My Thoughts
The Balloon Hoax, aptly named so, was a hoax article written by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe seemed to revel in attempting to fool the public as he wrote a few fictitious articles with extraordinary claims that ended up being hoaxes. This hoax focuses on a few men from England that embark a voyage in a hot air balloon with the goal of traveling over the British Channel and landing in France. Their adventure takes an odd turn, however, when their flying machine is taken by a current and pushed towards the Atlantic Ocean.
The story is well written and quite believable. No doubt Poe conducted an enormous amount of research prior to publication. He details how propulsion devices were installed and even uses the names of real people. Sullivan's Island, South Carolina was the landing point of the balloon--an area used in a few other of Poe's stories, including The Gold-Bug.
My Rating
I would give the story a 3 out of 5. It was quite interesting and believable but wasn't of the fantastic quality one expects from a short story by Poe, although I doubt it was his intent.
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