George Tucker 3 hr 48 min read

An American traveler and a learned Brahmin build a machine and fly to the Moon, meeting the folly-mirroring Glonglims.

George Tucker's 1827 novel (written as 'Joseph Atterley') is among the earliest American works of science fiction, using a lunar voyage, powered by an antigravity metal, to satirize the manners and vanities of the age. A pioneering imaginary-voyage romance, thoughtful and gently mocking. Read it for a foundational American moon-flight fantasy, half adventure and half social satire.

In its time

Published in 1827, during the 1820s, tales of mesmerism, ghosts, and the fantastic voyage flourish in the romantic imagination.

Reading it

3 hr 48 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).