''The People That Time Forgot'' is a

fantasy novel Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fa ...

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 second of his

Caspak Caprona (also known as Caspak) is a fictional island in the literary universe of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Caspak Trilogy, including '' The Land That Time Forgot'', '' The People That Time Forgot'', and '' Out of Time's Abyss''. They were published as ...

trilogy. The sequence was first published in ''

Blue Book Magazine ''Blue Book'' was a popular 20th-century American magazine with a lengthy 70-year run under various titles from 1905 to 1975. Ashley, Mike, "Blue Book—The Slick in Pulp Clothing". ''Pulp Vault'' Magazine, No. 14. Barrington Hills, IL: Tattered P ...

'' as a three-part serial in the issues for August (vol. 27 #4), October (vol. 27 #6), and December (vol. 28 #2) 1918, with ''The People That Time Forgot'' forming the second installment. The complete trilogy was later combined for publication in book form under the title of '' The Land That Time Forgot'' (properly speaking the title of the first part) 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 ...

in June 1924. Beginning with the

Ace Books Ace Books is a publisher of science fiction (SF) and fantasy books founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn. It began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns, and soon branched out into other genres, publishing its first scienc ...

editions of the 1960s, the three segments have usually been issued as separate short novels.

Plot introduction

''The People That Time Forgot'' is a direct sequel to ''The Land That Time Forgot'' and continues the lost world saga begun in the earlier story. Burroughs continues the revelation of his lost world's unique

biological Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary in ...

system, only hinted at in the previous installment, in which the slow progress of

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

in the world outside is recapitulated as a matter of individual

metamorphosis Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...

. This system forms a thematic element serving to unite the three otherwise rather loosely linked Caspak stories.

Plot summary

The novel begins with the organization of an expedition to rescue Bowen J. Tyler, Lys La Rue, and the other

castaway A castaway is a person who is cast adrift or ashore. While the situation usually happens after a shipwreck, some people voluntarily stay behind on a deserted island, either to evade captors or the world in general. A person may also be left a ...

s marooned on the large Antarctic island of

Caprona ''Abantis'' is an Afrotropical genus of skipper butterflies. They are also known as the paradise skippers. Their imago In biology, the imago (Latin for "image") is the last stage an insect attains during its metamorphosis, its process of g ...

, whose

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

interior, known to its inhabitants as Caspak, is home to prehistoric fauna of all eras. Tyler's recovered manuscript detailing their ordeal is delivered to his family, and the relief effort is put together by Tom Billings, secretary of the Tyler shipbuilding business. The expedition's ship, the ''Toreador'', locates Caprona, and while the bulk of the crew attempts to scale the encircling cliffs Billings flies over them in an aircraft. Billings' plane is attacked by flying reptiles and forced down in the interior of Caspak. He saves a native girl named Ajor from a large cat and a group of ape-men, and undertakes to accompany her back to her people, the fully human Galus, while she educates him in the language and mysteries of the island. They travel north, encountering various creatures of the

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...

and

Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...

eras, as well as additional primitive subhuman races. They pass through the lands of the

Neanderthal Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While th ...

Bo-lu (club men) and the more advanced Sto-lu (hatchet men), who are easily cowed by gunfire. But in the country of the Band-lu (spear men) he is taken captive, and despairs until rescued in turn by Ajor. They resume their journey, re-encountering and befriending Tomar, a Band-lu newly become Kro-lu (bow man). Tomar and his mate So-al are the first examples Billings has actually seen of Caspakian evolutionary metamorphosis in action. After an interlude in which Ajor's back story is related the new friends separate. Billings and Ajor enter Kro-lu territory and save Chal-az, a Kro-lu warrior, from a group of Band-lu. Visiting the Kro-lu village as his guest, they are parted again when Billings is attacked through the machinations of the chief Du-seen, who has designs on Ajor. They escape individually, making for the Galu country. Du-seen goes after Ajor with some of his warriors. Billings catches and tames an ancestral

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...

, with the aid of which he rescues Ajor from Du-seen. Pursued, they resign themselves to death, but are relieved by a force consisting of Bowen Tyler, Galu warriors, and the rescue crew from the ''Toreador'', which had successfully scaled the cliffs and entered Caspak after Billings' ill-fated airplane flight. All are reunited in the Galu village, where Tyler and Lys La Rue have been formally married by the captain of the ''Toreador''. Billings and Ajor also desire to wed, but Ajor may not leave Caspak due to her status as ''cos-ata-lo'' – she was born a fully evolved Galu rather than attaining that form through metamorphosis, and hence is treasured by her people. Billings elects to remain in Caspak to be with her.

Characters

* Tom Billings — The main hero of this story, he mounted a rescue party to find his lost friend Bowen * Ajor — A beautiful Galu of the north of

, she becomes Billings's love interest * Du-seen — The main antagonist, an evil Galu who wants both Ajor and her father's throne for himself * Tomar — A Band-lu Chieftain who becomes a Kro-lu along with his "

she She most commonly refers to: *She (pronoun), the third person singular, feminine, nominative case pronoun in modern English. She or S.H.E. may also refer to: Literature and films *'' She: A History of Adventure'', an 1887 novel by H. Rider Hagga ...

" So-al. * So-al — Female Band-lu who is Tomar's she * Chal-az — A Kro-lu who befriends Tom and Ajor * Ace — A Merychippus which Billings domesticates

Copyright

The

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

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 A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

there. The text is available via

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, 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 ...

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The novel was adapted to

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

in 1977 under the direction of Kevin Connor by Britain's Amicus Productions. The movie was the third and last of Amicus' Burroughs adaptations, the others being '' The Land That Time Forgot'' (1975), based on the first segment of the

sequence, and '' At the Earth's Core'' (1976). All three films were distributed in the United States by American International Pictures.

References

External links

Text of the novel at Project Gutenberg
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{{DEFAULTSORT:People That Time Forgot, The 1924 American novels 1924 fantasy novels American science fiction novels Caspak trilogy Novels about dinosaurs Works originally published in Blue Book (magazine) Novels first published in serial form American fantasy novels adapted into films Ace Books books Fiction about neanderthals