Character guide

Impey Barbicane

major

Also known as President Barbicane, Barbicane, the Barbicane, October President Barbicane, friend Barbicane, the unfortunate Barbicane, the Yankee Barbicane, Friend Barbicane

Barbicane is the sober Yankee engineer whose calm authority turns a room of Baltimore artillerymen into a moon-shot project, and whose rivalry with Captain Nicholl nearly ends in rifle fire. That rivalry is the story's early engine: the two men who most want each other dead are the two whose combined genius the voyage requires. His defining trait is absorption — he can sit against a catalpa tree, gun unloaded, tracing geometry while a man hunts him through the woods — and it is exactly this single-mindedness that makes the impossible scheme credible.

Michel Ardan

major

Also known as Ardan, Michel

Ardan arrives as a telegram and becomes the project's public face, debating skeptics from a platform before three hundred thousand people and refusing to abandon his loudest heckler to the crowd. Where Barbicane calculates and Nicholl resents, Ardan charms — he answers the fatal questions (air, food, heat, the return trip) with wit rather than data, and his 'I shall not come back' silences an entire assembly. He matters because he converts a ballistic stunt into a human adventure, and because his refusal to let the two rivals shoot each other is what puts three men in the projectile instead of two in a grave.

J. T. Maston

supporting

Also known as the famous J. T. Maston, the Honourable J. T. Maston, Maston, the enterprising J. T. Maston, impetuous J. T. Maston, the inevitable J. T. Maston, the impetuous J. T. Maston, Friend Maston, Mr. Maston

Maston is the president's self-declared alter ego, a crippled, gesticulating enthusiast whose loyalty runs ahead of his judgment — he volunteers to die for Barbicane and later begs to join the voyage, only to be told he is too 'incomplete' to present himself on the Moon. He is the club's emotional barometer, shouting, eating, and toasting while the acoustic tube thunders overhead. His function is to make the enterprise feel like a cause rather than a contract, and his exclusion from the projectile leaves a devoted witness behind on Earth.

Captain Nicholl

supporting

Also known as Nicholl, the worthy Captain Nicholl, the captain

Nicholl is the adversary whose feud with Barbicane predates the moon-shot and nearly derails it, hunting the president through the undergrowth with a discharged rifle and a grievance. His pride is rigid — he insists 'I shall fight, sir' even as Ardan and Maston try to talk him down — but his competence is never in question, and Ardan's proposition is designed precisely to be irresistible to both rivals. He matters because the voyage's strangest alliance is this one: the man who wanted Barbicane dead becoming the man whose survival is tied to his.

General Morgan

minor

Also known as Morgan, the general

Member of the Gun Club and supporter of the project.

Major Elphinstone

minor

Also known as Elphinstone

Gun Club member involved in planning the cannon.

Murchison

minor

Also known as the engineer Murchison

Engineer who oversees the casting of the Columbiad.

Tom Hunter

minor

Also known as brave Tom Hunter

Gun Club member and friend of Maston.

Bilsby

minor

Also known as dandy Bilsby

Gun Club member known for his fashionable attire.

Colonel Blomsberry

minor

Gun Club member who assists with the project.

Rodman

minor

Also known as the Rodman Columbiad, The Rodman Columbiad, the Rodman, the Columbiad

Name given to the giant cannon built for the moon shot.

Sir John Herschel

minor

Also known as Herschel

Astronomer cited for lunar observations.

MM. Boeer

minor

Also known as Boeer

Astronomers referenced for lunar observations.

Galileo

minor

Historical astronomer referenced in lunar discussions.

Moedler

minor

Astronomer whose lunar map is consulted.

Lord Rosse

minor

Also known as Rosse

Astronomer known for his large telescope.

Muhammad II

minor

Historical figure mentioned in passing.