The Man in the Moone

Perhaps the first science fiction tale written in the English language, The Man in the Moone, written by Francis Godwin, was an influential work first published in 1638.

In this version, edited for Firestone Books, the spelling and punctuation have been modernized, and some minor amendments have been made. There is also a short introduction giving some context to the story, and there is also a useful glossary explaining archaic and obscure words.

In this fanciful tale the narrator, Domingo Gonsales, tells how he used a flock of birds to take him to the Moon. Here he discovers that the citizens of the Moon are Christians who live in a Utopian paradise.

Firestone Books also has a separate collection The Man in the Moone and Other Early Science Fiction Tales - a fantastic collection dating back millennia.

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.