use anti-energy to rebel against gravitation, but if so, we haven't figured out how to harness it yet. We do know there is such a thing as anti-matter, and that may work against gravitation, but for one small problem, i.e., if we take one small bit of anti-matter and somehow manage to get it so it is exposed to any gravitational field within normal physics, a systemic sized explosion would occur, thereby wiping out all humanity, and, of course, the experiement. As far as a story, however, Wells does it again, keeping us entertained throughout and waiting to see what gems hius mind has in store for us.
    • 4/5
      I think what one can sometimes forget, when consider Wells only in light of his major classic SF works, is that he's more than some clever ideas (typically with bad movie adaptations). Wells was not only a visionary genius, he was a very good writer as well. This book combines humour, flawed and very human characters, disturbing and very alien characters, and incredible scientific insight and realism.The book was published in 1901, yet its ideas about flaws of humans and our civilisations still ring true. As well, his ability to create plausible fictional science is quite extraordinary.
    • 2/5
      Although I am a fan of H G Wells, I have to say I found this one very tedious and so dated that it was quite difficult to read (and I am no stranger to SF-related suspension of disbelief!). What dialogue there is is stilted and it only really came alive in the last dozen pages or so when the Grand Lunar compared the Earthling way of life to that of his Selenites. Disappointing.
    • 5/5
      Imagine the disappointment for those first astronaughts! No, the moon was not alive with vegetation, and strange little creatures curious and afraid of what the men brought, and what they wanted. No, there were no Klingons either. But what a shame!Wells' novel has dated badly in some respects, with the Victorian 'science' it employs, and its crazy ideas about life on the moon. But it is intriguing, and the ending is one of the all-time great, moralistic endings. And what if Wells had actually been talking about Africa all along, as some have suggested? Would it be seen differently as a metaphor that way?
    • 4/5
      The story's protaginist, Mr. Bedford, meets a scientist on the verge of an amazing discovery - a material that blocks gravity. The two characters then build a device that enables them to travel to the moon, where they encounter an extraordinary landscape, populated by strange plants, animals and even an intellegent human-like population. The book provides one of the fist examples of science fiction, and introduces the concept of space exploration decades before this feat became a reality. It has been read as a critique of imperialism, through the main character's desire to exploit the seemingly abundant supply of gold on the moon, and his brutal treatment of the resident population. This book is less well known than Wells' other works, but I would say that it is just as good as 'war of the worlds'. Some caution is advised for those who would have difficulty with the outdated scientific (mis)conceptions, ie. breathing on the moon, gravity-blocking material, animals on the moon!

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    The First Men in the Moon - H. G. Wells

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