Journey to the Moon

[William Butcher]

Dear all,

 

I am very pleased to announce the publication of Verne’s Journey to the Moon, translated and edited by David Coward and myself. 

The volume may be bought from Amazon.co.uk at Journey to the Moon (Oxford World's Classics) : Verne, Jules, Coward, David, Butcher, William: Amazon.co.uk: Books; review copies may be requested from myself.

Best wishes

 

Bill

[Ariel Pérez Rodríguez]

Congratulations on this new publication in English.

Best,

Ariel

[Tad Davis]

Fantastic! Having had my own experience burrowing through this classic, I’m going to tackle this with great relish!  (It’s available on the US site as well.)

— 
Tad Davis
tad.dav...@gmail.com

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[Steve]

I am intrigued. My only version is "From the Earth to the Moon and a Trip Around It." Crest/Fawcett Books April 1958 and abridged. 

What is different with this new translation?

Steve Servello

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[John Lamb]

Congratulations, my copy arrives tomorrow and I look forward to reading it. 

Best wishes John

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[William Butcher]

Dear all,

 

Thanks to Arial, Tad and John for their kind words.

 

And thanks, Steve, for the question. This volume is similar to the four previous ones I've done for OUP. Our translation is the first to benefit from a full critical apparatus: a substantial introduction, many hundreds of notes, a biographical chronology and an appendix with information about the manuscripts, sources and editions.

All previous translations have been based on a faulty 19th century French text which has howlers like “lunar legions”,  “the oceans of the moon” or “marshes”.

I attach a short extract from the translation, for your interest.

Hoping that answers your question,

best

Bill 

---

From: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Tad Davis <tad.dav...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2025 10:54 AM
To: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [JVF] Journey to the Moon

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[Steve]

Thanks for the clarification Bill. I just placed my pre-order for a November 13th delivery. 

Really looking forward to all the extras!

Steve S.

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[William Butcher]

Thanks for the support, Steve. I have no idea why the launch dates in the UK and the US are so crazily different.

Bill

---

From: 'Steve' via Jules Verne Forum <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2025 10:18 AM

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[dsa...@me.com]

Is this going to be available as an ebook from sources other than Amazon? (I really dislike the Amazon model of selling many books.)

[Tad Davis]

It’s available as an ebook through Barnes & Noble. 

— 
Tad Davis
tad.dav...@gmail.com

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jules-verne-forum/69376779-CF0E-482E-B6F2-C82CE2DFA336%40me.com.

[William Butcher]

Thanks for the question. Journey to the moon may presumably be available from other online sources in due course since my previous OUP volumes often were. 

An audio version is also scheduled, narrated by Simon Vance who did Jules Verne: the biography.

---

From: dsample via Jules Verne Forum <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2025 11:18 AM

To: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [JVF] Journey to the Moon

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[Tad Davis]

Simon Vance is a perfect choice for this (as he would be, if Oxford could be made to see this, for your other translations as well). 

 

The translation, introduction, and notes are beautifully done. 

— 
Tad Davis
tad.dav...@gmail.com

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[William Butcher]

Thanks a million Tad -  you made my day

bill

---

From: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Tad Davis <tad.dav...@gmail.com>

Sent: Friday, September 19, 2025 7:42 AM

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[Don Sample]

I’ve been reading the Kobo eBook version, and enjoying it very much, but I’ve noticed a glitch in the footnotes. Starting with Chapter 11, Texas and Florida, all the footnotes are off by one. If you tap on the ”*” for footnote N, you are presented with the text for footnote N-1. I’ve checked, and this persists to the end of the book. I suspect that whatever system was used to generate the footnote links was confused by the footnote on the chapter title.

(And here I thought I was overly generous when adding footnotes to my version of Captain Grant. Clearly I should have done more.)

On Sep 13, 2025, at 8:47 PM, William Butcher <wbutch...@gmail.com> wrote:



[volker.dehs]

Fortunately, I've no problem with the notes in my paper-printed copy of the book, but I would like to make another observation: I'm not convinced at all by the hypothesis of a common title of the two books, which is advanced - without no need - to fulfil the real intentions of Jules Verne.

