J.T. Maston Saved — Jules Verne 'Autour de la Lune' Italian Edition Engraving
This moonlit engraving illustrates a dramatic rescue scene from Jules Verne's 'Autour de la Lune' (Around the Moon), the sequel to 'De la Terre à la Lune.' J.T. Maston, the impulsive secretary of the Baltimore Gun Club, is hauled to safety after a perilous mishap involving the projectile-cannon apparatus. Belfast summons assistants, who use pulleys to hoist the imprudent Maston to safety, his arms flung skyward in distress beneath a clouded moon — a quintessential Vernian moment of comic peril rendered in fine cross-hatched engraving.
The dramatic moonlit rescue atop an enormous cannon is visually arresting and kinetic, but the restrained Victorian engraving style and literary context keep it from pure pulp hysteria. It would stop a browser of illustrated books rather than a newsstand grabber.
“J. T. MASTON SALVATO. 187 Ei mandava formidabili grida. Belfast chiamò aiuto; accorsero gli assistenti: furono collocati dei paranchini, per mezzo dei quali si potè, non senza fatica, issare l'imprudente segretario del Club-Cannone.”
