Description

A pioneering work of lost-world fiction, A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder is a thrilling blend of adventure, satire, and early science fiction. First published posthumously in 1888, James De Mille's novel follows an explorer who stumbles upon an isolated civilization whose customs challenge every notion of Western society. Combining high-seas adventure with philosophical inquiry, this classic remains a fascinating and thought-provoking read for fans of early speculative fiction.

This satiric and fantastic romance is set in an imaginary semi-tropical land in Antarctica inhabited by prehistoric monsters and a cult of death-worshipers called the Kosekin. Begun many years before it was published, it is reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" and anticipates the exotic locale and fantasy-adventure elements of works of the "Lost World" genre such as Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World", Edgar Rice Burroughs' "The Land That Time Forgot," as well as innumerable prehistoric-world movies based loosely on these and other works. The title and locale were inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's "Ms. Found in a Bottle".

It was unfortunate for De Mille's reputation as a writer that this work, his best, was published after H. Rider Haggard's "She" and "King Solomon's Mines," for although Haggard's works were well known by then, the actual composition of De Mille's romance pre-dated the publication of these popular romances, and his ideas were not in the least derivative from Haggard's.