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Five Weeks in a Balloon (Cronos Classics) Kindle Edition

by Jules Verne (Author), Cronos Classics (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 473 ratings
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This book contains now several HTML tables of contents that will make reading a real pleasure!

A scholar, Dr. Samuel Ferguson, accompanied by his manservant Joe and his friend Richard "Dick" Kennedy, sets out to travel across the African continent — still not fully explored — with the help of a hot-air balloon filled with hydrogen.
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  1. Print length
    139 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Cronos Classics
  5. Publication date
    July 22, 2017
  6. File size
    2086 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07469ZSMG
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cronos Classics; Large Print edition (July 22, 2017)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 22, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2086 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 139 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1548100005
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 473 ratings

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
473 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

trisha
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun to read
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2022
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It is set in 1860's with cultural viewpoints from that time. This is a fun and well written book about adventure in an air t balloon. It is well researched and weaves in history of the exploration of the African continent.
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Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Five weeks in a balloon can make you feel like you are full of air...
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2012
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I read this book on my kindle after it being recommended to me by a coworker. I enjoy a variety of books and this classic is no exception. I love the idea of travelling across Africa in a balloon and guessed from the beginning that there would be some adventures and troubles along the way. The way the book is written can be a bit much for the casual reader. I nearly gave up on it in sheer boredom when the mechanics of the balloon were described in sickeningly tedious detail. The only reason I kept going was because my coworker promised it would enthrall me. I cannot say that it enthralled, but it did keep me reading until I was rooting for the characters to complete their quest and be on the ground and safe. My hero in the book is the gentleman who is clearly a slave, but he is the most amazing person, full of courage and heart. I do hate the ending, but it was worth my time to experience it. It will be worth your time as well.
2 people found this helpful
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Oscar Trent
3.0 out of 5 stars Would be better to read about a real explorer
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2017
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The best parts of this book were the true historical accounts about European adventurers and explorers in early modern Africa.

The worst parts were the deplorable racism in which Verne compares black Africans to primates—something he also did in The Mysterious Island, which I have read more than once. I know that it was part of Verne's zeigeist, but it still seems inexcusable.

The plot was for the most part an incoherent ramble over difficult, fancifully described geography. The misadventures were funny—the preface even says the book is meant to be somewhat satirical.

I wouldn't have finished if it wasn't for the well-produced audiobook from Librivox.
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Books Honestly
5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining to the end
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2024
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Smart and witty, after 150 years this is still a very entertaining book. Jules Verne is a master at making science fun to read.
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Robert Guttman
4.0 out of 5 stars Verne's Flight of Fancy in the Original Lead Zelppelin
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2013
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Five Weeks in a Balloon was the first novel that made Jules Verne famous. Published in 1963, it is, like all his other famous works, the story of a fantastic journey. In this case, the journey is across what was then known as 'Darkest Africa' in a balloon. All of Verne's great books are about journeys of one sort or another; either Around the World in 80 Days, to the Center of the Earth, beneath the sea in a submarine, through the sky in some form of airship, to the Moon in a cannon shell or, in the case of Michael Strogoff, merely overland across Russia and Central Asia.

Verne has often been called the first science-fiction writer. Perhaps that description is actually quite appropriate, because much of Verne's 'science' is pretty much 'fiction'. That is certainly the case in FWIAB, which was written at a time when the average reading public's knowledge both of the interior of Africa and of ballooning were sketchy at best. There was a reason why people used to refer to interior of Africa as 'Darkest Africa' or 'The Dark Continent', and it had nothing to do with 'race'. Up until the mid 1800s few outsiders had ever been farther inland than a few miles from the coast, so that most of the continent was still a blank space on the map. At the time when Verne wrote FWIAB the newspapers were becoming filled with stories of dauntless explorers penetrating the mysteries of the 'Dark Continent', so it was a natural subject for a fantasist such as Verne. However, at the time the book was written most of the interior of the continent was still unknown, so don't expect to use FWIAB as a source for geographical accuracy. For example, Verne describes a region of arid, water-less desert a position where the Congo River actually is, not that anybody would have known the difference at the time.

Since ballooning was an equally new and exiting activity, it was a natural choice to combine the two. Needless to say, Jules Verne's grasp of ballooning was about as vague as his knowledge of the interior of Africa. Even a rudimentary knowledge of aerostatic theory reveals that the amount of lift generated by the amount of hydrogen in the balloon in FWIAB would have fallen short by about half a ton. In other words, Verne's 'Victoria' would undoubtedly have turned out to have been the original 'Lead Zeppelin'.

Technicalities notwithstanding, what the reader will find here is a charming 'flight of fancy' to strange places with three dauntless, 19th-Century British explorers. Don't look for 21st-Century sensibilities or Dostoyevskian themes and character development, because you won't ever find those things in any of the works of Jules Verne. In other words, so long as the reader doesn't expect too much, just a pleasant story about a fantastic adventure, then the reader won't be disappointed.
6 people found this helpful
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Matt Floreen
5.0 out of 5 stars An engaging old-world perspective of Africa
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2014
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For Jules Verne's first novel, this is remarkably well-developed. I enjoyed it more than 20,000 Leagues and about as much as the Mysterious Island (a boyhood favorite).

I understand that this is a satire of the African explores and their constant oneupmanship. I've read some of those journals and appreciated Verne's idea of sailing his men far over Livingstone, Burton, and Speke' expeditions in a balloon.

The protagonists' attitudes and references to the Africans seem horribly pejorative to the modern reader (especially one living in Africa), but Verne stoops no lower than the common views of 1863.

The best commendation I can give about this is that it made me want to build my own hydrogen balloon and try to recreate this journey. Some of his scenes were a bit contrived (how did the wind move the balloon in just the right direction to save Joe?) But others were believable enough that it made me wonder what lengths Verne went to in his research.

Definitely worth reading for fun.
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Mikey
5.0 out of 5 stars Great books
Reviewed in Canada on November 11, 2019
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I bought this book to have in my Jules Verne collection. A great read
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Shubham Bajaj
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in India on May 14, 2018
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Got for free
2 people found this helpful
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Robin Pritchard
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 9, 2017
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A real old school Boy's Own adventure in true, not at all politically correct, Jules Verne style. What's not to like!
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Ananthatejas Raghavan
4.0 out of 5 stars A very enjoyable ride through Africa
Reviewed in India on May 13, 2018
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The ride through Africa in a balloon is a fun filled adventurous journey of Dr Ferguson, Kennedy and Joe. The narration is great and one gets to understand how dangerous and difficult the explorations used to be in those days. At times it is a bit boring but overall it grabs your attention. Even the physics aspects of the balloon have been explained to great detail and I only wish I remembered my physics classes to appreciate it.
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Christopher Patrick
4.0 out of 5 stars Classic tale
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 23, 2013
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Verne's usual collection of eccentric scientists, heroic Westerners, faithful servants, ignorant savages. This time the good guys are flying across Africa from East to West.
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