Please note: This audiobook has been created using AI voice.
A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder is perhaps James De Milleâs most popular book; sadly, De Mille didnât get to see this novel grow in popularity, as it was first serialized posthumously, in Harperâs Weekly. De Mille had written the novel before the âlost worldâ genre had become saturated, meaning many of the ideas were fresh and original for the time in which it was written. But, since he didnât succeed in publishing it during his lifetime, by the time the novel was made public other authors like H. Rider Haggard had made the ideas and plot clichĂŠd.
The novel itself tells the tale of a shipwrecked sailor, Adam More, who passes through a mysterious underground passage into a hidden land deep in the Antarctic, kept warm by a hidden volcano. The land is populated by an ancient civilization whose views on life and wealth are the polar opposite of those held in British society of the timeâthey view death and poverty as the highest religious and social achievements. As More adventures through the strange land, he encounters fantastic dinosaurs, lovelorn princesses, and the classic kind of adventure that foreshadows the pulp novels of the next century.