The Man in the Moone
Francis Godwin 1638
A Spanish traveler tells the story of his imaginary journey from Earth to the Moon. His flying craft is pulled through the sky by a flock of birds.
63 pages 1h 14m reading time
- Often called one of the first works of science fiction in English.
- Imagines that Earth's pull grows weaker the farther you travel from it, decades before Isaac Newton explained gravity.
- Backs the new and still disputed idea that the Earth turns, and pictures the Moon as a real world with a peaceful, long-lived people who live without crime or want.
- Inspired Cyrano de Bergerac's own story of a trip to the Moon, in which Domingo Gonsales appears as a character.
- Helped set the pattern for later space voyage tales by mixing a traveler's adventure story with the science of its day.
Printed after its author died
It came out five years after Godwin's death, probably arranged by his son Morgan.
Disguised as a true story
The title page presented it as a real Spaniard's account, translated by an unnamed "E.M."
Secretly written by a bishop
Its author was a Church of England bishop, and his name did not appear on it.
Built on new science
Godwin drew on William Gilbert's studies of magnetism and on Copernicus's picture of the heavens.