Francis Godwin

The Strange Voyage and Adventures of Domingo Gonsales, to the World in the Moon, is a classical book and has been considered important throughout the human history. So that this book is never forgotten we at Alpha Editions have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this again in a modern format book for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies of their original work and hence the text is clear and readable.

The Man in the Moone (1638) is a utopian science fiction story by Francis Godwin. Published posthumously, the book appeared under the pseudonym Domingo Gonsales, the name of its intrepid narrator. The Man in the Moone was inspired by recent discoveries in the field of astronomy by Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, William Gilbert, and Galileo Galielei. Godwin was particularly interested in the possibility of lunar habitation, and he wrongly believed that the dark spots on the surface of the Moon were seas. His work has many similarities to Lucian’s True History, a second-century A. D. science fiction novel that appeared in an influential English translation in the 1630s. Banished from his native Spain after killing a rival in a duel, Domingo Gonsales makes his fortune in the East Indies, but soon dreams of returning home. Struck with illness on his voyage across the Atlantic, he stops at the island of St Helena to recuperate. There, he discovers a species of swan that he incorporates into a state-of-the-art flying machine. Gonsales soon gains the strength to continue his journey, making his way past Tenerife. When an English fleet destroy his vessel, the adventurer takes flight with the help of his geese, rising through space until the Earth has all but disappeared. Before he knows it, Gonsales is standing on the Moon amidst what looks to be a utopian civilization unmatched in human history.

Mitä kummaa? Espanjalainen astronautti Domingo Gonsales asteli Kuun kamaralla jo vuonna 1600. Ja paluulennolla hän laskeutui Kiinaan. Kertoja on kunnianarvoisa piispa Francis Godwin, joten ensimmäisen kuulennon todenperäisyyttä ei sovi epäillä. Vuonna 1638 Lontoossa painetun scifi-klassikon The Man in the Moone on suomentanut ja kommenteilla varustanut tieteenhistorian dosentti Osmo Pekonen.

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++British LibraryT090146Anonymous. By Francis Godwin. P.51 misnumbered 49. First published in 1638 as 'The man in the moon, or the discourse of a voyage thither by Domingo Gonsales'. With two final advertisement leaves. London: printed by John Lever, 1768. 49 i.e.51], 5]p., plate; 8

Arguably the first work of science fiction in English, Francis Godwin's The Man in the Moone was published in 1638, pseudonymously and posthumously. The novel, which tells the story of Domingo Gonsales, a Spaniard who flies to the moon by geese power and encounters an advanced lunar civilization, had an enormous impact on the European imagination for centuries after its initial publication. With its discussion of advanced ideas about astronomy and cosmology, the novel is an important example of both popular fiction and scientific speculation. This Broadview Edition includes a critical introduction that places the text in its scientific and historical contexts. The rich selection of appendices includes related writings by Godwin and his predecessors and contemporaries on magnetism, human flight, voyages to real and unreal lands, and the possibility of extra-terrestrial life.