Five Weeks in a Balloon

The first of Verne's novels and so the first of his 'Voyages Extraordinaires' appeared in 1863 (1865 in English translation). It counts (just) as science fiction insofar as the balloon journey across Africa was 'ahead of its time'. This journey is described in sometimes nerdy scientific detail.

Detail that you would later come to expect from a description of armament in twentieth century thrillers would have been part of the appeal of the book to young males seeking vicarious pleasure. Scientific 'realism' adds to the feeling of 'being there' as our white men cross the Dark Continent.

The casual and obvious racism of the novel will shock many of today's more sensitive souls. There are heavily bowlderised versions of the tale out there but show more you should avoid these. To get the pleasure of the past is to see it as it was and not as we would have liked it to have been.

The detail extends to topography. You have a sense of being able to trace on a good map the balloon's precise journey across what would come to be first the British imperial zone and then the French with many boy's own adventures and accounts of fauna and territory along the way.

What is striking is that Verne, a Frenchman, makes his three heroes British archetypes (scholar-scientist, man of action and man-servant) pre-figuring the Phileas Fogg of 1872, whose superiority stands despite the coruscating critique of the British Empire by anti-hero Nemo in 1869.

This ambivalence is pragmatic. This was the age when Victorian Explorers, riding the back of trade routes, were opening up Africa. Livingstone had undertaken the first traverse of the central continent between 1853 and 1856 and Burton and Speke were on the track of the source of the Nile.

These were exciting times not only in Africa but in Canada and Australia. Tales of triumph over hardship in order to open up 'new territory' were becoming a staple of popular literature. To imagine early flight speeding up the process was the stuff of dreams.

In this context the British hero was the natural hero unless Verne had been inclined to polemic French nationalism which he clearly was not. Verne was (it is recorded) not really interested in ballooning. He was interested in Africa. He just wanted to make traversing Africa relatively quickly plausible.

As to the racism (increasingly normalised in that imperialist period when anthropology was only just beginning to come to terms with Darwinism), it is sometimes savage and nasty though not dominant. The local peoples are positioned half way between animal and civilised. They knew no better then.

The race issue is matched by a class issue with the ranking of the self-sacrificing man-servant clearly a significant notch below the two educated 'pals'. Joe is a loyal retainer half way perhaps between natives and the elite. He may not understand much but he knows his duty and is loved for it.

Placing those discomforts aside, his first novel helps to tell us why Verne (already in his mid-30s) was to become one of the most loved of popular authors globally and one of the fathers of science fiction (the others being Wells and Gernsback perhaps). Quite simply he can tell a rollicking good yarn.

Scholars now tend to agree that the science fiction components of his ouevre have been retrospectively exaggerated so that it is probably best to think of his stories as primarily richly imaginative adventure tales set in a world unfolding in real time before his readers' eyes.

The book becomes a snapshot not so much into the French mid-nineteenth century mind (only the rescue at the end betrays French pride) but of a common European mind that seems almost child-like in its curiosity, adventurous nature, happy ignorance and disregard for our 'ethics'.

It is as if 'science fiction' simply emerges at this point out of that rich imagination finding ways to exploit a remarkable expansion of knowledge for the middling sort. Balloons and submarines are just a way of exploring the novelty and rockets to extend further outwards the urge to 'find things out'. show less

Verne's travel stories were always blessed things, but this one is hampered somewhat by the low-level racism at its core. Granted that was very much as it were back in Verne's time, but the balloonists confusing African men for chimpanzees is a bit hard to stomach in the 21st century.

This is my second time reading a book by Jules Verne, and I'm glad it wasn't my first. It was a decent story, marred primarily by a very racist view of the African people (and to a lesser extent, of Arabs) and a few very implausible stretches of reality. This was written ten years before the first work of his I read, Around the World in Eighty Days. That book was much better written and I enjoyed it immensely. All said, this still wasn't bad considering it was Verne's first book, even if at times all I could think was that he must have been paid by the word to write this.

Tenter de traverser l'Afrique d'est en ouest par la voie des airs, prétendre survoler dans sa plus grande largeur le dangereux continent noir à bord d'une fragile nacelle livrée à tous les caprices des vents, c'était, au temps de Jules Verne, une entreprise d'une audace incroyable. Comme on peut s'y attendre, les cinq semaines qu'il faudra au docteur Fergusson et à ses deux compagnons pour y parvenir seront pleines d'imprévu et de péripéties.
Ce roman passionnera ceux qui s'intéressent aux débuts de l'aéronautique et, en général, tous ceux qui aiment l'humour et la verve des "Voyages extraordinaires" dont Cinq Semaines en ballon ouvrait la série. Paru en décembre 1862, il eut un succès foudroyant, en France, d'abord, show more puis dans le monde. show less

A pretty solid adventure story. Verne at his earliest. The characters are well done and he brings their personality to life. I really do not understand how some of the reviews refer to the story as being racist or dated. Their is no racism in this story whatsoever. The tribes and peoples that the adventurers come across during their travels are not looked down upon because of their color...they are called like they are seen, by their actions. If they are uncivilized cannibals' then that is what they are. The writer praises some tribes and berates others. That is not racism..that is observation. Of course the writing is going to be dated. It was written in 1863. The characters play their parts appropriately. An early Victorian Englishman show more with a rife.. if it moves kill it. The killing and/or willingness to kill certain animals just because is indicative of the times. There is plenty of adventure in the story, near misses and narrow escapes and a hair raising ending. Verne would without a doubt polish his future stories considerably. show less

A fairly solid entry in the Verne catalogue. He does manage to make a balloon trip more interesting than i expected.
There's also a lot of information concerning the history of african exploration which was informative as always with verne.
I don't have enough science knowledge to support or pick apart vernes version of a balloon but its not your standard hot air type used today.
Our three main characters all well drawn and there's some humour to be had in their personalities. The first half seemed a little too easy but things got more intense and interesting later on.

Not much more to say. I wouldn't really recommend it as one of Vernes best but certainly not one of his worst either.

Five Weeks In A Balloon is an exciting adventure story. It does contain racial stereotypes typical of the time period that are quite off putting, but it can be used to discuss how perceptions have changed over time. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the three main characters are stereotypical Brits of the Victorian Era, and therefore have an inflated opinion of their own self importance as it relates to others who are not British.