Thus, of these five early tales, "The Watch's Soul" is the only one differing sharply from Verne's later work. It is allegorical, supernatural, depending not upon the scientific marvels of the material world, but upon the direct inter-position of supernal powers.
"Five Weeks in a Balloon," the last and by far the most important story in this volume, is Verne's first complete and accepted masterpiece. This book, published in 1863 without preliminary display, made the author instantly a central 'figure in the literary world. Like Byron he awoke one morning and found himself famous.
Verne told his friends that before writing this book, he had no knowledge whatever of practical ballooning. Indeed the balloon was, to his view, quite a secondary part of the tale. 'Always an omnivorous reader of works of travel, he conceived the idea of writing into one book the descriptions of parts of Africa gathered from the accounts of the great explorers. These men he regarded as heroes of the highest type, worthy of the most distinguished honor; and he sought to honor them.
As he worked over the tale, the possibilities of scientific and even more of dramatic interest to be gained from the balloon, appealed to him more and more. To his friends he confided that he had conceived an idea or rather a combination of ideas by the publication of which he hoped he might achieve real fame.
He was right. "Five Weeks in a Balloon" was unique in the literature of the day. Its success was as immediate and tremendous as it was deserved. The book is painstakingly accurate in its following of the descriptions of the explorers, a truly valuable piece of geographical work. It is almost inspired in its deductions as to the probable character of the unknown land beyond their travels, its descriptions of that mysterious heart of Africa which even yet is largely unexplored. In the handling of the fortunes of the balloon and the balloonists, the elements of drama and suspense, the book is an acknowledged masterpiece.
