A STRANGE DISCOVERY. New York: H. Ingalls Kimball, 1899. Octavo, pp. [1-4] [1-2] 3-310 [311-312: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], two inserted illustrations, one inserted map, title page printed in orange and black, original red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, t.e.g., other edges untrimmed. First edition. A "completion" of Edgar Allan Poe's NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM (1838). Pym and his companion Dirk Peters are swept into a strange uncharted region in the Antarctic Sea where they find an island utopia inhabited by descendants of fourth-century Romans. The story "combines the further adventures of ... Pym with a love story in the manner of Rider Haggard." - Anatomy of Wonder (1981) 1-54. "After Pym and Peters penetrate the veil, they find the city of Hili-li, inhabited by citizens of the Roman empire who fled the barbarian invasions of the fourth century. One ship reached the Antarctic. They represent the height of Greco-Roman culture; though mentally advanced, they have made no practical application of their knowledge. Pym falls in love with Lilama; so great is their devotion that 'the episode of Romeo and Juliet sinks into insignificance' when compared to it. After parental objection, kidnapping by a rival suitor, Ahpilus, and an attack by barbarians, they marry. Within months occurs 'the strange thermal phenomenon' which occasionally devastates the city: the winds shift so that a combination of a hurricane and a blizzard strikes Hili-li. The city is unprepared. Pym goes in search of food and fuel, while Lilama is among those who freeze to death. After her death the Hili-lites permit Pym, highly depressed, and Peters, a troublemaker in Utopia, to depart in a small boat; they are picked up by a ship which takes them to Montevideo, where they separate and never see one another again." - Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 232. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 2-56. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 545. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 64. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 118. Bleiler (1978), p. 55. Reginald 03747. Overlooked by Wright. A narrow strip of staining along bottom edge of rear panel, else a nearly fine, bright copy. (#172129).
Price: $750.00
No statement of printing.