A VOYAGE TO THE MOON (1657) - Written by Cyrano de Bergerac. Yes, the one and only Cyrano de Bergerac noted for his prominent proboscis and for Rostand's play depicting his romance with Roxanne, at first acting on behalf of his friend. Some people still mistakenly believe Cyrano was a fictional character.
If he seems an unlikely man to dabble in science fiction consider this brilliant excerpt from de Bergerac's writings: " I think the planets are worlds revolving around the sun and that the fixed stars are also suns that have planets revolving around them. We can't see those worlds from here because they are so small and because the light they reflect cannot reach us. How can one honestly think that such spacious globes are only large, deserted fields and that our world was made to lord it over all of them …?"
Cyrano's fictional space traveler was named Dyrcona and was the first to use multi-stage rockets to reach his destination. Dyrcona's rocket design was based on firecrackers of the time period. The lunar inhabitants wore no clothing, had four legs and spoke in song. Their technology included transparent globes that captured solar rays for illumination, talking book-machines (early radio) and ray-guns that not only killed game but simultaneously cooked it.
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