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A Strange Manuscript found in a Copper Cylinder
With its curious mixture of adventure, natural history and satire this early Canadian novel has become a landmark work of fantasy and science fiction.
460 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1888
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967 people want to read
About the author
James De Mille
164 books11 followersJames De Mille was a professor at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, and an early Canadian popular writer who published numerous works of popular fiction from the late 1860s through the 1870s.
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?id...
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?id...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 145 reviews
February 8, 2014
Perusing the Library shelves for Fernando del Paso and landing at DEM with the words A STRANGE MANUSCRIPT FOUND leaping at the eye. Blurb on the back mentioning four readers of a manuscript (shades of metalepsis?), satire, pioneering, Canadian academic (1833 - 1880) mostly known for (t)his posthumous novel. Baited, hooked, book borrowed.
Later comment from an occasional online chat aQuaint Ants: "yawn", after describing the blurb. Undeterred, flicking open to the last page to find first publication by Chatto & Windus (point in book's favour) and notes (!?) mentioning Van Dieman's Land, Gorgons, Semiramis, more Paradise Lost quotes, and Thomas Moore (that Moore). More points.
***
You are sitting or standing somewhere reading these pixels on a screen, your now will not be the now of writing, but to all intents and purposes collapses to the same instant (this isn't a Calvino rip-off) and as you read, you might think you are alone, but somewhere someone else is reading and somehow, the comment thread of this review functions much like a comfortable room, somewhere you enjoy conversation and discussion, the where is up to you, and so you are joined by other readers standing sitting somewhere but to all intents and purposes sharing this congenial space. Of course, you discuss what you are reading, perhaps even orate from the text aloud, to snigger or snark, depending on your perception of what is de texte and what is ho(a)rse text.
Flashbackforward to a scene of four travellers in a ship discovering a text and discussing its merits, shortfalls, content, design, philosophy, language, reference to other texts, veracity, authenticity, comment on society, even (gasp), the intent of the author.
***
de Mille wrote this piece in 1878 or thereabouts.
***
Missing is the intrusive author. The opening text is closer to a nouveau roman in tone, in the use of camera (ignoring the past tense construction), and in the speakerless narration. Unless the dialogue of the characters is carrying the text, events are related simply, without loaded language - the reader is left, according to the whims of the reader, to infer how to assess these four characters who will find the strange manuscript and discuss it. It is not until the reading of that has begun, and the narrative returns to these four, that a Narrator, masquerading as author or simply an additional voice in the text (according to reader predilection), describes briefly (two paragraphs) each of the sea-going travellers, before they take up the tale again and continue their reading and discussion. And quite heated it becomes, a display of de Mille's research in current scientific discoveries, theories, notions and phax from the era, as each of the characters argues a specific point. Enter satire, but not just on the text being discussed, but on the various positions held by each of the four.
The manuscript itself, narrative-wise, is deliberately flawed, preceding Sorrentino's Stew, and borrows unashamedly from Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, providing the characters grist for their respective mills, but is no less innovative (in a content sense) for that. It even degenerates to the level of either satirical or scientific romance, according to an argument between the London litterateur and the aristocrat dilettante, but that's left, as is much else, to the reader to decide, hence the borrowing from Swift is not in content alone, but in intent as well.
***
Interesting how the trend of late is towards non-phiction (phaction) - nobody reads fiction these days, and why should they, devoid as is it is anything unusual, unknown, outside the reader's ken, anything which might prompt an interest in discovering the new, the daring, the outrageous, the contrary - that is after all the province of phaxion, written in narrative styles reminiscent of texts dating from a few centuries ago, when the norm was demonstrating the accomplishment of the writing craft apprenticeship by referring to the study of what had gone before....
Later comment from an occasional online chat aQuaint Ants: "yawn", after describing the blurb. Undeterred, flicking open to the last page to find first publication by Chatto & Windus (point in book's favour) and notes (!?) mentioning Van Dieman's Land, Gorgons, Semiramis, more Paradise Lost quotes, and Thomas Moore (that Moore). More points.
***
You are sitting or standing somewhere reading these pixels on a screen, your now will not be the now of writing, but to all intents and purposes collapses to the same instant (this isn't a Calvino rip-off) and as you read, you might think you are alone, but somewhere someone else is reading and somehow, the comment thread of this review functions much like a comfortable room, somewhere you enjoy conversation and discussion, the where is up to you, and so you are joined by other readers standing sitting somewhere but to all intents and purposes sharing this congenial space. Of course, you discuss what you are reading, perhaps even orate from the text aloud, to snigger or snark, depending on your perception of what is de texte and what is ho(a)rse text.
Flashbackforward to a scene of four travellers in a ship discovering a text and discussing its merits, shortfalls, content, design, philosophy, language, reference to other texts, veracity, authenticity, comment on society, even (gasp), the intent of the author.
***
de Mille wrote this piece in 1878 or thereabouts.
***
Missing is the intrusive author. The opening text is closer to a nouveau roman in tone, in the use of camera (ignoring the past tense construction), and in the speakerless narration. Unless the dialogue of the characters is carrying the text, events are related simply, without loaded language - the reader is left, according to the whims of the reader, to infer how to assess these four characters who will find the strange manuscript and discuss it. It is not until the reading of that has begun, and the narrative returns to these four, that a Narrator, masquerading as author or simply an additional voice in the text (according to reader predilection), describes briefly (two paragraphs) each of the sea-going travellers, before they take up the tale again and continue their reading and discussion. And quite heated it becomes, a display of de Mille's research in current scientific discoveries, theories, notions and phax from the era, as each of the characters argues a specific point. Enter satire, but not just on the text being discussed, but on the various positions held by each of the four.
The manuscript itself, narrative-wise, is deliberately flawed, preceding Sorrentino's Stew, and borrows unashamedly from Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, providing the characters grist for their respective mills, but is no less innovative (in a content sense) for that. It even degenerates to the level of either satirical or scientific romance, according to an argument between the London litterateur and the aristocrat dilettante, but that's left, as is much else, to the reader to decide, hence the borrowing from Swift is not in content alone, but in intent as well.
***
Interesting how the trend of late is towards non-phiction (phaction) - nobody reads fiction these days, and why should they, devoid as is it is anything unusual, unknown, outside the reader's ken, anything which might prompt an interest in discovering the new, the daring, the outrageous, the contrary - that is after all the province of phaxion, written in narrative styles reminiscent of texts dating from a few centuries ago, when the norm was demonstrating the accomplishment of the writing craft apprenticeship by referring to the study of what had gone before....
