Etidorhpa, or The End of Earth

Illustrations by J. Augustus Knapp

Etidorhpa or the End of Earth (1896) by John Uri Lloyd


From The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction:

Lloyd, John Uri (1849-1936) US chemist, author of Etidorhpa, or The End of Earth: The Strange History of a Mysterious Being and the Account of a Remarkable Journey (1895; rev vt 1901), a metaphysical FANTASTIC VOYAGE in which the narrator – whose manuscript has been discovered by Lloyd – is led by a blind humanoid named I-Am-The-Man to a LOST WORLD in the interior of the Earth, which he excitedly explores while gaining occult enlightenment into the higher forms of love (the title is Aphrodite reversed). Etidorhpa, which went through eleven or more editions, is noteworthy for its bitter attack on the rational sciences. Like other notable HOLLOW-EARTH works of the period, the geography of Etidorhpa derives from the theories of John Cleves SYMMES. [JE/JC]

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