Coming Race, The

By Bulwer-Lytton, Edward George

Book Id: WPLBN0002951268
Format Type:
File Size: 199.65 MB
Reproduction Date: 2008

Title:	Coming Race, The
Author:	Bulwer-Lytton, Edward George
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Fiction, Science fiction, Adventure
Collections:	Audio Books Collection, Coming Race, The
Historic Publication Date:	1870
Publisher:	LibriVox Audio Books


Citation APA MLA Chicago George Bulwer-Lytton, B. E. (1870). Coming Race, The. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.cc/

Description
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803-1873) was an English novelist, poet, playright, and politician. Lord Lytton was a florid, popular writer of his day, who coined such phrases as the great unwashed, pursuit of the almighty dollar, the pen is mightier than the sword, and the infamous incipit It was a dark and stormy night. Despite his popularity in his heyday, today his name is known as a byword for bad writing. San Jose State University holds an annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for bad writing in which contestants have to supply terrible openings of imaginary novels, inspired by his novel Paul Clifford, which opens with the famous words: “It was a dark and stormy night”. The Coming Race drew heavily on his interest in the occult and contributed to the birth of the science fiction genre. Unquestionably, its story of a subterranean race of men waiting to reclaim the surface is one of the first science fiction novels. The novel centres on a young, independently wealthy traveler (the narrator), who accidentally finds his way into a subterranean world occupied by beings who seem to resemble angels, who call themselves Vril-ya. The hero soon discovers that they are descendants of an antediluvian civilisation who live in networks of subterranean caverns linked by tunnels. The narrator suggests that in time, the Vril-ya will run out of habitable spaces underground and will start claiming the surface of the earth, destroying mankind in the process, if necessary. (Summary compiled from Wikipedia)

Summary
Electronic recorded live performance of a reading

Excerpt
Science fiction, Adventure, Fantasy