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This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger
Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain
imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed
pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we
have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting,
preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger
Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and
hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger
Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain
imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed
pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we
have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting,
preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger
Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and
hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!
When Bernard de Fontenelle published the first edition of his
Entretiens sur la Pluralite des Mondes in 1686, it was an immediate
success. In an age when women, even those from the richest and most
distinguished families, received little or no formal education, it
offered an entertaining and accessible introduction to astronomy
and some of the burning topics of the day. Does the earth really go
around the sun? Are there other inhabited planets out there? If so,
are the inhabitants like us or quite different? Is the moon itself
inhabited? Is even the sun inhabited? Are there volcanoes on the
moon? How hot is mercury? How long is a Venusian day? Will flying
machines one day take us to the moon? Providing new notes, some
illustrations and an introduction, this new Tiger of the Stripe
edition is based on the 1808 edition of Elizabeth Gunning's
translation, retaining the charm which was so essential for the
book's success. Miss Gunning, a beautiful and talented novelist
with a rather racy personal life, drew on an annotated French
edition by the distinguished French astronomer, Jerome de Lalande.
This edition thus offers an interesting accretion of ideas, ranging
from Fontenelle's 1686 edition and later revisions, Lalande's
(sometimes rather critical) comments, Gunning's appropriately
flowery translation, and our own explanations for the modern
reader. It is, without doubt, a little gem.
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