FORGOTTEN BOOK: OFF ON A COMET

 Off on a Comet or Hector Servadac by Jules Verne (originally published in two parts as Hector Servadac, voyages at adventures a travers le monde solaire in Magasin d'Education et de Recreation, from January 1, 1877 to July 15, 1877 and from August 1, 1877 to December 15, 1877; first English translation as Hector Servadac:  Travels and Adventures Through the Solar System in The Seaside Library. No. 43, September 1877; later English translations appeared as Astounding Adventures Among the Comets; or, Captain Hectoc Serrvadac's Thrilling Experiences (undated), as Hector Servadac (1878), as Hector Servadac; or, The Career of a Comet (1878), as Off on a Comet:  A Journey Through Planetary Space (1878), as To the Sun?  A Journey Through Interplanetary Space (1878), as Off on a Comet (1957), as To the Sun?/Off on a Comet (1960), as Anomalous Phenomena (1965), as Homeward Bound (1965), and as Off on a Comet! (2013); appeared as a two-part serial in the first two issues of Amazing Stories, April and May 1926 (Part One being the very first story to appear in a science fiction magazine), in a translation by Ellen E. Frewer, based on her 1887 and 1888 translations; also included in The Works of Jules Verne 9 (1911), in Verne's Novels (1929), reprinted in the Gernsback-edited Science Fiction Classics #1 (2014) and #2 (2015), in The Jules Verne Collection (2024), in numerous eBook appearances, in many foreign editions, and most likely in other editions -- including omnibuses -- lurking out there that I have not been able to locate.)

A classic, and rightly so.  This is Number 15 in Verne's Extraordinary Voyages.

The comet Gallia brushes against Earth on January 1, 188x, taking small part of the planet (basically located around Gibraltar) with it.  Sept up with the comet are three dozen French, English, Spanish, and Russians, among them Captain Hector Servadac and his adjutant Ben Zoof.  These people at first do not realize what has happened and assume they experienced an earthquake.  But then there is weight loss, and Servadac finds he can now leap 12 meters into the air.  Day and night have been shortened to six hour each, east and west have changed sides, and water is now boiled at 66 degrees C.  Not realizing they are now on Gallia, they view the Earth and the moon in the sky and believe them to be unknown planets.  Also swept up by the comet is a ship. which the survivors use to locate a French astronomer, Rosette, whop helps them understand what has happened..

Starvation may soon loom because there is no arable land and the survivors have been ling on a diminishing supply of slaughtered animals.  The French and the English survivors are at odds because each considers themselves to represent their respective governments, so politics begins to rear its head.  the Spanish island of Ceuta, which both French and the English deem unclaimed becomes a sticking point for them.

As the comet circles the sun, they learn that it will again strike Earth on its return --  exactly two after the first collision.  Can the survivors use this opportunity to "jump" back onto their own planet?

In his introduction to Part One of the serial, Amazing Stories editor Hugo Gernsback wrote, "Among so many effective and artistic tales of our author, it is difficult to give preference to one over all the rest.  Yet, certainly, even amid Verne's remarkable works, his "Off on a Comet" must be given high rank.  Perhaps this story will be remembered when some of his greatest efforts have been obliterated by centuries of time.    At least, of the many books since written on the same theme as Verne's, no one has yet equated or even approached it...[T]he author here abandons his usual scrupulously scientific attitude and gives his fancy free rein.  In order that he may escort us through the depths of immeasurable space, to show us what astronomy really knows of conditions there and upon the other planets...If the situation were reproduced in actuality, if ever a comet should come into collision with the earth, we can conceive two scientifically possible results.  If the comet were of such attenuation, such almost infinitesimal mass as some of these celestial wanderers seem to be, we can imagine our earth self-protected and possibly unharmed.  If, on the other hand, the comet had even the hundredth part of the size and the solidity and the weight which Verne confers on his monster so far as to give his travelers a home -- in that case the collision would be unspeakably disastrous -- especially to the unlucky individuals who occupied the exact point of contact..."

Despite Gernsback's cavil, this is a ripping yarn, and should be on every science fiction fan's bucket list.

An interesting bit of satire, infused with some "modern" scientific theory.  Nor as stodgy as one might think.