H. G. Wells, The First Men in the Moon

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The First Men in the Moon

was serialised in

Strand Magazine

between December 1900 and August 1901 before being published in book form in September 1901. Building on the success of

The Time Machine

(1895),

The Island of Doctor Moreau

(1896),

The Invisible Man

(1897) and

The War of the Worlds

(1898),

The First Men in the Moon

is the only one of Wells’s “scientific romances” to imagine a human voyage into space.

The First Men in the Moon

joins an established tradition of lunar voyage narratives, including Francis Godwin’s

The Man in the Moon

(1638) and Jules Verne’s

From the Earth to the Moon

(1865). Wells himself regarded the work highly, and considered it his finest scientific romance.

The romance begins with Bedford, a failed businessman and the story’s narrator, retiring to

2018 words

Citation: McLean, Steven. "The First Men in the Moon". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 June 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=849, accessed 19 March 2024.]

849 The First Men in the Moon 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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