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

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jules-verne-forum/21297269-e54e-487c-a17d-ce9a85ce427b%40Spark.

[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 

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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

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jules-verne-forum/21297269-e54e-487c-a17d-ce9a85ce427b%40Spark.

[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

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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

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[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.

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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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

ZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerStart

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

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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

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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