Five Weeks in a Balloon

Five Weeks in a Balloon is an adventure novel by Jules Verne, and published in 1863. In this novel, the author presents a plot full of adventure and twists that hold the reader's interest with passages of technical, geographic, and historic description. The book gives readers a glimpse of the exploration of Africa, which was still not completely known to Europeans of the time. The book was an instant hit, and made Verne financially independent. Because of this novel, he also got a contract with Jules Hetzel's publishing house, which put out several dozen more works of his for over forty years afterward. This work is part of Verne’s “Voyages Extraordinaires”, a widely popular series of adventure novels that also include Journey to the Center of Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and Around the World in Eighty Days. The story starts with a scholar and explorer, Dr. Samuel Fergusson, accompanied by his employee Joe and a hunter called Richard Kennedy, planning a balloon travel across the still not fully explored African continent. There are numerous scenes of adventure, composed of either a conflict with a native or a conflict with the environment. In all these adventures, the protagonists overcome the problems by continued perseverance.