Good Books You Probably Never Heard Of - Part 10
The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
As you probably know, I love subterranean settings. I also love Lost Race stories. And Bulwer-Lytton’s 1871 sci-fi novel, The Coming Race, has both. Be still my heart!
The story is fairly simple and straightforward. The unnamed narrator and a friend decide to explore a chasm that an exploratory mine shaft has uncovered.
During the descent, the rope breaks and the friend is killed. The narrator finds himself with no way to get back to the surface and decides to continue his exploration of the extensive chambers he’s discovered. Eventually he enters a vast subterranean world.
The narrator meets a couple of the inhabitants, a man and a boy, who are friendly and welcome him to their world. The narrator learns that the man is an administrator and the boy is his son.
The narrator also meets the entire family, and Zee, the magistrate’s daughter, begins teaching the narrator about the world of the Vril-ya, as the people call themselves.
The Vril-ya are very much superior to humans on the surface of the earth. Their mental powers are phenomenal, and they control a substance called vril, which can heal or destroy.
In time, Zee falls in love with the narrator. Meanwhile, her father, the magistrate, has grown wary of the "primitive" narrator. When he learns his daughter is in love with the stranger, the magistrate orders his son to kill the narrator.
Since you can find a complete summary of the book on the Internet, I’ll just go ahead and tell you the rest of the story.
Zee and her brother take the narrator away, but instead of killing him they take him apart way to the surface. There is a sad parting, and then Zee seals the entrance to the world of the Vril-ya
The narrator makes his way back to the surface and warns the world the Vril-ya will take over the surface of the world when they run out of room underground.
At the time of its publication, The Coming Race, was very convincing and many believe the vril mentioned in the book was real. It’s also claimed that vril was believed to be real by many pre-Nazi occultists, such as those in the Thule Society.
Such is the power of fiction, even today vril continues to make an appearance among occultists, in movies, and in video games.
The Coming Race is free at Project Gutenberg. It’s a historically significant book, and not a bad story — although modern readers may find it slow going. However, Bulwer-Lytton’s description of utopia is quite interesting and helps one through the slow parts.
It’s not often one comes across a book that has had a major impact on history and yet remains rather unknown. Give it a try, after it’s free. You have nothing to lose. In addition, I suspect the book may have influenced HP Lovecraft and his writing of “The Mound”.
Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!
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