In search of an occupation after the end of the Civil War, the Baltimore Gun Club undertakes the design and construction of a cannon capable of launching a projectile to the Moon. The three main protagonists—Impey Barbicane, president of the Gun Club, Captain Nicholl, Barbicane’s rival and then collaborator, and Michel Ardan, a French scientist—board the hollow cannonball en route to the Moon. The story concludes in Autour de la Lune, the sequel published four years later.

De la Terre à la Lune, number 4 in the Voyages Extraordinaires collection, is one of Jules Verne’s best-known novels. It inspired numerous adaptations, from movies to theme parks to video games.