Five Weeks in a Balloon was Jules Verne’s first published novel – he had adapted it from a work of non-fiction at the suggestion of his editor, Jules Hetzel. The novel was published in 1863, before successful balloon-air flight was accomplished. The story is pure adventure and typically Verne. It is not without its drawbacks – it is unpolished compared to some of Verne’s later works and the racism is difficult for today’s readers to accept. As a first adventure story, it was a testament as to what was to come from Verne – proving his publisher Hetzel had backed a winner. This annotated edition includes a biography and critical essay.

"A Drama in the Air" is an adventure short story by Jules Verne. The story was first published in August 1851 under the title "Science for families. A Voyage in a Balloon" in Musée des familles with five illustrations by Alexandre de Bar.

Presents a selection of Poe's tales and poems with in-depth marginal notes elucidating his sources, obscure words and passages, and literary, biographical, and historical allusions.

Jules Gabriel Verne (1828-1905) was a French author who pioneered the science-fiction genre. He is best known for novels such as Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). Verne wrote about space, air and underwater travel before air travel and practical submarines were invented, and before practical means of space travel had been devised. He is the third most translated author in the world, according to Index Translationum. Some of his books have been made into films. Verne, along with Hugo Gernsback and H. G. Wells, is often popularly referred to as the "Father of Science Fiction." Amongst his other works are From the Earth to the Moon (1867), Five Weeks in a Balloon (1869), The Fur Country; or, Seventy Degrees North Latitude (1873), The Blockade Runners (1874), The Field of Ice (1875), The Mysterious Island (1875), Facing the Flag (1879), and An Antarctic Mystery (1899).

The annotated bibliography has evolved from an informal compilation prepared in response to many requests from military and civilian researchers who were planning balloon-borne experiments and searching for data or detailed information concerning some specific aspects of modern scientific ballooning operations. The bibliography consists of three parts: a subject index, an author index, and the bibliography with annotations.

From the original fly leaf: “A distinguished American statesman and member of the bar, known chiefly heretofore as the Secretary of Commerce and Labor in the Cabinet of President Taft, as director in important enterprises, and as counsel for various corporations and individuals, here makes his bow as author (at the fine age of nearly 88) of a good book giving his recollections of life as it was lived, and war as it was waged, in the days of 1861 to 1865 during the conflict between the States.A penetrating pen-picture of things and places that few persons living today have experienced for themselves, and that still fewer are now capable of recollecting, Mr. Nagel's book also takes the happy reader to the Germany of student days, where as a young man the author entered the University of Berlin, which later was to confer on him the honorary degree as Doctor of Political Science.Known not less for his good works than for his great accomplishments, the present modest memoir will afford the reader both information and pleasure, and put in permanent form a record of days and ways that will not come again.”This edition has been augmented with copious footnotes and color illustrations in order to assist the modern reader better understand the context of the times.

One of the great "first novels" in world literature is now available in a complete, accurate English translation. Prepared by two of America's leading Verne scholars, Frederick Paul Walter and Arthur B. Evans, this edition honors not only Verne's farseeing science, but also his zest, style, and storytelling brilliance. Initially published in 1863, Five Weeks in a Balloon was the first novel in what would become the author's "Extraordinary Voyages" series. It tells the tale of a 4,000-mile balloon trip over the mysterious continent of Africa, a trip that wouldn't actually take place until well into the next century. Fusing adventure, comedy, and science fiction, Five Weeks has all the key ingredients of classic Verne: sly humor and cheeky characters, an innovative scientific invention, a tangled plot that's full of suspense and surprise, and visions of an unknown realm. As part of the Early Classics of Science Fiction series, this critical edition features extensive notes, all the illustrations from the original French edition, and a complete Verne biography and bibliography. Five Weeks in a Balloon will be a prized addition to libraries and science fiction reading lists, and a must-read for Verne fans and steampunk connoisseurs. Publication of this book is funded by the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.