From Mars to Earth

Albert Ludwig DaiberProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.8
Word count
242K words
Chapters
25

Tags

Foreign Language Books Science Fiction Space AdventureCosmic VoyageGerman Sci-FiInterstellar TravelMars ExplorationScience FantasyAlien SurvivalStrange ImaginationExtraterrestrial CivilizationEarly Sci-Fi

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Vom Mars zur Erde by Albert DaiberAuthor: Daiber, Albert, 1857-1928,Language: German, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Dec 1, 2012

Editor's review

Vom Mars zur Erde is a German science fiction work written by Albert Daiber in the early twentieth century. Its title points directly to a journey from Mars to Earth, bearing the distinct mark of early planetary-travel imagination. The work belongs to the tradition of fantasy and popular-science narrative in German literature, and readers can see how authors of the time used interstellar travel to explore ideas about technology, the exotic, and the human condition. The narrative usually centers on travel observations and clashes of ideas rather than the technical extrapolation of modern hard science fiction, so it is better read as an early specimen in the history of science fiction. The German public-domain electronic text provided by Project Gutenberg is easy to search and compare, suitable for intermediate and advanced German learners doing extensive reading, and for science fiction researchers examining the thematic grammar of popular German science fiction of the period. It should be read in its historical context, with attention to the boundaries of imagination and narrative interest.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. First learn about the period's common ideas about Mars, then enter the text; this reduces demands for plausibility in the setting.
  2. Read in stages according to the journey, summarizing what is seen and heard after each stage to grasp the narrative structure of old-style science fiction.
  3. German learners can first read a chapter without stopping for full understanding, then return to key passages to look up words, keeping the reading fluent.
  4. Compare with other planetary-travel novels of the same period and note similarities and differences in themes and narrative perspective.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25

FAQ

Is this book hard science fiction? The materials only confirm that it is an early German science fiction interstellar-travel narrative; they do not establish that its technical extrapolation meets modern hard science fiction standards. It is better read as early twentieth-century fantasy and popular-science imagination, with attention to travel observations and ideas rather than to the rigor of physical settings.
Can I read this book if my German is only average? Some foundation is needed. The original is a German public-domain text whose sentence patterns and vocabulary bear the marks of its period, and beginning German readers may find it frustrating. Intermediate to advanced reading ability is recommended, or first use a translation to learn the plot and then return to the original for extensive reading and language building; this will be more reliable.
Why read the public-domain electronic edition rather than another edition? The Project Gutenberg edition is free, searchable, and easy to copy passages from for notes or classroom materials, making it suitable for studying early science fiction and for extensive language reading. Its layout and annotations are relatively simple, and readers must supply background information themselves, but the cost of using it as a public-domain original text is very low.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Albert Ludwig Daiber Author · German · 1857–1928

Albert Ludwig Daiber (1857–1928) was a German pharmacist, physician and science fiction writer. Born in Cannstatt, he later moved to Chile, where he practiced medicine and died in Santiago. He wrote the utopian science fiction novel Die Weltensegler: Drei Jahre auf dem Mars and its sequel Vom Mars zur Erde, as well as a Dutch-language work, Per luchtschip De Argonaut naar Mars. Three of his works are held in this collection. Centered on an airship expedition to Mars, these works combine interplanetary travel with imaginative portrayals of an alien society, making them representative early German-language utopian science fiction. Public information about his life and writing background is limited, and the available account rests mainly on his surviving works and basic biographical facts.