Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 2 hr 46 min read

Descending a mine shaft, an American explorer finds a subterranean world of the Vril-ya, a superior race who wield the mighty force called vril and may one day rise to supplant humanity.

Bulwer-Lytton's 1871 novel is a hugely influential hollow-earth utopia and proto-SF classic. Visionary, provocative, historically vital. Read it for the founding tale that gave the world 'vril', a subterranean super-race and a pointed utopian satire that echoed through occultism and science fiction alike.

In its time

Published in 1871, during the 1870s, under the sea and around the moon.

Reading it

2 hr 46 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).