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Gulliver of Mars

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Edwin Lester Arnold (1875-1939) was for most of this century more famous for his "Phra the Phoenician" than for "Gulliver Jones," published in London in 1905. The stir over "Gulliver Jones" began over thirty years ago when striking similarities between his work and that of Edgar Rice Burroughs' own Mars series of books (begun in 1911) were finally noticed. It is entirely possible that Burroughs had never heard of Arnold or his book. At any rate, Arnold's work stands as a strange, unsung bridge between the Jules Verne/H.G. Wells style of science fiction of his day and the heroic science fantasy to be found in pulp fiction, comic-strips, and movies later in the twentieth century. The book's central figure is Gulliver Jones, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. Happening upon a flying carpet in New York City, he is whisked away to Mars, which is inhabited by characters very reminiscient of Well's "The Time Machine." He falls in love with the vapid but lovely Princess Heru just in time to see her handed over to the king of the Hither people (who are Haggard-style Africans thinly disguised as Martians). The rest of the novel involves his haphazard rescue of her via a voyage up an icy river of death and beyond. "Lieutenant Gulliver Jones: His Vacation" is a silly, dated book which is must reading for students of science fiction in this century, and for anyone in search of a good yarn.

This little story, over a hundred years old now, tells a swashbuckling tale of adventure in a distant and improbable world. Swept away by a magic carpet (!), Lt. Gulliver Jones arrives on Mars. He first lands among pretty lotus-eaters, an indolent society that seems to live for its simple pleasures and complex wines, with a different drug for each kind of bliss the drinker might pursue. Soon, however, he's off on a quest, down the river of death, into sacred temples, and finally into the land of the savages that prey on the gentler folk of this land. Arnold's languge tends toward the archaic - it was written in 1905, after all - and his plots tend to hang on wild coincidence as much as on the unexplained. Still, if you want some silly, glamorous, and chaste adventure, this could be just what you want.

If parts of Arnold's story sound familiar, well, they should. Edgar Rice Burroughs lifted parts of the story wholesale, according to Richard Lupoff's preface, for use in his Mars series. In turn, Arnold seems to have imitated the Eloi of H.G. Wells's The Time Machine. This story provides a remarkable link in the chain of ideas that leads from and to better-known works.

You don't have to be a literary historian to enjoy this book, though. It stands on its own as a pleasant bit of fantasy fluff.

-- wiredweird

This novel is the first book I purchased. In 1961 I bought this pulp story from a used book store for a dime. Its cover price was 40 cents. But - it was such a great read that it sold me on SciFi forever. After my introduction to Lieutenant Gulliver Jones (its orignial title) between these covers, I went on to read Heinlein, and then Clark, Asimov and all the other's who came long after Edwin Arnold. The book reads with the all the classic Victorian flavor of Wells and Verne, but it has a real story embedded inside and is far enough removed from the stilted culture of the turn of the 20th century, that it allows even a 21st century reader to suspend belief enough to enjoy the magic of Mars as seen through the eyes of a culture far removed from the Martian desert we now know and can see unfolding before our eyes each day. For the connoisseur of classic SciFi, this is a must to read and appreciate. The old Ace paperback now sits enshrined in a shadow box frame beside my desk.