The Moon Pool

by A. Merritt, Michael Levy (Editor)

Overview

The first scholarly edition of a classic science fiction novel.

One of the most gripping fantasies ever written, The Moon Pool embodies all the romanticism and poetic nostalgia characteristic of A. Merritt's writings. Set on the island of Ponape, full of ruins from ancient civilizations, the novel chronicles the adventures of a party of explorers who discover a previously unknown underground world full of strange peoples and super-scientific wonders. From the depths of this world, the party unwittingly unleashes the Dweller, a monstrous terror that threatens the islands of the South Pacific. Although Merritt did not invent the lost world novel, following in the footsteps of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Burroughs and others, he greatly elaborated upon that tradition. This new edition includes a biography of the author, and an introduction detailing Merritt's many sources and influences, including the occult, mythological, and scientific discourses of his day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819567079
Publisher:	Wesleyan University Press
Publication date:	07/01/2004
Series:	Early Classics of Science Fiction Series
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.79(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Author of 15 science fiction and fantasy novels, ABRAHAM MERRITT (1884-1943) was the most popular genre writer of his time. His talent for fantasy and science fiction writing was first recognized when the novelette version of this story appeared in a 1918 issue of All-Story Weekly. MICHAEL LEVY currently serves as Chair of the Department of English and Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
A Note on the Text
Introduction
The Moon Pool
Notes
Bibliography
A Brief Biogaphy of A. Merritt
About the Author and Editor

What People are Saying About This

Gary K. Wolfe

“As one of the most popular early works at the very birth of pulp magazines, The Moon Pool represents the tastes of this period. The introduction constitutes the major piece of Merritt scholarship to appear in recent decades.”

From the Publisher

"This edition of The Moon Pool is a rare accomplishment: a scholarly edition of a piece of pulp fiction. Levy's edition does a service to the whole genre." —John Huntington, author of Rationalizing Genius

"As one of the most popular early works at the very birth of pulp magazines, The Moon Pool represents the tastes of this period. The introduction constitutes the major piece of Merritt scholarship to appear in recent decades."—Gary K. Wolfe, author of The Known and the Unknown

John Huntington

"This edition of The Moon Pool is a rare accomplishment: a scholarly edition of a piece of pulp fiction. Levy's edition does a service to the whole genre."
— John Huntington, author of Rationalizing Genius

Editorial Reviews

"The Moon Pool is a lost-world novel in the tradition of Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard, and James Hilton that manages to be spooky, spiritual, and silly all at once."—Belles Lettres

"This edition of The Moon Pool is a rare accomplishment: a scholarly edition of a piece of pulp fiction. Levy's edition does a service to the whole genre."—John Huntington, author of Rationalizing Genius

"This edition of The Moon Pool is a rare accomplishment: a scholarly edition of a piece of pulp fiction. Levy's edition does a service to the whole genre."—John Huntington, author of Rationalizing Genius

"As one of the most popular early works at the very birth of pulp magazines, The Moon Pool represents the tastes of this period. The introduction constitutes the major piece of Merritt scholarship to appear in recent decades."—Gary K. Wolfe, author of The Known and the Unknown

From the Publisher

The Wesleyan Early Classics of Science Fiction presents the first scholarly edition of A. Merritt's celebrated lost world novel, The Moon Pool, edited and with an introduction by Michael Levy. First published as a novelette in All-Story Weekly in 1918, it remains a landmark fantasy. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

First published as a novel in 1919, this path-breaking genre piece was praised by The New York Times, whose review of Merritt (1884-1945) is appended here. Also included in this new edition: a lukewarm introduction by SF star Robert Silverberg, who admits his "fatigue" of so many fantasy cliches found in Merritt's other-world narrative. On the other hand, Merritt was among the first (with Verne and Haggard, whom he most resembles) to speculate in fiction about the implications of the new science, archaeology, and anthropology at the turn of the century. This faux memoir records a botanist's tale of life in a lost "Atlantis" in the Pacific, a fantastic nether world controlled by forces of electricity and magnetism. The stock characters-from a chatty Irish adventurer to a scheming Russian scientist-bring to life a story that resembles too many movies to name. And scriptwriters might still find much to mine in this entertaining ode to love and sacrifice.

Kirkus Reviews

“Fantasy, romance, adventure; something of mystery, something of the supernatural; a weaving together of ancient legends, older by far than any historical records, with the scientific knowledge of the present day; and side by side with these, yet far above and mastering them, the power of human love and willing self-sacrifice, the whole held together by a shimmering, glittering web of imagination . . . It marks the debut of a writer possessed of a very unusual, perhaps one might almost call it extraordinary, richness of imagination.”—New York Times Book Review

New York Times Book Review

"Students of early science fiction will welcome the University of Nebraska Press's series Bison Frontiers of Imagination."—Times Literary Supplement

Times Literary Supplement