Resumen
Resumen de El otro mundo o Los estados e imperios de la Luna
Para quién es
For readers who enjoy early science fiction, satire and the history of ideas, and anyone curious about the real man behind the famous nose.
De qué trata este libro
A Voyage to the Moon is a seventeenth century French tale of a man who sets out to prove that the moon is a world, and then goes there. It was written by Cyrano de Bergerac, the soldier, duellist and free thinker who died in 1655. It appeared in print only after his death, in the years that followed, and it is often paired with a second tale about a journey to the sun. The book is narrated in the first person, and the traveller bears the author's own name.
What do you get from it? First, a quick, funny adventure with homemade flying machines, strange peoples and odd customs. Second, a sharp argument carried inside the fun. Cyrano uses the moon to ask what humans really know, what the Church and the schools taught as certain, and why we assume our world sits at the centre of everything. The tale is short and lively, and it still reads as a joke with a purpose. Let us begin where the journey begins, with an argument among friends.
En este resumen
- 1An argument about the moon starts it allFree
- 2Dew, fire and a fall to Canada
- 3Rockets carry him toward the moon
- 4Arrival in a strange and upside down world
- 5What the tale is really arguing
- 6A comic voice and a book of many parts
Idea clave 1 de 6
An argument about the moon starts it all
The tale opens with the narrator in company, after an evening spent gazing at the full moon. His friends talk about it in the usual ways, and some laugh when he says that the moon is a world like ours. To them, this is a joke fit for a madman. They have heard such ideas before, and they treat them as absurd.
The narrator does not let it go. He thinks about the claim all night, and he decides that talk will never settle it. If the moon is another earth, then the only proof is to go there and see. That is the spark of the whole book, and it is a very seventeenth century spark. It joins a bold idea about nature with a stubborn man's pride.
This opening matters because the idea was not idle in Cyrano's day. Thinkers across Europe were arguing about whether other worlds existed, and whether the earth moved. The old teaching, taken from ancient authorities and supported by the Church, held that the earth was fixed at the centre. To say otherwise could cause trouble, and Cyrano knew it. So he wraps a risky thought in a comic adventure.
Notice also the style of the narrator. He is vain, quick, witty and certain that reason is on his side. He does not whisper his views. He acts on them. That mix of mockery and daring sets the tone for everything that follows, and it lets the reader enjoy the ideas before noticing how sharp they are.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Questions about El otro mundo o Los estados e imperios de la Luna
What is A Voyage to the Moon about?
It tells of a man who claims the moon is a world, builds flying machines to reach it, and meets strange people there. Under the adventure, it mocks old beliefs and asks readers to question what they take for granted.
Did Cyrano de Bergerac really write about space travel?
Yes. In the tale, the traveller uses rockets that burn in turn to climb into the sky. That early picture of rocket flight is a main reason the book is linked to the history of science fiction.
When was A Voyage to the Moon written?
Cyrano wrote it in the mid seventeenth century. It was published only after he died in 1655, in a version prepared by his friend Henri Le Bret, and it is often joined with a second tale about the sun.
Is A Voyage to the Moon hard to read?
It is short and lively, and the story is easy to follow. The witty narrator and the quick adventure, with its flying machines and strange peoples, carry you along from one episode to the next.
Is the Cyrano of the book the same as the Cyrano of the play?
Both are based on the real Cyrano de Bergerac. The play by Edmond Rostand is a later romantic drama, while the moon tale is Cyrano's own satirical fantasy, written by him in his own time.