7 h 44 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 44 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What do two men carry to the Moon besides curiosity—and what happens when they find it inhabited?
Mr Bedford retreats to the English countryside after business failures, hoping to earn money by writing a play. Then he meets Mr Cavor, an absorbed scientist whose invention blocks gravity. In H. G. Wells’s The First Men in the Moon, their spherical vessel turns an unlikely partnership into a journey beyond Earth.
Sunlight transforms the lunar landscape, bringing strange plants to life on seemingly barren ground. Beneath the surface, Bedford and Cavor encounter the Selenites and their vast, organised society. But wonder soon meets fear. Bedford wants to improve his fortunes; Cavor wants to understand. Their different aims put more than discovery at stake.
What you’ll discover
- An unlikely travelling pair Follow a businessman and a scientist whose clashing priorities bring humour and unease to discovery.
- Gravity loses its grip Explore the possibilities of cavorite, a substance whose dangers reach beyond its inventor’s control.
- A landscape waking up Watch sunlight reveal strange, rapidly growing plants where the Moon first seems barren.
- Life beneath the surface Meet the Selenites, whose underground society shapes its members for highly specialised tasks.
- Curiosity meets conquest Consider whether exploration can stay peaceful when fear, wealth, and unfamiliar customs collide.
Who will love it
This is for readers who love early science fiction, quick humor and grand ideas told in a lively voice. It suits anyone curious about space travel, strange worlds and the odd partnership of two very different men.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A walk on a Kent path starts everything
- The first batch of Cavorite nearly empties the sky
- Cavor plans a sphere that can fly to the moon
- Floating between two worlds feels like a dream
- A lunar dawn wakes up a world of plants
- Lost on the surface, the men hear something beneath them
- Chained captives try to be understood
- A fight, a climb and a parting at sunset
- What drives the voyage and how it is told
Who’s who
- Mr. BedfordA bankrupt young businessman and would-be playwright who tells the story and hopes the moon will bring him wealth.
- Mr. CavorAn absent-minded scientist who invents a substance that blocks gravity and cares only about knowledge.
- Spargus and GibbsCavor's helpers, a former sailor and a joiner, who quarrel over the furnace on the day of the first accident.
- The SelenitesInsectlike beings who live in tunnels inside the moon, herd mooncalves and work enormous machines.
- The mooncalvesHuge, slow, sluglike animals kept in pastures on the lunar surface and driven by Selenite herders.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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I primi uomini sulla Luna
by H. G. Wells · 1901
A bankrupt playwright and an absent-minded scientist build a sphere that shuts out gravity and head for the moon.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What if one small metal sphere could shut out gravity and carry you to the moon? In The First Men in the Moon, H. G. Wells sends a bankrupt businessman and an absent-minded scientist on that very trip.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A walk on a Kent path starts everything
The story opens with Mr. Bedford, a young man deep in debt, who rents a bungalow at Lympne in Kent. He hopes to write a play and escape an angry creditor. Peace is what he wants, and chance is what he gets.
Each evening, at the same moment, a round little man in a cricket cap buzzes along a path, stops, checks his watch and hurries back. After fourteen evenings Bedford walks out and asks him why. The man is Mr. Cavor, a scientist who had no idea he hummed, and who now complains that Bedford has broken his daily habit. They settle on a new one, with Cavor talking physics on Bedford's veranda.
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What is The First Men in the Moon about?
It tells how a scientist, Mr. Cavor, invents a substance that blocks gravity and builds a sphere with Mr. Bedford to fly to the moon. They land among strange plants and find a world of insectlike beings under the surface.
Who are the Selenites in The First Men in the Moon?
The Selenites are the intelligent insectlike inhabitants of the moon. They live in tunnels beneath the surface, herd large animals called mooncalves, run huge machines and differ greatly in shape according to their work.
What is Cavorite?
Cavorite is the fictional material Cavor invents. It blocks the pull of gravity, so anything coated with it can float free. The sphere's windows are shutters of Cavorite that let the travelers steer by opening them toward a planet.
The author
H. G. Wells
1866–1946 · English science fiction novelist
H. G. Wells (1866–1946) was an English writer born in Bromley, Kent. He wrote novels, short stories and nonfiction. His novels included The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897) and The War of the Worlds (1898). He died in London.
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