May 21, 2013
The problem with most Utopianists, as game designer Ken Levine points out, is that they don’t take into account the nature of humanity. Instead, they lay an ideal on top of humanity, and because it is a nice idea, just assume that it will just automatically smooth everything out. But, of course, the world has always been full of nice ideas, and despite that fact, greed, ignorance, brutality, and lust always end up getting in the way.
But then, the Utopianists were some of the first fantasists, authors who created and explored strange, false world of representational ideas, the world of Plato’s Republic, More’s Utopia, and Morris’ News From Nowhere --but alongside these were the satirists, those who created fantastical realms because of how effective such creations are when we want to mock the arbitrary traditions of our own world: Lucian’s Storia Vera, Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, or Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. In the end, De Mille’s fantastical world has too little to do with reality to make it really interesting.
The book starts off rather promisingly, giving us some amusing characters and then rushing full-bore into life-or-death adventure in a strange, new land--anyoine who has read Burrough's John Carter of Mars books or Haggard's Quatermain stuff will recognize it immediately: our hero must learn to survive amongst the unpredictable, alien culture. Of course, De Mille was the one who did it first, and there is something to be said for that.
Unfortunately, he can't keep up the pace, and by the midway point, we’re completely stagnated in goofy worldbuilding: the hero speaking at length to the natives about their world, then turning and speaking directly to the audience for a further chapter where he repeats everything. Then we break off to the frame story--a set of sailors reading this mysterious manuscript out loud--as they sit around theorizing what type of extinct creatures the narrator was describing, and whether the Antarctic race he encountered were the tenth tribe of the Jews or a race of Red Sea troglodytes, complete with a discussion of Hebrew phonemes.
Yet this culture isn’t particularly interesting, even though it sometimes gets close--the idea of a culture that idealizes the poor and downtrodden, that thinks fondly of death and sees wealth as an evil is not really all that odd. Eventually, De Mille has his narrators mention that it sounds like Buddhism or the Ascetic Christian tradition that sprung up from that Indian mystical influence. Unfortunately, De Mille doesn’t take cues form these cultures and add in details that make his little world unusual enough to be interesting, nor does the culture make much sense: the system which he describes seems to have no way of supporting itself as it is explained. Instead, like the Utopianists, he merely sets up a world that is the opposite of ours and never bothers to question how it might come about or why human beings would follow it, once it were established.
Of course, if it were just a bit of background info, lightly touched upon, the setting for an otherwise rip-snorting adventure, I might not mind so much, but since he spends chapter upon chapter trying to explain its nonsensical intricacies to us, its silliness and flaws cannot really be overlooked. Once again, I am reminded of my own person writing rule that it is better to imply than to explain, to show the world as it is through the action rather than sitting down and trying to explain it. The only thing that achieves is revealing to your audience all the holes in your ideas.
Then we head back to the frame story where the characters all talk about dumb and poorly-written the book is, and how it doesn't really make sense, though one gets the impression that De Mille is doing it in an attempt to be funny and clever. Then they start talking about the thematic meaning of the book, that even though the people in this culture have all the things we want, that we think will make us happy, they still aren't happy, and in fact they want all the stuff that we despise.
I suppose that would be a somewhat clever premise, but it isn't actually how the action or characters are set up. Since the culture is arbitrarily set up and (despite a lot of discussion on the subject) there's never any clear psychological reason for the characters to behave the way that they do, the satire falls rather flat. De Mille evokes Swift by name, talking about representational satires that reveal something about our world to us, but he simply isn't funny or clever enough to pull it off, and so it just becomes the same allegory over and over, occasionally interrupted by some very welcome action scenes. Indeed, the book described by the characters in the frame story sounds vastly more interesting than the one we actually get.
The lesson of Lucian, Swift, and Carroll is that the reader is less concerned with complex explanations about the author’s intentions than with story, character, action, wit, and insight. But then, their worlds were attempts to explore ideas through extended metaphors, whole nations and peoples that represented complex and unusual ideas--the truest definition of magic in literature being a metaphor, physically realized.
De Mille’s is just an example of contrarianism: he has taken the world as it is and turned it upon its head without much rhyme or reason to account for it, and as Quentin Crisp points out in his introduction to Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast series, being original is not the result of looking at what everyone else is doing and performing the opposite, but of finding a purpose that drives you, a philosophy that gives meaning and direction to what you write. De Mille possesses neither that purpose nor an exciting tale to tell in lieu of it, so I suppose that really does make this book the prototype of the modern fantasy tale.
But then, the Utopianists were some of the first fantasists, authors who created and explored strange, false world of representational ideas, the world of Plato’s Republic, More’s Utopia, and Morris’ News From Nowhere --but alongside these were the satirists, those who created fantastical realms because of how effective such creations are when we want to mock the arbitrary traditions of our own world: Lucian’s Storia Vera, Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, or Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. In the end, De Mille’s fantastical world has too little to do with reality to make it really interesting.
The book starts off rather promisingly, giving us some amusing characters and then rushing full-bore into life-or-death adventure in a strange, new land--anyoine who has read Burrough's John Carter of Mars books or Haggard's Quatermain stuff will recognize it immediately: our hero must learn to survive amongst the unpredictable, alien culture. Of course, De Mille was the one who did it first, and there is something to be said for that.
Unfortunately, he can't keep up the pace, and by the midway point, we’re completely stagnated in goofy worldbuilding: the hero speaking at length to the natives about their world, then turning and speaking directly to the audience for a further chapter where he repeats everything. Then we break off to the frame story--a set of sailors reading this mysterious manuscript out loud--as they sit around theorizing what type of extinct creatures the narrator was describing, and whether the Antarctic race he encountered were the tenth tribe of the Jews or a race of Red Sea troglodytes, complete with a discussion of Hebrew phonemes.
Yet this culture isn’t particularly interesting, even though it sometimes gets close--the idea of a culture that idealizes the poor and downtrodden, that thinks fondly of death and sees wealth as an evil is not really all that odd. Eventually, De Mille has his narrators mention that it sounds like Buddhism or the Ascetic Christian tradition that sprung up from that Indian mystical influence. Unfortunately, De Mille doesn’t take cues form these cultures and add in details that make his little world unusual enough to be interesting, nor does the culture make much sense: the system which he describes seems to have no way of supporting itself as it is explained. Instead, like the Utopianists, he merely sets up a world that is the opposite of ours and never bothers to question how it might come about or why human beings would follow it, once it were established.
