Masters of Atlantis (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Charles Portis
- First Published: 1985
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s, United States or Americans, Twentieth century, Mistaken or secret identity, 1940’s, 1910’s, 1920’s, 1930’s, 1980’s, Wit or humor, Fraud, Clubs, social, Atlantis
- Locales: United States
Masters of Atlantis is perhaps Portis's most curious novel. It deals humorously with a fictional cult not unlike many that flowered and then wilted in twentieth century America. The story begins in 1917. Lamar Jimmerson—an American soldier and, like so many of Portis's characters, an innocent—is in France with the American Expeditionary Force. For two hundred dollars, a gypsy sells Jimmerson a handwritten Greek manuscript. It is a copy of a book written in legendary Atlantis many thousands of years ago. When the destruction of the city was imminent, the book was sealed in...
[The entire page is 746 words long]
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