A Voyage in a Balloon

By Jules Verne and Sheba Blake

Pioneering science-fiction writer Jules Verne is the second most translated author of all time (after Agatha Christie.) This translation of his short story A Voyage in a Balloon first appeared in Sartain's Union Magazine of Literature and Art in a May 1852 edition, making it the first of the French writer's stories to be published in English. As Verne writes in this story: "May this terrific recital, while it instructs those who read it, not discourage the explorers of the routes of air."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sheba Blake Publishing Corp.
• Release date: Feb 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9783985101016

Jules Verne

Victor Marie Hugo (1802–1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement and is considered one of the greatest French writers. Hugo’s best-known works are the novels Les Misérables, 1862, and The Hunchbak of Notre-Dame, 1831, both of which have had several adaptations for stage and screen.

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Jules Verne

A Voyage in a Balloon

First published by Sheba Blake Publishing Corp. 2022

Copyright © 2022 by Jules Verne

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

Jules Verne asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

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Contents

Redactor’s Note

1. My Ascension at Frankfort

2. The Company of Aerostiers

About the Author

Redactor’s Note

From Sartain’s Union Magazine of Literature and Art (Philadelphia: 1849-1852): May 1852: VOL. X. No. 5: p. 389-395.

John Sartain (1808-1897) was an English artist and engraver skilled in the art of mezzotint who emigrated to the United States; in 1848 he purchased a one-half interest in the Union Magazine, a New York periodical, which he transferred to Philadelphia. The name was changed to Sartain’s Union Magazine, and during the four years of its existence the journal became widely known, publishing works of Poe and other literati. The article here is a translation of La science en famille / Un voyage en ballon. / (Réponse à l’énigme de juillet.), In: Musée des Familles. Lectures du soir, Paris, seconde série. vol. 8, no. 11 (August 1851), pp. 329-336 (5 illustrations by A. de Bar, two chapters). This is a different version from the one published by Hetzel; Un drame dans les airs, in: Le Docteur Ox, 19 October 1874, (ed. C & D) (6 illustrations by Emile Bayard, only one chapter!).

In this early work we see the ingredients of Verne’s later Voyages Extraordinaires; characters brought or thrown together on a journey to afar; introduction of new characters part