The First Men in the Moon, H. Wells [latest books to read .TXT] 📗

on the Principle of Population (1798), an influential warning against the dangers of overpopulation by clergyman Thomas Malthus (1766–1834). This phrase was made famous by Dickens: ‘ “If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population” ’ (A Christmas Carol, Stave One).

’tato: the potato, a staple of the British diet, was introduced to Europe from the New World in the late sixteenth century.

67 White Man’s Burthen: ‘The White Man’s Burden’ is an 1899 poem by Rudyard Kipling exhorting developed nations to colonize other races, in particular the United States to invade the Philippines.

Satraps: ‘A subordinate ruler; often suggesting an imputation of tyranny or ostentatious splendour’ (OED).

Cavorecia. Bedfordecia: a clear echo of the colonial territory Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe, named after empire-builder Cecil Rhodes (1853–1902).

68 Selenites: inhabitants of the moon, a word which Wells probably took from a translation of Lucian’s ‘Trip to the Moon’.

vertebrated: possessing, unlike the insectoid Selenites, a spine.

72 Hyde Park: public park in the City of Westminster, London, grazed by sheep until the mid-twentieth century.

Dürer: Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), German engraver whose work is characterized by Gothic detail.

mooncalf: Bedford is using the word literally here to mean lunar cow, but the word also means something fantastic or a freak of nature.

74 Kepler with his sub-volvani: Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), German astronomer, in his Latin science-fiction novel Somnium (‘The Dream’, written 1608, published 1634), imagines monstrous inhabitants living beneath the surface of the moon.

76 Professor Galton . . . planets: in a paper for the Fortnightly Review in 1896, ‘Intelligible Signals between Neighbouring Stars’, Galton considered how communications from life on other planets could be deciphered.

Euclid’s: Greek mathematician (c.300 bce), whose Elements was still the standard textbook in the nineteenth century for teaching geometry.

78 gauffre: waffle.

81 tenders: operators.

94 Jamrach’s: Charles Jamrach (1815–91) ran a famous exotic pet shop, ‘Jamrach’s Animal Emporium’, in London.

100 drusy: ‘Covered or lined with a crust of minute crystals’ (OED).

106 enfilade: line up in a straight line and fire upon.

108 Saint Gothard: a railway tunnel under a mountain, connecting Switzerland and Italy.

110 sere: withered.

112 telephone: invented in the 1870s, but not yet widely in use.

an earnest: a down payment, initial instalment.

124 infinite space: an appropriate allusion to Shakespeare’s Hamlet: ‘O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams’ (II.ii.1354–5).

127 Chancery Lane: street in the City of Westminster, London, home to Lincoln’s Inn, one of the four Inns of Court.

131 Brighton: a major seaside resort, on the Sussex coast.

132 Littlestone: a seaside village 10 miles further south along the coast from Lympne.

136 Boots: the hotel servant responsible for cleaning guests’ shoes.

138 Magna Charta: more commonly known now as the Magna Carta, the ‘Great Charter of the Liberties’, a document signed by King John in 1215 which enshrined certain legal liberties for the individual that even the monarch could not overturn.

139 Blue Book: local directory.

years of discretion: the age at which someone is considered to be an adult.

government establishment of Lydd: the Lydd Ranges, an army site for the testing of explosives. Lydd is a small town on Romney Marsh, just north of Dungeness.

Tommy Simmons: the name of one of Wells’s university friends.

140 Amalfi: former maritime republic and later seaside resort in Salerno, Italy.

141 Mr Tesla in America: Serbian-born Nikola Tesla (1856–1943), inventor of technology for the transmission of electricity and of long-distance radio. In 1899, he claimed to have intercepted transmissions from other planets.

142 Monte Rosa: the second-highest mountain in the Alps, on the frontier between Switzerland and Italy.

143 the code in general use: Morse code.

144 vesicles: literally ‘blisters’, small sacs.

146 volcanoes: Cavor is correct in the assumption that craters on the moon are of volcanic origin.

147 Mammoth Caves: the world’s largest cave system, in Kentucky in the United States.

149 Gruyère: Cavor is alluding to the motion that the moon is made of cheese: Gruyère is a cheese with holes in it, named after the district in Switzerland where it is made.

154 Atlas: in Greek mythology, the Titan who holds up the earth on his back.

157 stridulation: the noise made by insects such as crickets by rubbing wings or legs together.

158 honey-ants of Texas: the prenolepsis ant has a specialized type of worker that can store food in its abdomen for consumption by other workers.

Somerset House . . . British Museum Library: Somerset House was formerly the institution that stored all birth, marriage, and death certificates; the British Museum Library, founded in 1753, was the English national library, by law holding a copy of every published book and periodical.

159 anchylosed joints: joints that are stiffened by bones fusing together.

163 chitinous: made of the hard substance that covers the bodies of insects and crustacea.

164 special correspondents: reporters who specialize in writing on a particular topic or from a specific place.

indurated: hardened.

165 Ara Cœli : ‘Altar of Heaven’, a basilica on the highest of the seven hills of Rome, reached via a long staircase.

exalted on his throne: an allusion to Paradise Lost, ii.1–5: ‘High on a Throne of Royal State . . . Satan exalted sat, by merit rais’d’.

167 Turkish fashion: cross-legged on the floor.

172 Huns . . . Caliphs . . . Crusades: Huns are the warlike nomads who, under their leader Attila, terrorized Asia and Europe; ‘caliph’ literally means ‘deputy’ or ‘steward’: after the death of Mahomet (the prophet Mohammad), the caliphs warred over who should succeed him; the Crusades were a 200-year campaign by Christian nations to regain control of the Holy Land.

173 Maxim gun: the first machine gun, invented by Sir Hiram Maxim (1840–1916).

Battle of Colenso: a bloody battle, and a heavy defeat for the British, in the Boer War, in 1899.