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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 298 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 298 pagesAbout this book
What if a club of gunmen turns its greatest cannon toward the Moon—with living passengers inside the shell?
In Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon, the Baltimore Gun Club needs a purpose after the American Civil War. Its practical president, Impey Barbicane, proposes a Moon shot. Captain Nicholl bets against him, while bold French adventurer Michel Ardan asks to ride inside the shell. An enormous engineering project becomes a gamble with human lives.
Round the Moon follows the three travelers inside their cramped shell, where calculations meet the uncertainty of space. Together, these novels mix adventure with the science of Verne’s day, from cannon measurements to the speed needed to escape Earth. Humor runs through the grand plan, as pride, money and rivalry help drive an extraordinary shared effort.
What you’ll discover
- A cannon aimed skyward Follow an audacious idea from a crowded meeting hall to a vast gun in Florida.
- Three sharply different companions Meet practical Barbicane, skeptical Nicholl and talkative Ardan as their clashing temperaments share close quarters.
- Science with a purpose Explore the figures behind the voyage, where every weight, distance and speed matters.
- Humor beneath the ambition Enjoy Verne’s gentle mockery of national pride, eager crowds and the urge to compete.
- A world working together See how workers, astronomers and contributions from across the world turn a proposal into action.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy bold adventure, comic friendships, and clever people solving practical problems. It suits readers curious about space, early science fiction, and engineering.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Idle gunmakers find a new purpose
- A dream becomes a design
- Careful steps build the giant gun
- A passenger turns enemies into partners
- Calm habits steady the travelers
- A missed landing invites closer observation
- Imagination and measurement need each other
- Large goals grow through shared inquiry
Who’s who
- Impey BarbicaneThe calm, exact president of the Gun Club, who proposes the Moon shot and wants to prove it can be done.
- Captain NichollAn armor maker from Philadelphia, Barbicane's rival, who bets against the plan and loves exact calculation.
- Michel ArdanA talkative Frenchman who asks to ride inside the shell and meets every danger with a joke.
- J. T. MastonThe loyal secretary of the Gun Club, with a steel hook and a gutta-percha skull, who longs to join the voyage.
- MurchisonThe engineer who builds the gun at Stones Hill and fires it at the appointed second.
- DianaThe travelers' dog, who is meant to found a line of lunar dogs and keeps Ardan company.
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From the Earth to the Moon; and, Round the Moon in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
From the Earth to the Moon; and, Round the Moon
by Jules Verne
A club of veterans in Baltimore plans to fire a shell at the Moon, and a Frenchman insists on riding inside.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“We are all, in one way or another, the children of Jules Verne.”
In short
What makes a hall full of old soldiers, many of them missing arms and legs, cheer for the Moon? In Baltimore, just after the Civil War, the Gun Club has no wars left to fight.
From the Earth to the Moon; and, Round the Moon at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 40 min4 h 30 min fast, 6 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 81,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Idle artillerymen find a new target
In Baltimore, a club of gunmakers is proud of its enormous cannons. Members judge one another by the weight of their guns and the distance their shells fly.
Then the war ends, and peace is a disaster for them. The clubrooms fill with dust. Tom Hunter burns his wooden legs in the fireplace while he grumbles, and the secretary, J. T. Maston, threatens to bury himself in the prairies if he cannot test his new mortar.
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A club of veterans in Baltimore plans to fire a shell at the Moon, and a Frenchman insists on riding inside.
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Details
- Language
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- Reading time
- 6 h 40 min
- Level
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- Paperback
- 298 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Hardcover
- 298 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 486 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print hardcover
- 486 pages · 6 × 9 in
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Cite this edition
Verne, Jules. From the Earth to the Moon; and, Round the Moon. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/from-the-earth-to-the-moon-and-round-the-moon.
Verne, J. (2026). From the Earth to the Moon; and, round the Moon. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/from-the-earth-to-the-moon-and-round-the-moon
Verne, Jules. From the Earth to the Moon; and, Round the Moon. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/from-the-earth-to-the-moon-and-round-the-moon.
@book{verne2026from,
author = {Verne, Jules},
title = {From the Earth to the Moon; and, Round the Moon},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/from-the-earth-to-the-moon-and-round-the-moon}
}
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What is From the Earth to the Moon about?
It tells how the Baltimore Gun Club, led by Impey Barbicane, plans and builds a giant cannon to fire a shell at the Moon, and how a Frenchman named Michel Ardan joins the crew.
Who are Barbicane, Nicholl and Michel Ardan?
Barbicane is the calm president of the Gun Club, Nicholl is his rival who makes armor plates, and Ardan is a talkative Frenchman. After a near duel, all three agree to ride in the shell together.
What is the Columbiad?
The Columbiad is the giant cannon the club builds in Florida. It is nine hundred feet long, sunk into the ground at Stones Hill, and loaded with guncotton to launch the shell toward the Moon.
The author
Jules Verne
1828–1905 · French adventure novelist
Jules Verne was a French writer born in Nantes in 1828. He lived in Paris and later in Amiens, where he died in 1905. His novels include Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).
“I’m not coming back!”
More by Jules Verne
See all their booksMore like this
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