The Man in the Moone (1638) is a utopian science fiction story by
Francis Godwin. Published posthumously, the book appeared under the
pseudonym Domingo Gonsales, the name of its intrepid narrator. The Man
in the Moone was inspired by recent discoveries in the field of
astronomy by Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, William Gilbert, and
Galileo Galielei. Godwin was particularly interested in the possibility
of lunar habitation, and he wrongly believed that the dark spots on the
surface of the Moon were seas. His work has many similarities to
Lucian's True History, a second-century A. D. science fiction novel
that appeared in an influential English translation in the 1630s.
Banished from his native Spain after killing a rival in a duel, Domingo
Gonsales makes his fortune in the East Indies, but soon dreams of
returning home. Struck with illness on his voyage across the Atlantic,
he stops at the island of St Helena to recuperate. There, he discovers a
species of swan that he incorporates into a state-of-the-art flying
machine. Gonsales soon gains the strength to continue his journey,
making his way past Tenerife. When an English fleet destroy his vessel,
the adventurer takes flight with the help of his geese, rising through
space until the Earth has all but disappeared. Before he knows it,
Gonsales is standing on the Moon amidst what looks to be a utopian
civilization unmatched in human history.