Five Weeks in a Balloon
Author	Jules Verne
Original title	Cinq semaines en ballon
Illustrator	Edouard Riou
Country	France
Language	French
Series	Voyages Extraordinaires #1
Genre(s)	Adventure novel
Publisher	Pierre-Jules Hetzel
Publication date	1863
Media type	Print (Hardback)

Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen (French: Cinq semaines en ballon) is an adventure novel by Jules Verne. Image File history File links Fiveweeksinaballoon. ... This article is about the French author. ... For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ... Les Voyages Extraordinaires (The Extraordinary Voyages in English) was a publishing title affixed to the novels, fictional and non-fictional, of French author and Science Fiction pioneer Jules Verne. ... The adventure novel is a literary genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main theme. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Pierre-Jules Hetzel. ... Hardcover books A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth, heavy paper, or sometimes leather). ... The adventure novel is a literary genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main theme. ... This article is about the French author. ...

It is the first Verne 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 traveling all over the continent in search of its secrets. A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ...

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.

Plot summary

A scholar, 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. He has invented a mechanism that, by eliminating the need to release gas or throw ballast overboard to control his altitude, allows very long trips to be taken. This voyage is meant to link together the voyages of Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke in East Africa with those of Heinrich Barth in the regions of the Sahara and Chad. The trip begins in Zanzibar on the east coast, and passes across Lake Victoria, Lake Chad, Agadez, Timbuktu, Djenné and Ségou to St Louis in modern day Senegal on the west coast. The book describes the unknown interior of Africa near modern day Central African Republic as a desert, when it is actually savanna. Hot air balloons are the oldest successful human flight technology, dating back to the Montgolfier brothers invention in Annonay, France in 1783. ... This article is about the chemistry of hydrogen. ... For other persons named Richard Burton, see Richard Burton (disambiguation). ... John Hanning Speke (May 4, 1827 – September 15, 1864) was an officer in the British Indian army, who made three voyages of exploration to Africa. ... Heinrich Barth (1821-1865), German explorer, was born at Hamburg on February 16, 1821, and educated at Berlin University, where he graduated in 1844. ... Map of Zanzibars main island Zanzibar is part of Tanzania Coordinates: , Country Tanzania Islands Unguja and Pemba Capital Zanzibar City Settled AD 1000 Government  - Type semi-autonomous part of Tanzania  - President Amani Abeid Karume Area  - Both Islands  637 sq mi (1,651 km²) Population (2004)  - Both Islands 1,070... For other places with the same name, see Lake Victoria (disambiguation). ... Lake Chad (in French: Lac Tchad) is a large, shallow lake in Africa. ... Agadez is the largest city in northern Niger, lying in the Sahara and is the capital of Aïr, one of the traditional Tuareg federations. ... This article is about the Malian city. ... Djenné (also Dienné or Jenne) is a historically and commercially important small city in the Niger Inland Delta of central Mali. ... Ségou or Segu is a city in Mali, lying northeast of Bamako on the River Niger, in the region of Ségou. ... Saint-Louis, or Ndar as it is called in Wolof, is the capital of Senegals Saint-Louis Region. ... Savannah redirects here. ...

A good deal of the initial exploration is to focus on the finding of the source of the Nile, an event that occurs in chapter 18 (out of 43). The second leg is to link up the other explorers.

Map of the trip described in the book from the east to the west coast of Africa.

There are numerous scenes of adventure, composed of either a conflict with a native or a conflict with the environment. Some examples include: Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1200x541, 163 KB) Red line shows the trip taken in w:Five Weeks in a Balloon from Zanzibar to St. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1200x541, 163 KB) Red line shows the trip taken in w:Five Weeks in a Balloon from Zanzibar to St. ...

• Rescuing of a missionary from a tribe that was preparing to sacrifice him.
• Running out of water while stranded, windless, "over" the Sahara.
• An attack on the balloon by condors, leading to a dramatic action as Joe leaps out of the balloon.
• The actions taken to rescue Joe later.
• Narrowly escaping the remnants of a militant army as the balloon dwindles to nothingness with the loss of air.

