Fünf Wochen im Ballon: Mit Illustrationen der Originalausgabe

Von Victor Hugo

Dr. Samuel Fergusson, ein Abenteurer und Geograph, will die letzten Geheimnisse Afrikas, die geheimnisumwitterten Nilquellen, erforschen. Zusammen mit seinem treuen Diener Joe und seinem schottischen Freund Dick Kennedy macht er sich in einem neuartigen lenkbaren Ballon auf den Weg dorthin. Beginnend auf der Insel Sansibar, verläuft die Ballonreise, durchzogen von zahlreichen Abenteuern und Gefahren, von Ost nach West, quer über Afrika hinweg.

• Sprache: Deutsch
• Herausgeber: Libreka GmbH
• Erscheinungsdatum: 16. Feb. 2015
• ISBN: 9783868209570

Victor Hugo

The best-known of the French Romantic writers, Victor Hugo was a poet, novelist, dramatist, and political critic. Hugo was an avid supporter of French republicanism and advocate for social and political equality, themes that reflect most strongly in his works Les Misérables, Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame), and Le Dernier jour d'un condamné (The Last Day of a Condemned Man). Hugo’s literary works were successful from the outset, earning him a pension from Louis XVIII and membership in the prestigious Académie française, and influencing the work of literary figures such as Albert Camus, Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Elevated to the peerage by King Louis-Philippe, Hugo played an active role in French politics through the 1848 Revolution and into the Second and Third Republics. Hugo died in 1885, revered not only for his influence on French literature, but also for his role in shaping French democracy. He is buried in the Panthéon alongside Alexandre Dumas and Émile Zola.

Rezensionen für Fünf Wochen im Ballon

[soylentgreen23 · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

Verne's travel stories were always blessed things, but this one is hampered somewhat by the low-level racism at its core. Granted that was very much as it were back in Verne's time, but the balloonists confusing African men for chimpanzees is a bit hard to stomach in the 21st century.

[philsyphe · Bewertung: 1 von 5 Sternen]

Four years have passed since I read “Five Weeks in a Balloon” and all I remember about it is that it was slow, tedious, and neither characters nor plot engaged me at all.

[cargocontainer · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

This is my second time reading a book by Jules Verne, and I'm glad it wasn't my first. It was a decent story, marred primarily by a very racist view of the African people (and to a lesser extent, of Arabs) and a few very implausible stretches of reality. This was written ten years before the first work of his I read, Around the World in Eighty Days. That book was much better written and I enjoyed it immensely. All said, this still wasn't bad considering it was Verne's first book, even if at times all I could think was that he must have been paid by the word to write this.

[youngtrek · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

Originally released in French in 1863; first published in English in 1890 (English translation by William Lackland). First in Verne's Extraordinary Voyages series. Full title: Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Gentlemen.In this first of Verne's adventure novels, you can start to see the mix of ingredients which would later make him so popular: adventure, exotic locations, entertaining dialogue between the principal characters, and a pinch of science (or pseudoscience) tossed in. In Five Weeks in a Balloon, there are just three principal characters: Dr. Samuel Ferguson, his man servant Joe, and his friend, sportsman, Richard "Dick" Kennedy. Dr. Ferguson and his companions launch upon an unprecedented journey across the continent of Africa in a hot-air balloon filled with hydrogen of Ferguson's design. The three characters face many trials and dangers on their journey, from threats of starvation, less than cooperative weather and wind currents, capture by dangerous African tribes, and even condors threatening to rip their balloon apart.Verne's writing style overall is a nice and easy one to follow, although at times he tosses in historical details which some might find themselves skipping over. Interest in Africa was still high at the time Five Weeks came out as the continent had not yet fully been explored and Verne's novel fully demonstrates this.Most disconcerting (and at times outright uncomfortable) is the very negative stereotypes of the African natives, which would be completely unacceptable by today's standards. For a work written in the early 1860s, while the Civil War was raging over in the U.S., it probably should not be all that surprising, but that realization does not make it any the more pleasant. Outside of this aspect, however, I found Five Weeks to be an enjoyable read. While certainly not his best, I imagine (this is the first Verne novel I've read, I believe), it was worthwhile to go back and start reading his works from the beginning in order to see how they developed as he went along. (Read as part of my "1860s to 1920s" project.) (Finished reading 8/31/09)