Obviously, the editor is free to invent such a common title (even if Journey to the Moon is a quite trivial one, used and abused by several authors before and after JV), but I did not find any first hand source by Verne himself. Which are Bills arguments presented on page 312 of his book ?

1) The title was used by Verne in some interviews between 1875 and 1902. Ok, but contemporary journalists had no micro and often committed errors induced by their memories. I think this is not a valid argument.

2) "The title Voyage à la lune was in fact used by Hetzel" on the ms. of the second part. But in their correspondence, and notes  JV and H often used provisional, approximate and abridged forms of the titles which cannot pretend to reproduce the definitive choice. In the common edition of the Hetzel edition of 1872 (and in the separate editions), the reader has no pain to connect the two titles: De la Terre à la Lune and Autour de la Lune explain themself.

It would have been more appropriated for a critical edition to indicate and comment the incongruities of the title of the first part. Nowhere in his book, Bill mentions the whole title which is De la Terre à la Lune. Trajet direct en 97 heures in the 1865 edition, and ... Trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes in the illustrated 1868 edition. These titles (never corrected and harmonized in subsequent editions) are in fact incomplete and the second is even en erroneous contraction of a quotation of chap. IV which indicates that the trip would take "97 heures 13 minutes 20 seconds". Amazing, isn't it ? Anyway, a critical edition should have noted this.

With my best wishes for a happy new year

Volker

[Tad Davis]

I had the same problem with the Kindle edition with the notes being one off. When I first ordered it, the paperback wasn’t available, but it is now, so I ordered it—it’s how I prefer reading books in the Oxford Classics Series anyway, partly because the notes are sometimes slightly off like that. 

 

Tad Davis

— 
Tad Davis
tad.dav...@gmail.com

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[William Butcher]

Dehs,

I should be used by now to your invariably negative comments on my successive books. It would be a more constructive use of your time to publish some volumes of your own; your output in this respect has been negligible this century. If you spent more time on the realities of  primary research, you would realise the challenges of adding positive results to Verne Studies: this would in turn equip you with some  stature, give weight to your comments, and reduce the impression that you are acting through jealousy or personal spite.

Your comments fail to consider the interests of the reader.  Publishing an isolated volume under the title of From the Earth to the Moon, without warning that the story is incomplete,  is manifestly dishonest.

Ignoring this question of the essential unity of the two lunar volumes is merely one of the systemic failures of your own edition.

WB

---

From: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of volker.dehs <triful...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 1, 2026 11:52 PM
To: Jules Verne Forum <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [JVF] Journey to the Moon

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[Mario Montenegro]

Dear Verne lovers,

I have read with interest and learned a lot from the posts in this group.

But I feel that, lately, the issue is more about quarrels between some members and less about Verne. And that does not interest me. I will unsubscribe. Thank you for all this years of shared knowledge. All the best, all the Verne. Mário 

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[William Butcher]

Thanks for the message, which I've forwarded to those responsible, in the hope that they will rectify the glitch.

Agreed! Notes are a convenient way to "explicate" and comment on Verne's texts, without obliging the reader to plough through pages of material.

Bill

---

From: 'Don Sample' via Jules Verne Forum <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 1, 2026 1:18 PM
To: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [JVF] Journey to the Moon

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jules-verne-forum/8513A821-1A5E-4332-8759-16D7C4E2F635%40mac.com.

[Chris Moser]

I’ve ordered my copy!!

[Victor DiCosola]

Ordered, thanks for rhe heads up!

Victor DiCosola 

President - CEO

 

 

TACTICAL NIGHT VISION COMPANY

http://www.tnvc.com

909-659-2842 (Mobile)

---

From: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Chris Moser <crmo...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, January 2, 2026 1:40:14 PM

To: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [JVF] Journey to the Moon

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[Muratore, Joseph]

Received print copy of Journey to the Moon. Looks good.

 

Thanks.

 

From: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of William Butcher
Sent: Thursday, January 1, 2026 7:16 PM
To: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [JVF] Journey to the Moon

 

Thanks for the message, which I've forwarded to those responsible, in the hope that they will rectify the glitch. Agreed! Notes are a convenient way to "explicate" and comment on Verne's texts, without obliging the reader to plough

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This Message Is From an External Sender This message came from outside your organization.

