Bedford publishes his story in The Strand Magazine Monthly publication founded by George Newnes, published 1891–1950, credited with introducing the short story to a British audience., and learns that a Dutch electrician, Mr. His financial situation is secured by his hoard of lunar gold, but he loses the sphere when a curious boy named Tommy Simmons climbs into the unattended ship and shoots off into space. Cavor is injured in a fall and is recaptured, but Bedford finds the ship and returns to Earth alone, after collecting some of the gold so abundant on the Moon.īy good fortune Bedford lands in the sea off the English coast, near the seaside town of Littlestone, not far from his point of departure. Regaining the surface of the Moon, the men split up to search for their spaceship. They manage to escape, but during their flight several Selenites are killed. Wandering drunkenly, they are captured by a party of six extraterrestrials and imprisoned. Growing hungry, Bedford and Cavor eat from some massive coral-like fungal growths, which results in their inebriation. They hear a mysterious booming coming from beneath their feet, and encounter great fat monsters they dub mooncalves being tended by insect-like five-foot-high Selenites, members of a complex and technologically sophisticated society living underground. Bedford and Cavor leave their capsule, but get lost in the rapidly growing jungle. Once on the surface of the Moon, the two men do indeed encounter a desolate landscape, but as the Sun rises the thin, frozen atmosphere vaporises, and strange plants begin to grow with extraordinary rapidity. He persuades a reluctant Bedford to undertake a voyage in such a vessel to the Moon, which Cavor believes to be lifeless. To control cavorite’s anti-gravity effect, Cavor proposes a spherical spaceship made of steel, lined with glass, and with sliding windows or blinds made of cavorite by which it can be steered. Bedford learns that Cavor is developing a new material, cavorite, which can negate the force of gravity.Ĭavorite has the property of making the air above it weightless, allowing the material to shoot off into space Bedford is not slow to realise the commercial possibilities, and the ensuing wealth that could be accumulated. After two weeks Bedford accosts the man, who proves to be a reclusive physicist named Mr. He rents a small house in Lympne, Kent where he can work in peace, but is bothered every afternoon, at precisely the same time, by a passer-by making odd noises. Synopsisīedford is a London businessman who has retreated to the countryside to write a play, which he hopes will be the solution to his financial problems. Upon their arrival on the surface of the Moon they discover that it is inhabited by a sophisticated extraterrestrial civilisation of insect-like creatures they call Selenites, after Selene, the Greek Moon goddess. The novel tells the story of a journey to the Moon undertaken by the two protagonists: the narrator, Mr. from December 1900 to August 1901, and published in book form in 1901. It was originally serialised in The Strand Magazine Monthly publication founded by George Newnes, published 1891–1950, credited with introducing the short story to a British audience. Wells (1866–1946), although the author himself preferred the term social fable. T he First Men in the Moon is a scientific romance by the English author H.
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