Influence
- Holberg knew that the satirical content of the novel would cause an uproar in Denmark-Norway, so the book was first published in Germany, in Latin. He thus got a broader audience than he would have gotten in his homeland. The novel made him widely acclaimed across Europe. Danish, German, French, and Dutch translations were also published in 1741.
- The book is significant in the history of science fiction, being one of the first science-fiction novels in history along with Johannes Kepler's Somnium (The Dream, 1634), Cyrano de Bergerac's Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon (1656), Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), and Voltaire's Micromégas (1752). Along with a number of those stories, an excerpt was included in the anthology The Road to Science Fiction, Volume 1: From Gilgamesh to Wells.
- The work is referenced in Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher".
- It is one of the first science fiction novels to use the Hollow Earth concept.
- The renowned Danish Communist author and artist Hans Scherfig created a graphic retelling of "Niels Klims underjordiske rejse", which was originally published in the Danish newspaper Land og folk from 3 July 1955 to 21 January 1956 and later as a book at Sirius Publishing House, Risskov, Denmark in October 1961.
- The story was adapted to a costly 3 episode TV-series for The Danish Broadcasting Coorporation in 1984, starring actor Frits Helmuth in the titlerole.
Read more about this topic: Niels Klim's Underground Travels
Famous quotes containing the word influence:
“Who shall set a limit to the influence of a human being? There are men, who, by their sympathetic attractions, carry nations with them, and lead the activity of the human race. And if there be such a tie, that, wherever the mind of man goes, nature will accompany him, perhaps there are men whose magnetisms are of that force to draw material and elemental powers, and, where they appear, immense instrumentalities organize around them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“If the contemplation, even of inanimate beauty, is so delightful; if it ravishes the senses, even when the fair form is foreign to us: What must be the effects of moral beauty? And what influence must it have, when it embellishes our own mind, and is the result of our own reflection and industry?”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“The question of place and climate is most closely related to the question of nutrition. Nobody is free to live everywhere; and whoever has to solve great problems that challenge all his strength actually has a very restricted choice in this matter. The influence of climate on our metabolism, its retardation, its acceleration, goes so far that a mistaken choice of place and climate can not only estrange a man from his task but can actually keep it from him: he never gets to see it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)