1881 Rare Second Edition - Hector Servadac The Career of a Comet by Jules Verne

Author: Jules Verne. Translated by Ellen E. Frewer.
Title: Hector Servadac or The Career of a Comet. 
Publisher: London, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1881. Second Edition (stated).
Language: Text in English.
Size: 8 " X 5.5 ".
Pages: x-370 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good original publisher’s pictorial gilt-stamped and black-inked green cloth binding, with ornate decorative motifs on cover and spine; bevelled boards and blind-stamped rear board (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare light foxing and minimal toning to endpapers - as shown).
Illustrations: Complete with 97 beautiful illustrations  such as “The Observatory at Paris” and “The Volcano was Extinguished” by Paul Dominique Philippoteaux.

The book: A rare and compelling second English edition of Jules Verne’s Hector Servadac, one of his more imaginative “Extraordinary Voyages.” The novel follows the adventurous path of Captain Hector Servadac and his companion Ben Zoof, who are transported across the solar system aboard a comet following a cosmic collision. Blending science fiction with geopolitical satire, the narrative showcases Verne’s characteristic fascination with astronomy and speculative travel, here delightfully supported by dramatic engravings. The cover design, featuring a comet soaring through a star-strewn sky and a stylized planetary surface, is an outstanding example of Victorian publisher’s bindings in the science-fiction genre.

The author: Jules Gabriel Verne (8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. Verne was born to bourgeois parents in the seaport of Nantes, where he was trained to follow in his father's footsteps as a lawyer, but quit the profession early in life to write for magazines and the stage. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a widely popular series of scrupulously researched adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).