4 h 45 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the moon’s people find our view of the universe as laughable as we find theirs?
An argument among friends sends a proud, curious traveller named Cyrano toward the moon. He insists it is a world like ours, even when his friends laugh. Bottles of dew and a machine packed with fireworks turn his claim into a comic adventure. In Cyrano de Bergerac’s A Voyage to the Moon, the urge to prove a point carries him beyond familiar ground.
On the moon, strange customs throw earthly habits into sharp relief. The learned Demon of Socrates helps Cyrano weigh the beliefs of one world against another. Beneath the jokes, this lively tale questions human certainty, the teachings of the Church and the schools, and our assumption that everything revolves around us. What can we really claim to know?
What you’ll discover
- An argument takes flight Follow a traveller who answers his friends’ laughter with a daring experiment.
- Dew bottles and rockets Enjoy homemade flying machines that give this philosophical journey its wild comic energy.
- Earth seen from elsewhere Meet moon people who turn humanity’s confident picture of the universe upside down.
- A curious lunar guide Join the Demon of Socrates in weighing earthly beliefs against lunar ones.
- A voice full of mischief Spend time with a boastful, questioning narrator who never loses his sense of fun.
Who will love it
For readers who enjoy early science fiction, satire and the history of ideas, and anyone curious about the real man behind the famous nose.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- An argument about the moon starts it all
- Dew, fire and a fall to Canada
- Rockets carry him toward the moon
- Arrival in a strange and upside down world
- What the tale is really arguing
- A comic voice and a book of many parts
Who’s who
- The narrator, called CyranoA witty, proud and curious traveller who insists the moon is a world and sets out to prove it by going there.
- The viceroy of New FranceThe colonial governor in Canada who welcomes the narrator and supports his experiment with a flying machine.
- Domingo GonsalesA Spanish traveller borrowed from an earlier tale, whom the narrator meets on the moon and who shares his view of that world.
- The Demon of SocratesA learned spirit who guides the narrator on the moon and helps him weigh earthly beliefs against lunar ones.
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- Audiobook
- 4 h 45 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 9 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
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Un viaggio sulla Luna
by Cyrano de Bergerac · 1657
Laughed at for calling the moon a world, Cyrano builds flying machines to prove his claim.
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In short
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.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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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.
The author
Cyrano de Bergerac
1619–1655 · French novelist and playwright
Cyrano de Bergerac was a French novelist and dramatist born in Paris in 1619. He served as a soldier before pursuing writing. He wrote plays and accounts of imaginary voyages. His Voyage to the Moon was published after his death, in 1657. He died in Sannois, near Paris, in 1655.
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