Of course, if it were just a bit of background info, lightly touched upon, the setting for an otherwise rip-snorting adventure, I might not mind so much, but since he spends chapter upon chapter trying to explain its nonsensical intricacies to us, its silliness and flaws cannot really be overlooked. Once again, I am reminded of my own person writing rule that it is better to imply than to explain, to show the world as it is through the action rather than sitting down and trying to explain it. The only thing that achieves is revealing to your audience all the holes in your ideas.
Then we head back to the frame story where the characters all talk about dumb and poorly-written the book is, and how it doesn't really make sense, though one gets the impression that De Mille is doing it in an attempt to be funny and clever. Then they start talking about the thematic meaning of the book, that even though the people in this culture have all the things we want, that we think will make us happy, they still aren't happy, and in fact they want all the stuff that we despise.
I suppose that would be a somewhat clever premise, but it isn't actually how the action or characters are set up. Since the culture is arbitrarily set up and (despite a lot of discussion on the subject) there's never any clear psychological reason for the characters to behave the way that they do, the satire falls rather flat. De Mille evokes Swift by name, talking about representational satires that reveal something about our world to us, but he simply isn't funny or clever enough to pull it off, and so it just becomes the same allegory over and over, occasionally interrupted by some very welcome action scenes. Indeed, the book described by the characters in the frame story sounds vastly more interesting than the one we actually get.
The lesson of Lucian, Swift, and Carroll is that the reader is less concerned with complex explanations about the author’s intentions than with story, character, action, wit, and insight. But then, their worlds were attempts to explore ideas through extended metaphors, whole nations and peoples that represented complex and unusual ideas--the truest definition of magic in literature being a metaphor, physically realized.
De Mille’s is just an example of contrarianism: he has taken the world as it is and turned it upon its head without much rhyme or reason to account for it, and as Quentin Crisp points out in his introduction to Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast series, being original is not the result of looking at what everyone else is doing and performing the opposite, but of finding a purpose that drives you, a philosophy that gives meaning and direction to what you write. De Mille possesses neither that purpose nor an exciting tale to tell in lieu of it, so I suppose that really does make this book the prototype of the modern fantasy tale.
Want to read
March 6, 2014Opening: It occurred as far back as February 15, 1850. It happened on that day that the yacht Falcon lay becalmed upon the ocean between the Canaries and the Madeira Islands. This yacht Falcon was the property of Lord Featherstone, who, being weary of life in England, had taken a few congenial friends for a winter's cruise in these southern latitudes. They had visited the Azores, the Canaries, and the Madeira Islands, and were now on their way to the Mediterranean.
The wind had failed, a deep calm had succeeded, and everywhere, as far as the eye could reach, the water was smooth and glassy. The yacht rose and fell at the impulse of the long ocean undulations, and the creaking of the spars sounded out a lazy accompaniment to the motion of the vessel. All around was a watery horizon, except in the one place only, toward the south, where far in the distance the Peak of Teneriffe rose into the air.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6709/6...
The wind had failed, a deep calm had succeeded, and everywhere, as far as the eye could reach, the water was smooth and glassy. The yacht rose and fell at the impulse of the long ocean undulations, and the creaking of the spars sounded out a lazy accompaniment to the motion of the vessel. All around was a watery horizon, except in the one place only, toward the south, where far in the distance the Peak of Teneriffe rose into the air.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6709/6...
July 21, 2014
Because this is believed to be the first work of Canadian speculative fiction, and because it has an oddly awesome title, I really wanted to love this. And there are moments of great imagination, but mostly it talks in circles, lectures, and never quite thinks through the implications of the society it sets up, taking the easy and obvious route every time. Plus, period-accurate but no less appalling for it racism and sexism. What I ended up liking best was the framing story, the boatload of what were essentially nineteenth-century trust fund brats portrayed as exactly that; I would have hated them in real life, but appreciated them in the context of the story.
May 17, 2012
This book's history is at least as interesting as its content. This dystopian novel was actually written before Butler's Erehwon, but it was published posthumously by his wife. De Mille wrote to his brother (I believe it was) that he was not satisfied with the book's denouement - that is why he never published it.
It has certainly received a varied reception, but enjoyed a renewed popularity when it was compared to more post-modern writers - the framing narrative is the least characteristic of its own era.
It has certainly received a varied reception, but enjoyed a renewed popularity when it was compared to more post-modern writers - the framing narrative is the least characteristic of its own era.
February 16, 2023
This is considered to be one of the earliest works of Canadian speculative fiction and a precursor to the Lost World genre. It was published posthumously because the author was supposedly unsatisfied with its ending, which is reasonable because it's rather abrupt. I didn't care at that it was because all that mattered was that it was over. Mercifully it wasn't that long though.
Even though this was one of the books voted for in in this second month of my ill-fated reading experiment, now ended, I strongly considered not finishing it early on several times. It's not that it's badly written, or even the racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, and other derogatory material. I simply find it to be terrible satire, in both the frame story and the the story itself. It's definitely worth an "AUUUGGGHHHHH" rating. Maybe it would be tolerable if I saw as it more than contrarianism for the sake of it.
Almost of all the novel explores the idea of "What if Western Traditions were inverted?" and also what if there were dinosaurs still around. Within the context of the story, it doesn't make any sense at all. It tries to present an entirely serious satire explained in detail about their customs and general way of life, but I couldn't get past how they hadn't entirely collapsed from attrition. It's possible that the speculative ideology is the entire point, but if it is, it's maddening and I didn't care about it at all. Unfortunately it falls into several different categories that I tend to dislike.
The frame story is somewhat better metacommentary on the work itself, which they're reading aloud. It alternates between academic lecturing and literary criticism. I don't know nearly enough about literary history to say whether this was an early example of postmodernism, or if it falls into some earlier tradition. The characters speculate what others would think about the book and provide arguements both for and against possible theories. This is mildly amusing, but is irrelevant compared to how atrocious I found the rest to be.
What this made me think about the most though what how even at this time it was difficult to locate a reasonably unknown place where some previously unknown civilization could exist. I wonder if this sort of concern was a primary driver of the secondary world fiction fantasy that was to come. The world was no longer mysterious, exotic, or had a sense of wonder, so elsewhere had to be created. The concept is still used today, but it almost always entirely abandons any and all sense of realism or plausibility.
