De la terre à la lune, trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes

After the Civil War the gunners of the Baltimore Gun Club have nothing left to shoot, so their president proposes firing a projectile at the Moon. The plan grows into a national enterprise, and then a Frenchman asks to ride inside it. This book uses the racial and other slurs of its period as written; the Book Guide explains these words where they occur.

Summary written with Claude Opus 5.5.