Philip Wylie 4 hr 58 min read

A biology professor's experiment gives his son the strength of a battering ram and skin no bullet can pierce, but what place is there in the world for such a man?

Philip Wylie's 1930 novel is a landmark of the superman theme, a powerful and tragic tale widely credited as an inspiration for Superman. Thoughtful, melancholy, hugely influential. Read it for a foundational story of superhuman power and profound alienation, the ancestor of every costumed hero since.

In its time

Published in 1930, during the 1930s, space opera soars.

Reading it

4 hr 58 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).