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[William Butcher]

Thanks, Jo, for the kind words, and to Victor and Chris - much appreciated!

Bill

---

From: 'Muratore, Joseph' via Jules Verne Forum <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 3, 2026 7:01 AM
To: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: [JVF] Journey to the Moon

 

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[Victor DiCosola]

Happy New Year Bill! I've read many of your works. Keep up the great work.

Vic

Victor DiCosola 

President - CEO

 

 

TACTICAL NIGHT VISION COMPANY

http://www.tnvc.com

909-659-2842 (Mobile)

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From: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of William Butcher <wbutch...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, January 2, 2026 3:33:27 PM

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[William Butcher]

I'd like to wetransfer you a pdf of any of "my" books to thank you for such generosity. Just tell me which one(s) (perhaps by private message).

Happy Hogmanay, Vic!

Bill

---

From: 'Victor DiCosola' via Jules Verne Forum <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 3, 2026 8:05 AM
To: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [JVF] Journey to the Moon

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[volker.dehs]

a simple correction to Bill's comment (and to the bibliographical informations published in his book); I did not publish only a annotated edition in German of Moon1, but also of Moon 2 (Patmos, 2007;  reprinted by Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 2009 or 2010, Coppenrath, 2024). The commentaries and background materials of the two volumes are complementary and fulfil more than 220 pages. In sending my message, I did not want produce any polemic but only indicate a comment on the title of Bill's book. I think it's not illicit.

Best, Volker 

[mken...@aol.com]

I think the title is OK, but I don’t think it was intended by Jules Verne. There were the two novels Les Anglais au pôle Nord and Le désert de glace, published under the common title Les aventures du capitaine Hatteras. There were the three novels Les naufragés d l’air, L’abandonné and Le secret de l’île, published under the common title L’île mystérieuse. De la Terre à la Lune and Autour de la Lune were later published together in a single volume, too, but no common title was added, although it would have been easy to do so.

Happy new year to all!

Cheers,

Matthias

[William Butcher]

Doesn't the logic work the other way round? Publishing From the Earth to the Moon without explanation is dishonest; and Around the Moon is not a sequel, but the second part of a unitary tale. Verne wasn't consulted, as far as I know. If he had been, he would surely have preferred to publish the two volumes explicitly identified as belonging to the same story.

Incidentally, the common title more often used wasn't Les aventures du capitaine Hatteras, but rather  Les Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras.

And, with reference to VD's message, it is a mistake to attribute Journey to the Moon to me alone. This edition was jointly prepared by Professor David Coward and myself.

[mken...@aol.com]

You may be right, but it seems there is only circumstantial evidence, so it looks like it’s surmise against surmise. Even if Verne called it Voyage à la Lune in interviews, that could have been merely for reasons of convenience… a kind of shorthand.

Cheers,

Matthias

[Tad Davis]

Finally got my hardcopy edition. It’s actually easier to check the notes this way than in the ebook, which seems backwards, but the book also has a more appealing aroma than my Kindle. 

 

I was struck by one phrase in the first chapter. Never made the connection before, and maybe the connection is false. “The cotton plants flourished in well-fertilized fields.” Fertilized by the dead bodies?

 

Tad Davis 

— 
Tad Davis
tad.dav...@gmail.com

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[dsa...@me.com]

I doubt if that was what Verne meant. While the carnage of the war was great, the actual battle fields were confined to relatively small percentage of the American landscape, and many of the worst battles weren’t on land where cotton was grown.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jules-verne-forum/e9ec4600-8dbc-423c-89a7-845eac6b895b%40Spark.

[William Butcher]

I hope you enjoy it.  If you had two copies, you could keep one permanently open on the endnotes... Alternatively, dismember the book.

I've always assumed that Verne the pacifist was commenting on the carnage of the Civil War. What else could he be referring to?

Bill

---

From: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Tad Davis <tad.dav...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 6, 2026 3:25 AM

To: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [JVF] Journey to the Moon

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jules-verne-forum/e9ec4600-8dbc-423c-89a7-845eac6b895b%40Spark.

