The Perfect World (Mint Editions (Scientific and Speculative Fiction)) - Softcover

Scrymsour, Ella M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1513272314 ISBN 13: 9781513272313

Publisher: Mint Editions, 2021

Synopsis

The Perfect World: A Romance of Strange People and Strange Places (1922) is a science fiction novel by Ella M. Scrymsour. Thought to be a fixup novel, or a combination of two separate stories, it proves a curious sampling of many common elements of science fiction, incorporating utopian, lost race, apocalyptic, and interstellar themes. Ultimately, with its exploration of the Great War’s aftermath, it proves an entertaining work of fiction that captures the interbellum anxieties permeating European culture in the early twentieth century.

While working at Grimland Colliery, their family’s successful coalmine, cousins Alan and Desmond Forsyth discover a vast system of underground caves. There, they encounter an ancient race of horned dwarves, exiled Israelites whose civilization has lived underground for three thousand years. Hostile in nature, the dwarves pursue Alan and Desmond through dark, twisted tunnels, forcing the pair to escape by any means necessary. Eventually emerging in Australia, the Forsyth cousins learn that they have missed the Great War, which has devastated the world and ushered in the end of human life itself. At the very last moment, they escape with their uncle, who has invented an airship capable of travelling through space. Together, the trio lands on the planet Jupiter, where they encounter a race of humanoid aliens who have established a utopian civilization. The Perfect World: A Romance of Strange People and Strange Places is an entertaining work of science fiction by Ella M. Scrymsour, a relatively unknown writer with a gift for the weird and wonderful.

This edition of Ella M. Scrymsour’s The Perfect World: A Romance of Strange People and Strange Places is a classic of English science fiction reimagined for modern readers.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

About this title

About the Author

Ella M. Scrymsour (1888-1962) was a British actress and writer. Born in London, she was the daughter-in-law of C.A. Scrymsour Nichol, a science-fiction writer who wrote The Mystery of the North Pole (1908), a well-regarded utopian, lost race novel. Not much is known about Scrymsour beyond her authorship of two novels: The Perfect World: A Romance of Strange People and Strange Places (1922); and The Bridge of Distances (1924). The former, thought to be a fixup novel―a combination of two initially standalone stories―has been recognized as a highly imaginative work of science fiction incorporating utopian, lost race, biblical, and apocalyptic motifs and themes.

From the Back Cover

Two men are transported through the local coalmine into a complex of ancient caves. There, they discover a lost race of dwarves. Managing to escape, they surface to find that the Great War has ended, ushering in the end of the world itself. The Perfect World: A Romance of Strange People and Strange Places is a novel by Ella M. Scrymsour.

Edition details

• Publisher: Mint Editions
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1513272314
• ISBN 13: 9781513272313
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272