A STRANGE DISCOVERY by Dake, Charles Romyn - 1899

New York: H. Ingalls Kimball, 1899. Octavo, pp. [1-4] [1-2] 3-310 [311-312: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], two inserted illustrations, one inserted map, title page printed in orange and black, original red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, t.e.g., other edges untrimmed. First edition. A "completion" of Edgar Allan Poe's NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM (1838). Pym and his companion Dirk Peters are swept into a strange uncharted region in the Antarctic Sea where they find an island utopia inhabited by descendants of fourth-century Romans. The story "combines the further adventures of ... Pym with a love story in the manner of Rider Haggard." - Anatomy of Wonder (1981) 1-54. "After Pym and Peters penetrate the veil, they find the city of Hili-li, inhabited by citizens of the Roman empire who fled the barbarian invasions of the fourth century. One ship reached the Antarctic. They represent the height of Greco-Roman culture; though mentally advanced, they have made no practical application of their knowledge. Pym falls in love with Lilama; so great is their devotion that 'the episode of Romeo and Juliet sinks into insignificance' when compared to it. After parental objection, kidnapping by a rival suitor, Ahpilus, and an attack by barbarians, they marry. Within months occurs 'the strange thermal phenomenon' which occasionally devastates the city: the winds shift so that a combination of a hurricane and a blizzard strikes Hili-li. The city is unprepared. Pym goes in search of food and fuel, while Lilama is among those who freeze to death. After her death the Hili-lites permit Pym, highly depressed, and Peters, a troublemaker in Utopia, to depart in a small boat; they are picked up by a ship which takes them to Montevideo, where they separate and never see one another again." - Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 232. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 545. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 64. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 118. Bleiler (1978), p. 55. Reginald 03747. Overlooked by Wright. Long gift inscription dated 1900 on the front free end paper. Cloth rubbed along outer joints, several spots to upper edge of front cover, spine panel a bit darkened, a sound, good copy. (#156131)