In all these adventures, the protagonists overcome by continued perseverance more than anything else. The novel is filled with coincidental moments where trouble is avoided because wind catches up at just the right time, or the characters look in just the right direction. There are frequent references to a higher power watching out for them, as tidy of an explanation as any.

The balloon itself ultimately fails before the end, but makes it far enough across to get the protagonists to friendly lands, and eventually back to England, therefore succeeding in the expedition. The story abruptly ends after the African trip, with only a brief synopsis of what follows.

Racial Stereotypes

Black people are negatively portrayed in much of the novel. Without fail, they take the balloon as being a threat or a divine device. Many are depicted as running into their huts, shooting arrows or throwing spears at the balloon. Though most indigenous Africans possess relatively dark skin, they exhibit much variation in physical appearance. ...

In Chapter 16, Dick and Joe mistake a group of baboons for black men.

There are multiple references to Africans worshiping things at a whim. A bottle tossed out by Joe in Chapter 20 is accompanied by the quote “I’ll throw them an empty bottle, with your leave, doctor, and if it reaches them safe and sound, they’ll worship it; if it breaks, they’ll make talismans of the pieces.” Joe is treated as a god or divine power twice. Later, as much of the supplies have to be tossed over the side, Joe reiterates his former statements with “The black fellows will be mightily astonished...at finding things like those in the woods; they’ll make idols of them!”

It is not infrequent that the portrayal of Africans as extremely primitive are juxtaposed against descriptions of cultivated fields.

Nearly all of the racial profiling happens in character voice, leading to possible speculation as to whether Verne was truly believing in the words his characters spoke or if he was merely trying to capture sentiments of the time, or more specifically sentiments held by the British and Scottish (the main characters all being non-French). Even if the narrator's voice does not condemn Africans, there are several scenes that show little concern for them. In the scene with the rescue of the missionary, who is French, at least one African falls to his death and this is written off as inconsequential. An entire island is wiped out through a flood, and it is meant to be a positive thing because one of the main characters is able to survive. In both cases, the Africans affected were depicted as violent and irrational.

The closest thing to a positive reflection upon Africans occurs in Chapter 20, in which their methods of war and execution are declared as being "no whit" worse than the European method, "just filthier"

Treatment of Africa's Wildlife

There are multiple episodes that depict the ideas of the "Great White Hunter". One elephant is hooked by an anchor for the balloon (by accident) and is then used as a method of locomotion for a short while, before being shot repeatedly until it collapses. At this time, the character hasten to take small portions of it for food, and to collect its ivory. Later, at the sighting of elephants of good size, Dick says "“Oh, what magnificent elephants! Is there no way to get a little shooting?”.

In Chapter 16, the Doctor equates Africa to the "Last Machine", which will serve as the place of human growth after the Americas are dry. His depiction is of an Africa tamed and cultivated.

Inconsistent Scientific/Technological Reference

The description of the apparatus used to heat the gas in the balloon is deeply flawed. Jules Verne states that it uses a powerful electric battery to electrolyze water into hydrogen and oxygen, and then burns resulting hydrogen in a blow-pipe. He also says that the apparatus weighs 700 pounds (including the battery) and it is able to process 25 gallons of water. This is physically impossible. Even using state-of-the-art 21st century batteries (e.g. lithium-ion batteries) and assuming zero losses, one needs over 4000 pounds of batteries to electrolyze that much water. This number should be increased by at least a factor of five if authentic mid-19th century batteries are to be used. In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a method of separating chemically bonded elements and compounds by passing an electric current through them. ... Lithium ion batteries (sometimes abbreviated Li-Ion) are a type of rechargeable battery commonly used in consumer electronics. ...

Though the novel goes into great detail with much of the calculations involving the lift power of the hydrogen balloon, and how to obtain the proper amount of volume through changes in temperature; there are gaps in the logic. The balloon rises up when heated, and lowers as it is allowed to cool. This pattern is used as numerous plot points and is shown to be a somewhat quick process of cooling. At night, however, there is little mention of them maintaining the temperature through the night. Another gap in the scientific logic is the lack of reference to atmospheric temperature on the balloon itself, though the temperature is referenced as affecting the heating coil.

