Books

1741. Hafniæ & Lipsiæ, Jacob Preuss, 1741. Samt. helldrbd. m. oph. bd. på ryg. Rygforgyldn. slidt næsten væk, nedre kapitæl slidt, hæftesnorene synlige ved forreste indre fals. Indvendig pæn. M. det kobberst. titelbl., det kobberst. portræt og de tre kobberst. tavler, heriblandt foldekobberet over underverdenen. Tavle III ligger løst.Cont. full calf w. raised bands on back. Gilding on back almost worn off. Cords showing at inner front-hinge, but binding tight. Internally fine with only minor brownspotting. Complete with the engaved frontispiece-portrait and the three engraved plates, including the large folded map of the "Underworld". Engraved title-page. Originaludgaven. af Holbergs berømte utopiværk, Niels Klim i Underverdenen. Ehr.-M. XII:213 ff.First edition of this influential utopian mastepiece. The satirical piece of science fiction by the "father of Danish Literature", the famous Danish professor of Law and Philosophy, Ludvig Holberg, can be compared in…

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."