"Five Weeks in a Balloon. A Voyage of Exploration and Discovery in Central Africa". From the French of Jules Verne. Author's Illustrated Edition with 26 woodcut illustrations by Riou + frontispiece and engraving on the title page, published by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, London, 1876.

Semi-hard cover, original publisher's dark-blue faux leather [some staining and fading - good cond.: see photos]; gold stamped spine; 4.3/4" x 7.1/8"; names of former owner on title page; wood engraved frontispiece, 190 pages, 26 text illustrations, very good condition.

Provenance:

From the library of Brodie Manuel De Zulueta, 3rd Count De Torre Diaz. [there are two stamps on the title page "Count De Torre Diaz" and "B.M. De Zulueta / Harley Street, W." [London]

British businessman and philanthropist, [ancient Basque heritage], Brodie Manuel de Zulueta [London, 1842-1918, Northhamptonshire], 3rd Conde de Torre Diaz was the son of Pedro Jose de Zulueta, 2nd Conde de Torre Diaz. He married firstly, Constance Petre, daughter of Hon. Frederick Charles Edmund Petre and Georgiana Musgrave, on 15 January 1873. He married, secondly, Hon. Bertha Mary Agnes Clifford, daughter of Charles Hugh Clifford, 8th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh and Hon. Agnes Catherine Louisa Petre, in 1892.

"Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, A Journey of Discovery" (French: "Cinq semaines en ballon") is an adventure novel by Jules Verne, first published in Paris in 1863. Dr. Samuel Ferguson and his two associates (Dick Kennedy and Joe) venture to Zanzibar in Africa. It is Ferguson's intention to explore the part of Africa that the Barth and Burton and Speke expeditions were not able to reach. The method by which he will try to accomplish this task is unique, by using a balloon called the "Victoria".

This novel, Verne's first great commercial success, was one of his most enduringly popular novels. It is the first novel in which he perfected the "ingredients" of his later work, skillfully mixing a story line full of adventure and plot twists that keep the reader's interest through passages of technical, geographic, and historic description. The book gives readers a glimpse of the exploration of Africa, which was still not completely known to Europeans of the time, with explorers traveling all over the continent in search of its secrets.

Public interest in fanciful tales of African exploration was at its height, and the novel was an instant hit; it made Verne financially independent and led to long-term contracts with Pierre-Jules Hetzel's publishing house, which put out some sixty more books of his over the next four decades.

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