In Chapter 26, it says the doctor takes the balloon up to five miles. Later, in Chapter 29, in order to get over Mount Mendif, the doctor "by means of a temperature increased to one hundred and eighty degrees, gave the balloon a fresh ascensional force of nearly sixteen hundred pounds, and it went up to an elevation of more than eight thousand feet" which is noted as being "the greatest height attained during the journey." If this is to imply that the doctor went eight thousand feet above Mount Mendif, at a height greater than five miles; Jules Verne would have greatly underestimated the drop in temperature and how much heat would have been required to keep the balloon at that height for any length of time.

At the time when the book was first written, lands to the north and northwest of Lake Victoria were still poorly known to Europeans. Jules Verne makes a few mistakes here, such as placing the source of the Nile river at 2°40′N ( instead of 0°45′N ); claiming that this source is just over 90 miles from of Gondokoro ( the actual distance is closer to 300 miles ); not mentioning Lake Albert at all ( it was not discovered by Europeans until after the publication of the book ). Much of the geography described further in the book is completely fictional. For example, coordinates given for the "desert oasis" in chapter 27 correspond to a location in a savanna region of southern Chad, less than twenty miles from a big river. For other places with the same name, see Lake Victoria (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Gondokoro was a trading-station on the east bank of the White Nile in southern Sudan, 750 miles south of Khartoum. ... For other uses, see Lake Albert (disambiguation). ... Savannah redirects here. ...

Similarities to Later Novels

Five Weeks has a handful of similarities to the novel Journey to the Center of the Earth. There is the same sort of conjecture from current scientific ideas and what Verne puts forth as the actual truth (though Five Weeks is far more successful, assuming there is any attempt at accuracy with Journey). The party of three characters is similarly divided into the Doctor, the doubtful companion who initially balks at the journey, and the servant who is quite able. In both novels, Purdy rifles are referenced. In both novels, there is an episode of despair categorized by thirst. For other uses, see Journey to the Center of the Earth (disambiguation). ...

Also, neither novel deals directly with the French, but with (generally positive) stereotypes of other countries.

Film adaptations

The book was adapted as a film in 1962 directed by Irwin Allen and starring Red Buttons, Fabian, Barbara Eden, Cedric Hardwicke, Peter Lorre, Richard Haydn, Barbara Luna [1]. 13 years later, René Cardona, Jr. came out with his version entitled Viaje Fantástico en Globo(Mexican, 1975) with Hugo Stiglitz in the lead^[1] Irwin Allen (June 12, 1916 – November 2, 1991) was a television and film producer nicknamed The Master of Disaster for his work in the disaster film genre. ... Red Buttons (February 5, 1919 – July 13, 2006) was the stage name of American comedian and actor Aaron Chwatt. ... Fabian on Hollywood Squares, 1979 Fabiano Anthony Forte, who performed as Fabian, (born February 6, 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American teen idol of the late 1950s and early 1960s. ... Barbara Eden (born August 23, 1934 in Tucson, Arizona) is an American film and television actress and singer who is best known for her starring role in the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. ... Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (February 19, 1893 - August 6, 1964) was a British actor. ... Peter Lorre (June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964), born László Löwenstein, was an Hungarian[1] - Austrian - American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner. ... Richard Haydn (1905-1985) was a comic actor in radio, movies and TV. He was known for playing eccentric characters, emphasized by a deliberate over-nasalized and over-enunciated speech pattern. ... Publicity still of Barbara Luna Barbara Luna (b. ... Hugo Stiglitz (August 28, 1940, Mexico City) is a Mexican actor. ...

References

1. ^ Viaje fantástico en globo (1975)

External links

• Five Weeks in a Balloon from JV.Gilead.org.il
• Complete original text of the novel from Wikisource (French)
• Complete translated text of the novel from Project Gutenberg (English)
• Five Weeks in a Balloon The complete English text.