first edition
1742 · London
by [Holberg, Ludvig]
London: Printed for T. Astley [...] and B. Collins, 1742. Very good plus.. First edition in English of this foundational example of "hollow earth" speculative fiction, a GULLIVER'S TRAVELS-like adventure with an Enlightenment-era feminist twist. A young graduate, Niels Klim, explores a cave near his home and falls down a shaft, only to discover a series of concentric worlds within our own. The novel's setting is informed by contemporary scientific speculation: in 1692, extrapolating from Newton's Principia, Edmund Halley had famously proposed that the earth was hollow, with at least one more sphere contained within its center. Like the imaginary voyage of Swift's Gulliver, Klim's journey through fantastical subterranean worlds doubles as a critique of real-world politics.
An Enlightenment-era feminist, the Dano-Norwegian writer Holberg argued in multiple works that women deserve the same educational and political access granted to men, and Journey is "Holberg's most feminist text" (Joan Templeton). Klim's travels take him to underworld societies in which gender roles are reversed, or in which women have equal say in the government. When Klim suggests that one country ban women from participation in politics, the Senate's reply is blunt: "As a Country may often labour under a Want of able Persons, we think it is a great Folly [...] to render one intire [sic] Half of the Nation incapable and unworthy of Employment, solely upon Account of their Birth."
At the time of publication, Holberg was already a renowned playwright: his influence on Danish and Norwegian letters was comparable to that of Voltaire and Swift in their languages. He first published JOURNEY in Germany, in Latin, because he had misgivings about the novel's political reception at home. In the end, the novel was a great success, running through 34 separate editions in the eighteenth century alone. It was an important influence on later precursors of modern science fiction, including Voltaire's MICROMEGAS (1752) and Verne's JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1864); Mary Shelley read it while composing FRANKENSTEIN, and Poe references it in "The Fall of the House of Usher." A landmark in speculative fiction. 12mo, 6.5'' x 3.75''. Full contemporary calf, sympathetically rebacked, green goatskin spine label, raised bands, boards double ruled in gilt, all edges speckled red. Woodcut device on title page; a few woodcut headpieces, tailpieces, and initials. Twelve-page bookseller catalogue after text. [4], 324, [12] pages. Moderate wear to contemporary boards; ink owner name clipped from front fly leaf, only light spotting to text. (Inventory #: 53262)
An Enlightenment-era feminist, the Dano-Norwegian writer Holberg argued in multiple works that women deserve the same educational and political access granted to men, and Journey is "Holberg's most feminist text" (Joan Templeton). Klim's travels take him to underworld societies in which gender roles are reversed, or in which women have equal say in the government. When Klim suggests that one country ban women from participation in politics, the Senate's reply is blunt: "As a Country may often labour under a Want of able Persons, we think it is a great Folly [...] to render one intire [sic] Half of the Nation incapable and unworthy of Employment, solely upon Account of their Birth."
At the time of publication, Holberg was already a renowned playwright: his influence on Danish and Norwegian letters was comparable to that of Voltaire and Swift in their languages. He first published JOURNEY in Germany, in Latin, because he had misgivings about the novel's political reception at home. In the end, the novel was a great success, running through 34 separate editions in the eighteenth century alone. It was an important influence on later precursors of modern science fiction, including Voltaire's MICROMEGAS (1752) and Verne's JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1864); Mary Shelley read it while composing FRANKENSTEIN, and Poe references it in "The Fall of the House of Usher." A landmark in speculative fiction. 12mo, 6.5'' x 3.75''. Full contemporary calf, sympathetically rebacked, green goatskin spine label, raised bands, boards double ruled in gilt, all edges speckled red. Woodcut device on title page; a few woodcut headpieces, tailpieces, and initials. Twelve-page bookseller catalogue after text. [4], 324, [12] pages. Moderate wear to contemporary boards; ink owner name clipped from front fly leaf, only light spotting to text. (Inventory #: 53262)
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