''The Eternal Lover'' is a

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), 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 ...

- adventure novel by American writer

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best-known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, he ...

. The story was begun in November 1913 under the working title ''Nu of the Niocene''. It was first run serially in two parts by '' All-Story Weekly''. The first part, released March 7, 1914 was titled "The Eternal Lover" and the second part, released in four installments from January 23, 1915 to February 13, 1915 was titled "Sweetheart Primeval". The book version was first published by

A. C. McClurg A. C. McClurg was a stationer, publisher, and book wholesaler for over 120 years in Chicago, Illinois. The business began in 1844, as Chicago's first stationery store and changed hands several times, often as the result of a fire. Alexander McCl ...

on October 3, 1925. In 1963, Ace Paperback published a version under the title ''The Eternal Savage''. An E-Text edition has been published by

Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. is an American holding company founded in 1923 by author Edgar Rice Burroughs. It is based in Tarzana, California. The company holds the rights to the literary works of Burroughs that are still protected by copyright (a ...

and is available online.

Plot summary

A cliff-dwelling warrior of 100,000 years ago, Nu, is magically transported to the present, falls in love with Victoria Custer of

Beatrice, Nebraska Beatrice () is a city in and the county seat of Gage County, Nebraska, United States. Its population was 12,459 at the 2010 census. Beatrice is located approximately 25 miles south of Lincoln on the Big Blue River and is surrounded by agricultu ...

, the reincarnation of his lost lover Nat-ul, and the two are transported back to the Stone Age. The story is set in Africa, and the present-day sequences include Victoria's brother Barney Custer, protagonist of Burroughs's

Ruritanian Ruritania is a fictional country, originally located in central Europe as a setting for novels by Anthony Hope, such as ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1894). Nowadays the term connotes a quaint minor European country, or is used as a placeholder name f ...

novel '' The Mad King'', as well as Burroughs's iconic hero

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...

from his Tarzan novels.

Publication

While the four Custer sibling novellas were first published in an alternating fashion; chronologically-speaking, the events of the two halves of ''The Eternal Lover/Savage'' occur between the two halves of ''The Mad King'' Publication order: * "The Eternal Lover" (''The Eternal Lover'' Part 1) ''All-Story Weekly'', March 7, 1914 * "The Mad King" (''The Mad King'' Part 1) ''All-Story Weekly'' March 21, 1914 * "Sweetheart Primeval" (''The Eternal Lover'' Part 2) ''All-Story Weekly'', Jan.–Feb. 1915 * "Barney Custer of Beatrice" (''The Mad King'' Part 2) ''All-Story Weekly'', August 1915

Copyright

All four novellas—as they were serialized in ''All-Story Weekly''—are in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

in the United States.

References

External links

Edgar Rice Burroughs Summary Project page
American fantasy novels 1925 American novels 1925 fantasy novels Novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs Novels set in prehistory Novels set in precolonial Africa Novels first published in serial form Works originally published in Argosy (magazine) A. C. McClurg books Novels about time travel {{1920s-fantasy-novel-stub