Barbicane and Company: The Purchase of the North Pole, originally published in 1889, or as Verne himself first called it literally Sense Upside Down, it is a sequel to A Trip to the Moon, written a quarter century before. In its mathematical sincerity and extravagance of analysis it is worthy of the earlier tale. With his mountains of figures the author deliberately plays a joke upon the trusting reader, by pointing out in the end that the figures are all wrong. In its astronomical suggestiveness and impressive form of conveying instruction, this story is again the equal of its predecessor.