The Coming Race (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton
- First Published: 1871
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Science fiction—cultural exploration
- Time of Work: The mid- to late nineteenth century
- Setting: The subterranean world of the Vril-ya
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction
- Subjects: Nineteenth century, Extrasensory perception or powers, Utopias, Subterranean or underground regions
- Locales: Earth, alternate versions of
The Plot
The Coming Race describes a young American’s adventures among the Vril-ya, an underground civilization far more advanced than his own. Sometimes the “utopian” Vril-ya society is the object of satire; at other times, the narrator himself is the object. Published anonymously, the book was written at the end of Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s career, five years after he became a peer. His political outlook by that time was decidedly conservative.
The narrator, who never gives his real name, descends a chasm in a mine shaft to the Vril-ya world. “The...
[The entire page is 955 words long]
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