That also relates in a way to the racism, where a people are described in an entirely monstrous and grotesque way, and while unpleasant, shows how alien the narrator thought them to be. That too lost appeal and fantastical races and other alien sorts had to be created to approximate the the disgust that was felt. That too seems be quickly losing appeal. Perhaps it's now beliefs rather than being. That's just idle speculation on my part though. I really ought to look more into literary history.
Even though this was one of the books voted for in in this second month of my ill-fated reading experiment, now ended, I strongly considered not finishing it early on several times. It's not that it's badly written, or even the racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, and other derogatory material. I simply find it to be terrible satire, in both the frame story and the the story itself. It's definitely worth an "AUUUGGGHHHHH" rating. Maybe it would be tolerable if I saw as it more than contrarianism for the sake of it.
Almost of all the novel explores the idea of "What if Western Traditions were inverted?" and also what if there were dinosaurs still around. Within the context of the story, it doesn't make any sense at all. It tries to present an entirely serious satire explained in detail about their customs and general way of life, but I couldn't get past how they hadn't entirely collapsed from attrition. It's possible that the speculative ideology is the entire point, but if it is, it's maddening and I didn't care about it at all. Unfortunately it falls into several different categories that I tend to dislike.
The frame story is somewhat better metacommentary on the work itself, which they're reading aloud. It alternates between academic lecturing and literary criticism. I don't know nearly enough about literary history to say whether this was an early example of postmodernism, or if it falls into some earlier tradition. The characters speculate what others would think about the book and provide arguements both for and against possible theories. This is mildly amusing, but is irrelevant compared to how atrocious I found the rest to be.
What this made me think about the most though what how even at this time it was difficult to locate a reasonably unknown place where some previously unknown civilization could exist. I wonder if this sort of concern was a primary driver of the secondary world fiction fantasy that was to come. The world was no longer mysterious, exotic, or had a sense of wonder, so elsewhere had to be created. The concept is still used today, but it almost always entirely abandons any and all sense of realism or plausibility.
That also relates in a way to the racism, where a people are described in an entirely monstrous and grotesque way, and while unpleasant, shows how alien the narrator thought them to be. That too lost appeal and fantastical races and other alien sorts had to be created to approximate the the disgust that was felt. That too seems be quickly losing appeal. Perhaps it's now beliefs rather than being. That's just idle speculation on my part though. I really ought to look more into literary history.
April 20, 2018
This 1888 tale appears to be the first novel to feature dinosaurs in a recognizable form. If it had mostly been about dinosaurs or had more scenes with dinosaurs, I might have liked it more. What we have here is essentially a "Lost World" story in which a group of yachtsmen find the title manuscript in a copper cylinder, read it aloud to themselves and comment upon it.
In the manuscript, sailor Adam More goes hunting in the Antarctic and gets separated from his ship. He has several adventures until he sails through a cavern into a lost, temperate world at the South Pole -- temperate because the cold is mitigated by geothermal heating -- not a bad idea for 1888. There he finds a world where the social structure is turned on its head. The paupers are the most revered and the leaders. The wealthiest are reviled. Lovers are separated rather than married. The loftiest goal is to be killed or sacrificed. All of this is repeated many times and all of this is told through racial and sexual viewpoints of the late nineteenth century. On top of that, none of the characters really rise above stereotypes.
In the manuscript, sailor Adam More goes hunting in the Antarctic and gets separated from his ship. He has several adventures until he sails through a cavern into a lost, temperate world at the South Pole -- temperate because the cold is mitigated by geothermal heating -- not a bad idea for 1888. There he finds a world where the social structure is turned on its head. The paupers are the most revered and the leaders. The wealthiest are reviled. Lovers are separated rather than married. The loftiest goal is to be killed or sacrificed. All of this is repeated many times and all of this is told through racial and sexual viewpoints of the late nineteenth century. On top of that, none of the characters really rise above stereotypes.
December 14, 2012
This is actually a book within a book. With this uninspiring and enigmatic title doesn't do justice to this story by the Canadian born writer James De Mille (1833-1880). An unsuspecting reader would soon think it an unknown or forgotten work of Jules Verne as it combines many of his intriguing subjects and ideas. A copper cylinder is found floating in the Caribbean Sea by vacationing Englishmen. In this cylinder a manuscript is found (from the title this story up to this point could be deducted but the magic of the tale has not yet been exposed). The story, written on papyrus, relates a tale of tribulations, horrors, murder and love. This is an amalgamation of Journey to the Center of the Earth and Jurassic Park with a bit of Love Story thrown in for spice. This story was posthumously published in serial form by Harper’s Weekly and in book form in 1888. The story, as a whole, is of a fantasy world turned upside down; what can’t be is and what is normal isn't. It is well worth an investment of time as you will finish it with your eyes wide open.
November 23, 2012
Just as the title says this tale is really strange. We begin with the story of four yatchsmen who, upon deciding to have a paper boat race come upon, as the books title says, a copper cylinder. Well they all take turns reading the manuscript therein which relates the apparent adventures of a sailor called Adam More who after being shipwrecked in Antarctica and upon entering some subterranean tunnel happens upon a world of prehistoric animals and plants coupled with a death worshipping cult...
The tale contains elements of Burroughs' The Land That Time Forgot, Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, and also a bit of Doyle's Lost World. Apart from these more popular tales it also reminds me of another lost world genre book I read earlier this year called 'The Lost World by Joseph E. Badger Jr."...
The tale contains elements of Burroughs' The Land That Time Forgot, Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, and also a bit of Doyle's Lost World. Apart from these more popular tales it also reminds me of another lost world genre book I read earlier this year called 'The Lost World by Joseph E. Badger Jr."...
January 31, 2016
Review of A Strange Manuscript found in a Copper Cylinder, 1888, by James De Mille
Missed the mark.
The title was the hook. And I stand by it as being a great one. And the premise promised much, too. A story within a story as four friends combat the boredom of their privileged lives by setting sail around the Canary Islands and the Azores. While becalmed, they make paper boats for a race to combat yet more boredom, and so discover the mysterious floating cylinder.
So far so frame story.
