Percival LowellBesprekingen

Not, of course, a book to be read now to learn of the Solar System, but it gives a perspective on what was known, or thought to be known, back in 1902.

Not that Lowell's ideas where necessarily the scientific consensus. In particular, he presents his vision of an inhabited and be-canal'd Mars as proven beyond reasonable doubt; in actuality it was very much disputed by other astronomers of the time - and of course eventually completely disproved.

Scientifically, Lowell's ideas were heterodox already when he wrote this in 1908: today they're so outré as to make the book read as much like an exercise in world-building as like the popsci book it was meant to be.

One can easily see why he made a splash in popular consciousness however - in addition to the excitement inherent in his vision of a Mars populated by an advanced civilization of canal-builders, he's a genuinely good popsci writer, communicating his ideas with clarity and vividness.