[quentin skrabec]

Hi

I don't pretend to know what Verne was implying-- what Verne stated was a lesser-known scientific fact- cotton is a crop that demands lots of fertilization and depletes the soil readily. During the Civil War, the industry was moving west to Texas due to depleted fields.  Cotton demands significant nutrients, especially Nitrogen (N) and Potassium (K), more than many other common crops, needing rotation management and huge land needs with high-yielding varieties requiring substantial inputs of N, P, K, plus crucial micronutrients like Boron, Zinc, and Magnesium for quality and yield 

Quent

[Ana Klimchynskaya]

Given how incorrect Verne was about the geography of Florida and its soil, I don't know how much faith I have in him knowing about the effects of cotton growing on the soil in the U.S. In fact, the allusions to cotton without any allusions to slavery (the cause of the Civil War, whose end launches the book) always struck me as a bit tone-deaf. 

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[quentin skrabec]

Dear Ana

I believe the soil requirements ( extremely demanding for fertilizer)-- it would have been understood as part of the economics of cotton to purchasers in England and Scotland, would have been to those who studied the war — it was the reason that slavery spread to Texas, etc.  it was the reason the rich delta of the nile became a profitable soil for cotton while so many other counties failed to develop a cotton indsutry.  sorry I can't help but comment on the "cause of the civil war" - Tariffs not slavery was the real initial cause but certainly a huge group also supported the war to free the slaves.  quent

---

From: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Ana Klimchynskaya <anaklimc...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 6, 2026 4:52 PM

To: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [JVF] Journey to the Moon

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[Tad Davis]

Quentin,

 

I don’t want to start a political war, but I can’t let this one go unchallenged. My feelings about it are too strong. But I promise this is the only message I’ll write on the subject. 

 

The Civil War was a war about slavery. Period. The South demanded the right to bring slaves into territories whether those territories wanted them or not. The congress, dominated by the southern states because of the “three-fifths” clause, passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which said that ANYONE in the north could be deputized, willingly or otherwise, and required to assist in returning fugitive slaves to the south—and gave a higher fee to judges for finding in favor of slave-owners than finding in favor of blacks who disputed their claims. The north refused to accept any of this. The southern states declared themselves no longer part of the union when Lincoln was elected, an action they had no legal right under the constitution to do, because he opposed these two policies; and they fired the first shots because he refused to surrender federal fortifications to their illegally separated governments. 

 

It was all about the right to enslave black people. It said so in the confederate constitution. Their proponents said so on the floor of the US congress before they resigned. Tariffs had nothing to do with any of it. Tariffs are a post-war Lost Cause myth. 

 

Speaking here as a native Virginian. 

 

Tad 

— 
Tad Davis
tad.dav...@gmail.com

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[D Frank Robinson]

Wars, like government in general, are waged by coalitions. Afterward the dominant victorious group in the coalition claims it was their war. 

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[quentin skrabec]

After years of research as well as three books on the topic of tariffs, I assure you, tariffs were the initial force, and state rights supported by abolitionists, true. The freedom for slaves came later by Lincoln. I let you do your own research and won't argue any more than that. You are not alone many believe the North started the war to free the slaves and that was part of the support for sure.  The idea that tariffs have "nothing to do with the war" I believe most historians won't agree with. But again the cause of the war 

HERE is the AI summary on question

No, the Civil War didn't start to free the slaves

; its initial goal for the North was preserving the Union, but it evolved into a war for freedom due to military necessity and shifting moral aims, culminating in the Emancipation Proclamation and the enlistment of Black soldiers, fundamentally transforming the conflict into a battle for human freedom and ending slavery. 

quent

 

---

From: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of D Frank Robinson <thedfran...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 7, 2026 12:03 PM

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[quentin skrabec]

From: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of D Frank Robinson <thedfran...@gmail.com>

Sent: Wednesday, January 7, 2026 12:03 PM

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jules-verne-forum/CAB%3Dq4sUeiNnxmAAp7%2Bx%2BN-uskrR%3DMUTTM2U%2BYAc%2BX1O%3Due245w%40mail.gmail.com.

