The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells
Moonrise and Empire: H.G. Wells' Celestial Allegory
The story follows Mr. Bedford, an opportunistic businessman, and Mr. Cavor, an eccentric scientist who invents “Cavorite,” a substance that negates gravity. The pair use this new technology to construct a spacecraft and journey to the Moon. What begins as a somewhat whimsical escapade rapidly evolves into an encounter with the entirely alien—a subterranean civilization of insect-like beings called Selenites. As Bedford and Cavor explore this society, their contrasting worldviews bring tension and complexity to their mission, and the lunar world becomes a crucible for testing Earth-bound assumptions.
At its core, The First Men in the Moon is not just an adventure narrative; it is a parable about colonialism, scientific hubris, and cultural relativism. Wells—writing during the height of the British Empire—invites readers to reflect on the ethics of exploration and conquest. The Selenites, though bizarre, possess an advanced society organized by intellectual specialization and social harmony, prompting a subtle critique of Western industrialism and the discontents of modern life. Cavor, the more idealistic of the two men, responds with curiosity and reverence; Bedford, by contrast, brings the logic of profit and domination. This dialectic plays out with increasing consequence as the story unfolds.
The characters, though drawn with broad strokes, are effective vehicles for Wells’ ideological tensions. Bedford is the archetypal entrepreneur, restless and calculating, whose narration drives the story forward with urgency. His limitations as a narrator—his selfishness, his pragmatism—are part of Wells’ design. Cavor is his foil: whimsical, intellectually rigorous, and unmoored from worldly concerns. Their dynamic provides a steady philosophical tension, though readers may find Cavor the more memorable figure for his blend of scientific wonder and moral insight. The Selenites, while not deeply individualized, are sketched with imaginative precision; their hive-like society, their bio-specialization, and their strange technologies create a convincing and unsettling alien world.
Wells’ writing remains fresh and accessible, marked by clarity and vividness rather than ornamentation. The novel is structured as a first-person narrative with intermittent philosophical digressions, maintaining a pace that balances reflection with action. Wells is particularly adept at building suspense—whether in the eerie descent into the Moon’s caverns or in the moments when contact with the alien civilization veers toward disaster. Yet some readers may find the narrative’s second half, with its focus on Cavor’s captivity and philosophical musings, slower and less thrilling than the journey’s beginning. Still, these reflective passages are among the novel’s most enduring contributions to the genre.
What stands out most is Wells’ prescience. Decades before the Apollo missions, he imagined the Moon not as a barren sphere, but as a site for examining Earth’s moral terrain. He anticipated the scientific method’s pitfalls, the ethical ambiguity of “discovery,” and the alienness of intelligent life forms—all staples of later science fiction. Unlike Jules Verne’s more mechanistic visions, Wells introduces a psychological and ethical complexity that resonates even today.
The novel’s weaknesses are modest but worth noting. Its characters sometimes feel more like mouthpieces for competing ideologies than fully fleshed individuals. The speculative science, while charming, has not aged as gracefully as its philosophical core. And its gendered and racial assumptions—while more restrained than many contemporaries—are very much products of their era. Yet these issues do not detract significantly from the novel’s lasting impact.
Ultimately, The First Men in the Moon is a richly imaginative, thought-provoking work that stands as one of Wells’ most significant contributions to speculative literature. Wells may have written of men traveling to the Moon, but his real subject was always Earth—and the human beings who struggle to understand their place in the cosmos.
Recommended for readers of classic science fiction, historians of early modern literature, and anyone interested in how the genre has served as a vessel for moral inquiry and social critique.
—N3UR4L Reviews