The documents secreted within the cylinder tell the episodic and fantastic tale of Adam Moore, lost during his own sea-voyage six years previously. His trials and tribulations take him to the Antarctic, see him separated from his ship and facing starvation, madness and cannibalistic natives in a bizarre land of rock and fire. From here he escapes to a different, but equally bizarre land where the natives appear far friendlier and he is welcomed as a distinguished visitor. The problem is, the rules of this community subvert those of conventional societies and Adam Moore must now navigate his way through the increasingly perilous mire of upended values. Here, individuals aspire to the greatest poverty - the most unfortunate are the richest. Suffering is sought after and advancement and luxury are shunned.
Part satirical commentary on life in nineteenth century England, part adventure yarn à la H. Rider Haggard / Jules Verne / H.G. Wells.
Maybe I didn’t read it carefully enough; maybe I missed an entire level of sophistication; but I have to say that the repetition and the clunky descriptive vocabulary of the mysterious world made it hard-going for me. There are only so many fabulous creatures that can be made up of lion’s heads/legs, dragons’ tails/snouts, hippopotamus’ nostrils/fingernails, and what-have-you. It’s like one of those children’s flip-segmented books where you mix up the heads, bodies and legs of different animals. If the author’s intention was to make the point that Adam was a poor writer with very limited powers of expression, then maybe the story should have been about someone else!
Having said that, the love story was quite effective, Adam finding love in the form of fellow guest/prisoner Almah, and being tested by the charms of the native Layelah. The characterization of the frame story characters was fun, too, supplying commentary on Adam Moore’s tale in the form of scientific examination, literary criticism and amusing hypotheses as to the authenticity of the whole shebang (although these, too, went on a bit!).
My copy of Strange Manuscript is completely crinkled as I fell asleep reading it in the bath and dropped it! But I finished it; I suppose I’m glad I read it. It has made me want to revisit Haggard and the others. But I don’t see me racing to read it again.
Missed the mark.
The title was the hook. And I stand by it as being a great one. And the premise promised much, too. A story within a story as four friends combat the boredom of their privileged lives by setting sail around the Canary Islands and the Azores. While becalmed, they make paper boats for a race to combat yet more boredom, and so discover the mysterious floating cylinder.
So far so frame story.
The documents secreted within the cylinder tell the episodic and fantastic tale of Adam Moore, lost during his own sea-voyage six years previously. His trials and tribulations take him to the Antarctic, see him separated from his ship and facing starvation, madness and cannibalistic natives in a bizarre land of rock and fire. From here he escapes to a different, but equally bizarre land where the natives appear far friendlier and he is welcomed as a distinguished visitor. The problem is, the rules of this community subvert those of conventional societies and Adam Moore must now navigate his way through the increasingly perilous mire of upended values. Here, individuals aspire to the greatest poverty - the most unfortunate are the richest. Suffering is sought after and advancement and luxury are shunned.
Part satirical commentary on life in nineteenth century England, part adventure yarn à la H. Rider Haggard / Jules Verne / H.G. Wells.
Maybe I didn’t read it carefully enough; maybe I missed an entire level of sophistication; but I have to say that the repetition and the clunky descriptive vocabulary of the mysterious world made it hard-going for me. There are only so many fabulous creatures that can be made up of lion’s heads/legs, dragons’ tails/snouts, hippopotamus’ nostrils/fingernails, and what-have-you. It’s like one of those children’s flip-segmented books where you mix up the heads, bodies and legs of different animals. If the author’s intention was to make the point that Adam was a poor writer with very limited powers of expression, then maybe the story should have been about someone else!
Having said that, the love story was quite effective, Adam finding love in the form of fellow guest/prisoner Almah, and being tested by the charms of the native Layelah. The characterization of the frame story characters was fun, too, supplying commentary on Adam Moore’s tale in the form of scientific examination, literary criticism and amusing hypotheses as to the authenticity of the whole shebang (although these, too, went on a bit!).
My copy of Strange Manuscript is completely crinkled as I fell asleep reading it in the bath and dropped it! But I finished it; I suppose I’m glad I read it. It has made me want to revisit Haggard and the others. But I don’t see me racing to read it again.
November 4, 2015
Four yachtsmen sailing out of Madeira discover the titular manuscript which relates a strange tale of a lost world at the South Pole. The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle definitely owes a debt to this work, but A Strange Manuscript... is more allegorical and less entertaining than Conan Doyle's pulp classic.
Too much of the story is devoted to the cave-dwelling cannibalistic Antarctic inhabitants' nihilistic philosophy of life, which somehow manages to make a story of a secret world inhabited both by a lost civilisation and by dinosaurs downright dull.
The frame narrative, in which the discoverers of the manuscript discuss the story as it's in progression and speculate on its veracity, is more interesting than the story itself, although weighed down by large amounts of exposition about palaeontology and linguistics.
Too much of the story is devoted to the cave-dwelling cannibalistic Antarctic inhabitants' nihilistic philosophy of life, which somehow manages to make a story of a secret world inhabited both by a lost civilisation and by dinosaurs downright dull.
The frame narrative, in which the discoverers of the manuscript discuss the story as it's in progression and speculate on its veracity, is more interesting than the story itself, although weighed down by large amounts of exposition about palaeontology and linguistics.
December 17, 2015
Parts "Princess of Mars", "The Lost World", "Gulliver's Travels", and more, this was an interesting read.
That being said, holy crap people were open about their prejudices in the 1880s. The sexism and racism kept rearing up. It's probably best to take that as a product of the age it was written.
I'm of mixed opinion about the use of the framing device of the four indolent men becalmed on their yacht. I liked the half of their role that was as a sardonic, four-part Greek chorus. I wasn't as fond of the half acting as a dry Appendix of dinosaurs and language.
The ending was cute as well.
That being said, holy crap people were open about their prejudices in the 1880s. The sexism and racism kept rearing up. It's probably best to take that as a product of the age it was written.
I'm of mixed opinion about the use of the framing device of the four indolent men becalmed on their yacht. I liked the half of their role that was as a sardonic, four-part Greek chorus. I wasn't as fond of the half acting as a dry Appendix of dinosaurs and language.
The ending was cute as well.
October 15, 2024
Strange is an understatement.
October 2, 2025
P. 29: "All these notions," he said, "are dreams, or theories, or guesses. There is no evidence to prove them."—Modern science encapsulated.
P. 35: "It was like the horror that one feels towards rats, cockroaches, earwigs, or serpents. It was something that defied reason. These creatures seemed like human vermin."—It's just Denny's.
P. 128: "My life had been such that I never before had seen anyone whom I loved; and here Alma was the one congenial associate in a whole world of aliens: she was beautiful and gentle and sympathetic, and I loved her dearly, even before I understood what my feeling were."—A soul app could be big.