[quentin skrabec]

After years of research as well as three books on the topic of tariffs, I assure you, tariffs were the initial force, and state rights supported by abolitionists, true. The freedom for slaves came later by Lincoln. I let you do your own research and won't argue any more than that. You are not alone many believe the North started the war to free the slaves and that was part of the support for sure.  The idea that tariffs have "nothing to do with the war" I believe most historians won't agree with. But again the cause of the war 

HERE is the AI summary on question

No, the Civil War didn't start to free the slaves; its initial goal for the North was preserving the Union, but it evolved into a war for freedom due to military necessity and shifting moral aims, culminating in the Emancipation Proclamation and the enlistment of Black soldiers, fundamentally transforming the conflict into a battle for human freedom and ending slavery. 

---

From: quentin skrabec <qrsk...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 7, 2026 1:28 PM

[quentin skrabec]

From: quentin skrabec <qrsk...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 7, 2026 1:29 PM

[James D. Keeline]

Quoting an AI response without providing the context in the form of the prompt and the system used to create the response is incomplete.

Those who are experienced with AI and its limitations will recognize that you can build up a session with any point of view.  It requires some steps to keep it grounded in reality, which AI struggles with in many cases.  Most AI systems have a desire to keep people using it and one way to achieve this is to agree with the user and provide complimentary messages.

I feel the same way about quotes, real or fake, that are attributed to a person without context and a clear citation.  Look at our Jules Verne misquote that follows along the line of:

What one man can imagine, another can build.

But investigation reveals that it is not from either Jules or Michel Verne in any documented reference but is rather from the niece's biography well after the fact.  It might match a sentiment but it is not something that is readily proven to be his work.

Throwing an AI response as if it is the undisputed truth is ridiculous, even if it is accurate.  This is a scholarly forum, let's keep it that way.  That includes avoiding personal attacks.  Differences of opinions about evidence or interpretation of it is mature and appropriate.  But there have been too many cases of contention that damages this small community.

Let us do our best and remain civil.

James D. Keeline

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[Tad Davis]

My heartfelt apologies. 

— 
Tad Davis
tad.dav...@gmail.com

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[quentin skrabec]

Just do the google search - the question asked AI was neutral 

 I didn't want to get into this because many do believe civil war was about slavery which it did envolve into 

TRY THIS FROM PBS

t the causes of the Civil War.

What led to the outbreak of the bloodiest conflict in the history of North America?

A common explanation is that the Civil War was fought over the moral issue of slavery.

In fact, it was the economics of slavery and political control of that system that was central to the conflict.

A key issue was states' rights.

The Southern states wanted to assert their authority over the federal government so they could abolish federal laws they didn't support, especially laws interfering with the South's right to keep slaves and take them wherever they wished.

Another factor was territorial expansion.

The South wished to take slavery into the western territories, while the North was committed to keeping them open to white labor alone.

Meanwhile, the newly formed Republican party, whose members were strongly opposed to the westward expansion of slavery into new states, was gaining prominence.

The election of a Republican, Abraham Lincoln, as President in 1860 sealed the deal. His victory, without a single Southern electoral vote, was a clear signal to the Southern states that they had lost all influence.

Feeling excluded from the political system, they turned to the only alternative they believed was left to them: secession, a political decision that led directly to war.

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From: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Tad Davis <tad.dav...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 7, 2026 3:39 PM

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[quentin skrabec]

By the way - my response was civil and respectful - that many hold the opinion on slavery including many scholars- I don't want to argue -  so far as me knowing AI limitations and its algorithm details-  I agree and have written a great deal about it in this forum - I never use AI in formal debates etc- but assuming you have a sound understanding of the topic it can be used as a quick check

Quent

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From: quentin skrabec <qrsk...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 7, 2026 4:52 PM

[Don Sample]

The long time joke about the causes of the Civil War goes that in grade school you learn that it was about slavery. When you get older you learn about all the other causes: states’ rights, tariffs, territorial expansion, etc. But when you really study it, deep down, you find out it was about slavery.

On Jan 7, 2026, at 5:02 PM, quentin skrabec <qrsk...@gmail.com> wrote:



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