Gulliver of Mars

[polymorphikos]

The question of how to describe this book is the first thing to present itself. I shall call it a fantasy, for though it has elements of science-fiction it is fantasy in the broader of its respects.



The second question is how to describe the marvellous experience of reading this book, sitting down with absolutely no idea of what lies within, and having a dazzling portrait, most exquisitely panted, unfold.



Gulliver of Mars (or Lt. Gulliver Jones) is a gorgeous book. The prose is beautiful, the imagination behind the text vast, the landscapes perfectly realised. The plot itself takes place as a rough sailor on shore-leave, an Ishmael-type character, is hit by a flying carpet on a cold Boston street. Taking it home after no-one else will accept it, and the dead man within has been dealt with, he happens to be standing upon it when he muses that he would rather be on Mars. At once the carpet whisks him away to the Red Planet, to a canalled city of lotus-eaters where even the slaves are indolent, where everyone is selfish and apathetic, and where the most beautiful and unlove-worthy woman ever to have lived can be found.



This books defies classification. It is one of those rambling flights of the imagination that are republished only as curiosity pieces because they inspired more famous works. E R Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars has numerous suspicious parallels with this earlier book, and I will say that Gulliver is by far the better work. It is not an actioneer, though it possesses action. It is simply a short and beautifully-spun tale of adventure in a bizarre world, one containing sorcery, brutish savages, vapid lay-abouts and impossible beauty. I cannot convey how beautiful some aspects of it are.



This said, waxing lyrical done, it is not a perfect book. The ending is slightly too Deus Ex Machina, but works well nonetheless. At times the tale flags, or the prose overloads itself and threatens to self-destruct. The loose structure and seeming pointlessness of some of the book may frustrate some readers.



Nonetheless, I found this a little gem of a book, and well worth the read by anyone with a few spare hours and a desire for wonder.

[Maryjane]

Fantasy/scifi, there is a few out there I have read some. This one sounds like one worth looking into, a good escape from realety. Einstein himself spoke of infinite potentialeties.

[polymorphikos]

Edwin L. Arnold

[I, Brian]

Thanks for the review, Polymorphikos.