P. 35: "It was like the horror that one feels towards rats, cockroaches, earwigs, or serpents. It was something that defied reason. These creatures seemed like human vermin."—It's just Denny's.
P. 128: "My life had been such that I never before had seen anyone whom I loved; and here Alma was the one congenial associate in a whole world of aliens: she was beautiful and gentle and sympathetic, and I loved her dearly, even before I understood what my feeling were."—A soul app could be big.
June 11, 2018
This one took a couple of false starts before I got into it. I thought I knew just about every lost world novel, but hadn't come across James De Mille before, possibly because he is viewed as a Canadian writer. Published posthumously in 1888 as a series in Harper's Weekly, this apparently Canadian classic tale of an underground Antarctic civilization compares with Poe's Pym of 1838. The frame story is formed by bored friends who find the account written in papyrus in the cylinder of the title. One, Melick, believes it's a hoax and fictional, others believe it is factual and add comments about prehistoric creatures from their reading of Richard Owen. The discoverers argue among themselves on how to read the text, making references to several Victorian scientific writings. The found account tells of a civilization that worships death and darkness; their morals are reversals--death is best, as is poverty, and women rule. There are plesiosaurus and pterodactyls, references to John Symmes' Symzonia (1818) or hollow earth. The novel can be view as satire or science fiction and is great fun. The Broadview edition is heavily annotated. The year 1866 is given as a possible date of composition, thus predating Haggard's She.
March 18, 2017
A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder by James De Mille
Consisting of 203 pages across 31 well presented chapters in this edition. The story flows reasonably well, but perhaps it's reading might feel dated to some being a Victorian work.
The perspective of the work moves between a group of 'gentleman' enjoying a pleasure cruise on a yacht, and the characters in a collection of papers sealed in a copper cylinder these gentleman find at sea.
Dialogue is interesting and the author obviously understands the basis of language as is revealed in the work, although the narrative is a reflection of its period of writing.
I don't think the work is so much of a page-turner as a good yarn, full of well researched facts, possibly aimed at readers who might enjoy such works as Jules Verne's 'Mysterious Island'.
I enjoyed the read.
Consisting of 203 pages across 31 well presented chapters in this edition. The story flows reasonably well, but perhaps it's reading might feel dated to some being a Victorian work.
The perspective of the work moves between a group of 'gentleman' enjoying a pleasure cruise on a yacht, and the characters in a collection of papers sealed in a copper cylinder these gentleman find at sea.
Dialogue is interesting and the author obviously understands the basis of language as is revealed in the work, although the narrative is a reflection of its period of writing.
I don't think the work is so much of a page-turner as a good yarn, full of well researched facts, possibly aimed at readers who might enjoy such works as Jules Verne's 'Mysterious Island'.
I enjoyed the read.
July 13, 2014
More Swift than Conan Doyle, although far less savage than Swift - this is no Modest Proposal - this is well-crafted, although the ending is a bit abrupt. A clever examination of a society where virtue and piety are taken to such extremes that they become vices and perversions. The device of the aristocratic sailing party works reasonably well, although the characters in this aspect of the story are essentially just there to link the story together and speculate on the science. They are the learned man, Bullingdon Boy (complete with an inability to say his 'Rs'), the jolly good chap etc. interesting that the thing which frightens and baffles the protagonist the most is the concept of an assertive woman. Poor lamb, how dreadful for him!
December 28, 2020
After finding out that this was Canada’s first work of science fiction/fantasy I really wanted to read it.
It starts of a little slow but does pick up. I really wished that there was more analysis from the “present day” characters as I feel like so much was missed. The story of Adam More as he comes upon a group of people whose beliefs are completely opposite to Western culture (prefer death to life etc), offers great philosophical insights as well as social satire. However, I feel like the ending was super rushed and that many opportunities for actual discussion and critique of society were overlooked. That being said, I would still recommend this for those interested in philosophy and sociology as it does offer up some good talking points.
It starts of a little slow but does pick up. I really wished that there was more analysis from the “present day” characters as I feel like so much was missed. The story of Adam More as he comes upon a group of people whose beliefs are completely opposite to Western culture (prefer death to life etc), offers great philosophical insights as well as social satire. However, I feel like the ending was super rushed and that many opportunities for actual discussion and critique of society were overlooked. That being said, I would still recommend this for those interested in philosophy and sociology as it does offer up some good talking points.
August 11, 2019
***3.25 stars***
Keeping in mind how old this is I rather kind of enjoyed it though it does read a bit unevenly. There are some rather dark moments (cannibalism and worshippers of death) and of course some of the science seems dated but other then in the middle the pace was pretty good. The idea of a people who are polar opposites (you'll get the pun if you read the synopsis) is not new but it does raise some interesting moral questions.
Keeping in mind how old this is I rather kind of enjoyed it though it does read a bit unevenly. There are some rather dark moments (cannibalism and worshippers of death) and of course some of the science seems dated but other then in the middle the pace was pretty good. The idea of a people who are polar opposites (you'll get the pun if you read the synopsis) is not new but it does raise some interesting moral questions.
August 8, 2020
What a curiosity this one is, a posthumously released Lost World novel that predates both Doyle's The Lost World and Burroughs' The Land that Time Forgot (aka the book that begat the cheap puppet dinosaur flick that remains one of my favorite things ever.) Strange, seemingly without an ending, but with dinosaurs, so therefore automatically gets 3 stars.
May 3, 2016
The narrative of the castaway in the lands of the south pole was interesting on the whole, but nothing special. The interludes of the people on the boat become worse and worse each time they appear.
June 15, 2024
Utilitzant una societat totalment oposada a la seva, com les dues cares d'una mateixa moneda, l'escriptor posa en dubte els valors i costums de la seva societat insinuant, a través de l'absurditat de la imaginada, que potser no són tant coherents com sembla.
October 6, 2021
Despite the disappointed reviewers below, this work of early science fiction is amazing and definitely worth reading. Take a chance!
http://rlebling.blogspot.com/2012/02/...
http://rlebling.blogspot.com/2012/02/...
August 28, 2017
Quattro amici, fermi su una barca per via della bonaccia tra Madeira e la Canarie, ritrovano in mare un cilindro di metallo contenente un manoscritto.
