''Pellucidar'' is a 1915

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama. ...

novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the second in his series about the fictional "

Hollow Earth The Hollow Earth is a concept proposing that the planet Earth is entirely hollow or contains a substantial interior space. Notably suggested by Edmond Halley in the late 17th century, the notion was disproven, first tentatively by Pierre Bougu ...

" land of

Pellucidar Pellucidar is a fictional Hollow Earth invented by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs for a series of action adventure stories. In a crossover event, Tarzan, who was also created by Burroughs, visits Pellucidar. The stories initially inv ...

. It first appeared as a five-part serial in ''

All-Story Weekly ''Argosy'', later titled ''The Argosy'', ''Argosy All-Story Weekly'' and ''The New Golden Argosy'', was an American pulp magazine from 1882 through 1978, published by Frank Munsey until its sale to Popular Publications in 1942. It is the firs ...

'' from May 1 to 29, 1915. It was first published in book form in

hardcover A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as case-bound) book is one bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other cloth, heavy paper, or occ ...

by A. C. McClurg in September, 1923. A map by Burroughs of the Empire of Pellucidar accompanied both the magazine and book versions.

Plot summary

David Innes David Innes is a fictional character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs as the protagonist of his Pellucidar novels. He first appeared in the novel '' At the Earth's Core'', serialized in four parts in ''All-Story Weekly'' from April 4–25, 1914 and ...

and his captive, a member of the reptilian Mahar master race of the interior world of

, return from the surface world in the Iron Mole invented by his friend and companion in adventure Abner Perry. Emerging in Pellucidar at an unknown location, David frees his captive. He names the place Greenwich and uses the technology he has brought to begin the systematic exploration and mapping of the unknown land while searching for his lost companions, Abner, Ghak, and Dian the Beautiful. He soon encounters and befriends a new ally, Ja the Mezop of the island country of Anoroc; later he finds Abner, from whom he learns that in his absence the human revolt against the Mahars has not been going well. In a parlay with the Mahars, David bargains for information of his love Dian and his enemy Hooja the Sly One, which his foes agree to supply in return for the book containing the Great Secret of Mahar reproduction that David stole and hid in the previous novel. David undertakes to recover it, only to find that Hooja has been there before him and claimed Dian as his own reward of the Mahars! Now he has to track down and defeat the sly one before resuming the human war of independence. Ultimately this is accomplished, and with the aid of the resources David has brought from the surface world he and Abner succeed in building a confederacy of human tribes into an "Empire of Pellucidar" that wipes out the Mahar cities and establishes a new human civilization in their place.

Reception

Galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...

'' reviewer Floyd C. Gale, discussing the 1962 reprint, noted that the novel's "scientific" background was "hard swallowing" but praised the novel, saying "once Burroughs establishes his background, his reader has no time to quibble".

Adaptation

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with their f ...

began an adaptation of the novel in '' Weird Worlds'' #6, mixing it with the ending of At the Earth's Core. It ended in #7.

Copyright

The copyright for this story has expired in the United States, and thus now resides in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

there. The text is available via

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libra ...

References

External links

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Edgar Rice Burroughs Summary Project Page for ''Pellucidar''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pellucidar (Novel) 1915 American novels 1915 fantasy novels Pellucidar novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs American adventure novels American fantasy novels Novels about dinosaurs American science fiction novels Novels first published in serial form Works originally published in Argosy (magazine) A. C. McClurg books