A Voyage to the Moon, Paperback

In A Voyage to the Moon, the narrator, after an attempt to reach the moon using vials of dewdrops, finally finds himself in what appears to be the Garden of Eden, surrounded by Biblical patriarchs. After falling foul of the prophet Elijah, he soon meets a race who walk on all fours and whose nourishment comes in the form of vapour.

Published posthumously and intended mainly as a satire of its age, this imaginative and entertaining tale - here presented in a lively translation by Andrew Brown - is now considered one of the pioneering works of science fiction.

Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-55) - best known for Edmond de Rostand's depiction of him in his famous play - was a major writer of the French libertine movement, and the author of plays such as The Death of Agrippina and The Pedant Tricks and many other innovative works of prose and poetry.