Five Weeks in a Balloon

Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen is an 1863 novel by Jules Verne.

Related Topics:
1863 - Novel - Jules Verne

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It is Verne's first novel in which he perfected the "ingredients" of his later work, skillfully mixing a plot full of adventure and twists that hold the reader's interest with passages of technical, geographic, and historic description. The book gives readers a glimpse of the exploration of Africa, which was still not completely known to Europeans of the time, with explorers travelling all over the continent in search of its secrets.

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Public interest in fanciful tales of African exploration was at its height, and the book was an instant hit; it made Verne financially independent and got him a contract with Jules Hetzel's publishing house, which put out several dozen more works of his for over forty years afterward.

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