A turno, Lord Featherston e i suoi tre compari leggeranno la storia di Adam More, un naufrago capitato in una terra ignota abitata da un popolo altrettanto sconosciuto, distantissimo dalla razza umana. Essi hanno il culto del buio e odiano la luce; l'amore deve essere solo non corrisposto e i poveri stanno ai gradini più alti della scala sociale; la morte è considerata l'obiettivo più ambito.
Il confronto con questa gente sconvolgerà i pensieri e la vita del protagonista, che però conoscerà Almah, una ragazza che come lui è capitata lì per errore; i due s'innamoreranno, facendo di tutto per riuscire a fuggire da questa società che ostacola il loro amore e che considera la vita solo un passaggio necessario per giungere alla sacralità della morte. Al tutto, fanno da cornice i giudizi, le domande e i dubbi, in materia antropologica, linguistica e zoologica, che stemperano in modo divertente e ironico l'intreccio narrativo.
Ecco, la finzione letteraria della trascrizione del manoscritto, a noi italiani, dovrebbe ricordare quantomeno il tanto amato e odiato Manzoni: non è un caso che anche questo testo sia un'opera risalente al diciannovesimo secolo, un vero e proprio ripescaggio negli abissi della letteratura.
Lo strano manoscritto trovato in un cilindro di rame del canadese James De Mille è stato da poco riscoperto in Inghilterra, mentre viene considerato alla stregua dei classici in Nord America; in Italia viene invece pubblicato quest'anno per la primissima volta. Come si suol dire: meglio tardi che mai.
È infatti un vero peccato esser stati digiuni d'un romanzo così brillante e fantasioso, che è al contempo racconto d'avventura e storia d'amore, nonché satira sull'uomo e sulle sue contraddizioni; una storia avvincente dalla prosa prosa limpida e scorrevole, che sconfigge il peso del tempo anche grazie a una traduzione all'altezza.
Consigliato.
A turno, Lord Featherston e i suoi tre compari leggeranno la storia di Adam More, un naufrago capitato in una terra ignota abitata da un popolo altrettanto sconosciuto, distantissimo dalla razza umana. Essi hanno il culto del buio e odiano la luce; l'amore deve essere solo non corrisposto e i poveri stanno ai gradini più alti della scala sociale; la morte è considerata l'obiettivo più ambito.
Il confronto con questa gente sconvolgerà i pensieri e la vita del protagonista, che però conoscerà Almah, una ragazza che come lui è capitata lì per errore; i due s'innamoreranno, facendo di tutto per riuscire a fuggire da questa società che ostacola il loro amore e che considera la vita solo un passaggio necessario per giungere alla sacralità della morte. Al tutto, fanno da cornice i giudizi, le domande e i dubbi, in materia antropologica, linguistica e zoologica, che stemperano in modo divertente e ironico l'intreccio narrativo.
Ecco, la finzione letteraria della trascrizione del manoscritto, a noi italiani, dovrebbe ricordare quantomeno il tanto amato e odiato Manzoni: non è un caso che anche questo testo sia un'opera risalente al diciannovesimo secolo, un vero e proprio ripescaggio negli abissi della letteratura.
Lo strano manoscritto trovato in un cilindro di rame del canadese James De Mille è stato da poco riscoperto in Inghilterra, mentre viene considerato alla stregua dei classici in Nord America; in Italia viene invece pubblicato quest'anno per la primissima volta. Come si suol dire: meglio tardi che mai.
È infatti un vero peccato esser stati digiuni d'un romanzo così brillante e fantasioso, che è al contempo racconto d'avventura e storia d'amore, nonché satira sull'uomo e sulle sue contraddizioni; una storia avvincente dalla prosa prosa limpida e scorrevole, che sconfigge il peso del tempo anche grazie a una traduzione all'altezza.
Consigliato.
May 2, 2022
Classic lost world adventure that I probably should have read years ago. Adam More ends up alone in the antarctic, ultimately landing in a tropical land at the south pole, where prehistoric flora and fauna still exist (pterodactyls are tamed and used for travel by flight!), and where the people have a value system that precisely inverts what More (and the reader) think of as normative: they prefer dark to light, death to life, wealth to poverty, etc. The satirical elements of this are largely left for the reader to infer, as the sort of dialogue between visitor and representative of the utopian country in which typically how the utopian values compare/contrast with those of the visitor are articulated barely happens. The satire is there, though. De Mille also plays interestingly with the standard love triangle. He also has some fun with metafictive textual elements: the eponymous object is found by four guys cruising in their yacht. They open it, take turns reading it to each other, and then critiquing it, with each adopting different perspectives on whether it is simply a scientific romance or a true account (the latter probably being the privileged option). The text does end rather abruptly, with these guys getting bored with reading the MS aloud and setting it aside, but the work does nevertheless seem to be complete. This edition (the Broadview) also includes a strong critical introduction and very useful excerpts from relevant contemporary texts, notably the literature of science and of exploration that De Mille evidently relied on as sources. Required reading for scholars of the Canadian fantastic. Casual readers may find its style a bit pedestrian, and its content dated.
January 29, 2019
L’effettiva valutazione sarebbe 2 stelle e mezzo.
Incuriosita dallo strano titolo ho deciso di prenderlo in biblioteca con la speranza di poter leggere un buon romanzo di avventura.
Nel corso della lettura ho invece trovato il racconto un po’ macchinoso, a volte pesante e non troppo scorrevole. Tutto ciò ad un certo punto mi ha quasi portato ad abbandonare il libro, ho però continuato spinta soprattutto da alcuni elementi presenti nel testo che ho trovato molto interessanti, primo tra tutti la scala di valori della civiltà kosekin che l’autore descrive (un’idea ottima, a mio parere). Un altro problema, che personalmente trovo sia il più difficile da superare in termini di valutazione complessiva del testo, è il mancato sviluppo di molti spunti, che sono rimasti solo abbozzati: questo è un peccato perché, come dicevo, l’autore aveva delle idee interessanti, che, secondo me, se approfondite, avrebbero potuto migliorare il racconto.
Ho quindi terminato la lettura non completamente convinta da quanto letto, quindi non sono sicura che lo consiglierei.
Incuriosita dallo strano titolo ho deciso di prenderlo in biblioteca con la speranza di poter leggere un buon romanzo di avventura.
