Books

8vo. (2), 380 pp. With engraved frontispiece and 3 numbered engraved plates (one folding). Contemporary half calf with giltstamped spine-title. First edition of this important Utopian novel describing Niels Klim's imaginary journey to the centre of the earth. A biting critique of the rule of the Danish King Christian VI, this tale of subterranean discovery advanced to one of the most popular socio-critical enlightenment novels. - Holberg is described by Bleiler as "a one-man literary renaissance", a founder of modern Danish literature and significant contributor to the genre of imaginary voyages. While his tale is often compared with Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", Bleiler notes that "Holberg's satire is wider in scope, more penetrating in analysis, and less local than Swift's", and highlights this title as being of "international importance" - a fact further evidenced by its countless later reprintings, adaptations, and abridged versions still in print today. - Binding rubbed; hinges starting. Larger brown stain to p. 145, small tear to pp. 179f., not touching text. Page 221 with ink annotations, transliterating and paraphrasing in Latin the Greek phrase, "ton hetto logon kreitto poiein" ("making the weaker argument stronger"). Occasional light foxing and toning. Contemporary ownership of E. Flygare to title-page; slightly later ownerships of Rudolph Christian and Eduardo Fleucher to flyleaf. Older deleted ownership on front pastedown. Latterly in the library of fantastic fiction assembled by the U.S. collector Gary Munson. A good copy of what is regarded as the first great Danish novel. - Bleiler, Science Fiction, 1114. Brunet III, 260. Gibson, More 710. Gove 303. Lewis, Utopian Literature in the Penn State University Libraries, 1984, 91. Ehrencron-M�ller XII, 213. Paul Johansen 21,1. Bibl. Danica IV, 441.

Set in the year 1665, the story is narrated by Niels Klim, who returns to his hometown of Bergen after graduating from the University of Copenhagen. During a mountain climb with friends, he falls into a pit and, after fifteen minutes, emerges in the hollow interior of the Earth. This space is a miniature cosmos with planets orbiting a small sun. After drifting for a while, he lands on a planet called Nazar, in the kingdom of Potu (an anagram of "utopia"), where he encounters intelligent tree-like beings. Holberg's work combines satire with a fantastic voyage and embodies the spirit of the eighteenth century. Aside from its Latin language and passages of verse and prose adapted from classical authors, this novel is entirely modern in spirit. Its depiction of travel to exotic lands is reminiscent of Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (1726), but with more wit and humor. Holberg's idea of a hollow Earth containing other habitable lands foreshadows Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth."