Five Weeks in a Balloon

Jules Verne was one of those few people who managed to realize his childhood dreams of travel. From Nantes, where the future writer was born in 1828, to the shores of the Atlantic, it was only 50 km. From the banks of the Loire, where his father had a summer house, the masts of ships were visible. Jules's father wanted his son to become a lawyer; the rejection of this imposed choice gave rise to a young man's desire for writing. And although he mainly traveled alongside the heroes of his novels, in real life, Jules Verne still became a member of the French Geographical Society. It can be said that he was a pioneering traveler in the fantastic world of wonders and the unknown. In collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel, Jules Verne created a whole series of «Extraordinary Travels», which began with the novel «Five Weeks in a Balloon». Like almost everything else written by Verne, the thrilling story of flying over Africa can be classified as an adventure novel. Incredible discoveries, unexpected dangers, courage and bravery of the heroes - all of this attracts readers to this work even today.

The illustrations in this edition were created by the remarkable artist Pyotr Ivanovich Lugansky. He was a great admirer of Jules Verne's work. In the post-war years, Lugansky's illustrations adorned Soviet editions of such well-known books as «Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea», «The Captain's Daughter», and «The Floating Island». During the artist's lifetime, six editions of «The Children of Captain Grant» were published, and all the illustrations in them varied. In this and other books by Jules Verne, an unfamiliar and enticing world opened up before domestic readers, where brave heroes and tireless pioneers acted, making their way through dense jungles, sailing the seas on their sailboats, and flying over Africa in a balloon. All these captivating scenes could be seen firsthand thanks to Lugansky's talent. Where and how did he explore the nature he depicted? Did he study the fashion of the 19th century? Did he leaf through old albums? Or did his creative imagination allow him to accurately reproduce the scenes of life that he had not seen in person? After all, Pyotr Ivanovich never left the confines of his homeland. He was born in 1911, graduated from one of the oldest art schools in Ukraine - a kind of equivalent of the Stroganov Art School in St. Petersburg. Then there was work in Leningrad's «Uchpedgiz». After the war, book illustration became the main creative endeavor for the artist. He illustrated the works of Kaverin, Belyaev, Stevenson, and Mayne Reid. Nonetheless, his favorite writer remained Jules Verne.