''The Eternal Lover'' is a

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 d ...

adventure novel Adventure fiction is a type of fiction that usually presents danger, or gives the reader a sense of excitement. Some adventure fiction also satisfies the literary definition of romance fiction. History In the Introduction to the ''Encycloped ...

by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. 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 ''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 first ...

''. 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 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. 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, 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 novel ''

The Mad King ''The Mad King'' is a Ruritanian romance by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, originally published in two parts as "The Mad King" and "Barney Custer of Beatrice" in ''All-Story Weekly'', in 1914 and 1915, respectively. These were combined for ...

'', 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 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, ...

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