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Phil Leader (619 KP) rated The Uparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall in Books

Nov 28, 2019  
The Uparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall
The Uparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall
Edgar Allen Poe | 1835 | Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This story is one of a number in a collection of Poe stories that I downloaded. I've always wanted to read Poe and this collection seemed like a good starting place.

The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall was written in 1835 and is a short story containing much that would later be labelled science fiction, The titular character lives in the Netherlands and disappears one day. Five years later a strange balloon-like craft appears and it's equally odd occupant hands the Mayor of Rotterdam a message from Hans Pfaall. The bulk of the story is the content of the message, where he describes constructing and flying a hot air balloon to the moon.

The adventure is told with a fantastic eye for detail and with a great deal of scientific descriptions of how the atmosphere thins, how much of the earth is visible and other such observations. He carries a cat and two birds (which don't fare well for various reasons). The ending and what it very strongly suggests probably won't come as a great surprise.

The language is sometimes a little obscure (it was written nearly 200 years ago, to put it in perspective) but the actual story is surprisingly modern, and some of the facts (such as the distance of the moon) must have been almost incredible to the audience at the time and perhaps education is as much the intention of the story as the entertainment value it contains.

This is a fairly straightforward tale for Poe but interesting because of the subject matter and the way it is dealt with. Perhaps one for science fiction fans rather than as an example of the author's work. Still a good read, and some of the of the hardships Pfaall describes and his solutions may well prompt a smile on the face of the reader.

Recommended? Maybe not. But still not a bad little short story.
  
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