Nel corso della lettura ho invece trovato il racconto un po’ macchinoso, a volte pesante e non troppo scorrevole. Tutto ciò ad un certo punto mi ha quasi portato ad abbandonare il libro, ho però continuato spinta soprattutto da alcuni elementi presenti nel testo che ho trovato molto interessanti, primo tra tutti la scala di valori della civiltà kosekin che l’autore descrive (un’idea ottima, a mio parere). Un altro problema, che personalmente trovo sia il più difficile da superare in termini di valutazione complessiva del testo, è il mancato sviluppo di molti spunti, che sono rimasti solo abbozzati: questo è un peccato perché, come dicevo, l’autore aveva delle idee interessanti, che, secondo me, se approfondite, avrebbero potuto migliorare il racconto.
Ho quindi terminato la lettura non completamente convinta da quanto letto, quindi non sono sicura che lo consiglierei.
December 6, 2023
Some really fun ideas in this book that were ruined by an enormous amount of repetition (even accounting for the fact that it was serialised), the fact that the logic of this world falls apart so quickly, and the most absurd piece of sexism I’ve seen in my life.
July 5, 2023
Not what I expected from “Canada’s first science fiction,” but once I realized that De Mille was writing speculative fiction about recent discoveries at the time (like Antarctica and dinosaurs), I got it.
I liked the device of having a secondary plot where people are reading the story and explaining/debating the “science”.
But historical significance aside, the story is just okay.
I liked the device of having a secondary plot where people are reading the story and explaining/debating the “science”.
But historical significance aside, the story is just okay.
June 7, 2021
Due e mezzo. Lettura scorrevole, senza infamia e senza lode. Alla fine però non credo di trovare credibile la storia della popolazione con la cultura opposta a quella di qualsiasi popolazione umana!
April 16, 2018
A Strange Manuscript found in a Copper Cylinder is a fun, light little adventure novel. The base narrative is as typical as serialized pulp adventure gets; the heroic European in a strange land that must use his wits to survive; an exotic romance devoid of any concrete sexuality or eroticism; fantastic monsters; horror and appalling practices from the "savages." Overall, an exceptionally standard literary stew comprised of 19th century adventure ingredients.
The "strange manuscript", comprising the primary narrative within the novel, is fast and straightforward adventure reading. The hero is moved from one fantastical set-piece on to the next with little fluff in between. The story may be very predictable to readers familiar with these kinds of stories, but it hits the beats with a likable "B-movie" style of approach. Action scenes move along at brisk pace and DeMille seemingly has no shortage of classical monsters to throw at the reader. There's also a love triangle and romance which is cheesy to a boring point; the novel has little interest in developing its female romantic leads or their relationship to the protagonist beyond the title of the "exotic/oriental." The narrative also slows down to a dull plod when the protagonist spends pages and pages describing the Kosekin culture. We get it; they do everything completely the opposite. Death is considered favorable to life, darkness favorable to light, poverty favorable to wealth, and so on. There's really not any more depth to it, and one wishes DeMille chose a more interesting exotic civilization to put his hero in.
DeMille employs the popular "frame narrative" device that had been so common in British serials of the time. The depicted weather and atmosphere of the scene where the men on the boat read the "narrative" makes one predict that the presented manuscript will be a light-hearted, adventurous escapade rather than anything particular dark and gloomy. Immediately from the start, the reader is clued in with classic oriental references that the story will be that traditional tale of "stranger in a strange land." The frame narrative, where some nobles relax on a yacht and read the tale, is effective at introducing an element of comedy, the source of which is the schism that many readers will face when reading this book. One noble thinks the "manuscript" is sensationalist trash, which brings a refreshing sense of self-awareness on DeMille's part. On the other side, the story is taken with utmost seriousness, delving into the hard science behind the, of course, totally ridiculous tale. These two extremes of literary opinion make the work into an ironic one. Though the writing in the "manuscript" is capable, and action moves at an exciting pace, it would suffer substantially without the inclusion of the frame tale (I think a great comparison would be the film "The Princess Bride." While the main fantasy is plot is great, the wraparound of the grandfather reading it to his grandson in present time gives it that perfect, lighthearted feeling).
In conclusion: A fun adventure with undercurrent of playful irony, though the middle section got quite bogged down with in-depth description of Kosekin culture and trying to explain through realistic scientific terms the origins of the manuscript's events. This would be a great read for 10-12 year old boys, but adults used to these kinds of stories will probably find it lacking.
The "strange manuscript", comprising the primary narrative within the novel, is fast and straightforward adventure reading. The hero is moved from one fantastical set-piece on to the next with little fluff in between. The story may be very predictable to readers familiar with these kinds of stories, but it hits the beats with a likable "B-movie" style of approach. Action scenes move along at brisk pace and DeMille seemingly has no shortage of classical monsters to throw at the reader. There's also a love triangle and romance which is cheesy to a boring point; the novel has little interest in developing its female romantic leads or their relationship to the protagonist beyond the title of the "exotic/oriental." The narrative also slows down to a dull plod when the protagonist spends pages and pages describing the Kosekin culture. We get it; they do everything completely the opposite. Death is considered favorable to life, darkness favorable to light, poverty favorable to wealth, and so on. There's really not any more depth to it, and one wishes DeMille chose a more interesting exotic civilization to put his hero in.
DeMille employs the popular "frame narrative" device that had been so common in British serials of the time. The depicted weather and atmosphere of the scene where the men on the boat read the "narrative" makes one predict that the presented manuscript will be a light-hearted, adventurous escapade rather than anything particular dark and gloomy. Immediately from the start, the reader is clued in with classic oriental references that the story will be that traditional tale of "stranger in a strange land." The frame narrative, where some nobles relax on a yacht and read the tale, is effective at introducing an element of comedy, the source of which is the schism that many readers will face when reading this book. One noble thinks the "manuscript" is sensationalist trash, which brings a refreshing sense of self-awareness on DeMille's part. On the other side, the story is taken with utmost seriousness, delving into the hard science behind the, of course, totally ridiculous tale. These two extremes of literary opinion make the work into an ironic one. Though the writing in the "manuscript" is capable, and action moves at an exciting pace, it would suffer substantially without the inclusion of the frame tale (I think a great comparison would be the film "The Princess Bride." While the main fantasy is plot is great, the wraparound of the grandfather reading it to his grandson in present time gives it that perfect, lighthearted feeling).
In conclusion: A fun adventure with undercurrent of playful irony, though the middle section got quite bogged down with in-depth description of Kosekin culture and trying to explain through realistic scientific terms the origins of the manuscript's events. This would be a great read for 10-12 year old boys, but adults used to these kinds of stories will probably find it lacking.
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