The Moon Maid
Fantasy | |
Publisher | A. C. McClurg |
---|---|
Publication date | 6 February 1926 |
Media type | Print (Hardback) |
Pages | 412 |
Text | The Moon Maid online |
The Moon Maid is a
The book version was first published by A. C. McClurg on February 6, 1926, under the title The Moon Maid, though it was shortened from the serial. The three parts have been published in varying combinations and under varying titles since 1926.
Literary significance and reception
The book is well regarded, and described by one critic,
Future history
The prologues to both parts, "The Moon Maid" and "The Moon Men", constitute a
In Burroughs's vision, this decades-long war would culminate in April 1967 with the total victory of the Anglo-Saxon Powers, Britain and the US, and the complete defeat and surrender of all other powers. Britain and the US thereupon become co-rulers of the planet, London and Washington being the twin planetary capitals and the US president and British monarch acting as co-rulers. The British-American domination of the world is imposed by the International Peace Fleet, made up of
In Burroughs's vision, the Anglo-Saxon victory in 1967 is immediately followed by the first sending of a crewed spacecraft to the Moon—Burroughs having come very near to the actual 1969 date of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. The spaceship is seen taking off in a blaze of worldwide publicity and celebration, with the war's Anglo-Saxon victors seeking to provide a sense of common purpose to the forcibly unified world. However, the Moon in Burroughs' imagining turns out to be inhabited and the various races and cultures inhabiting its interior provide the setting for the more typically Burroughs adventures of "The Moon Maid". From the global point of view, the space venture horribly boomerangs by bringing the evil Earthling genius Orthis into contact with the malevolent Kalkars of the Moon, though the disastrous results would become evident only much later. In the first decades of the 21st Century the world basks in peace, there seems no enemy and no threat anywhere, and pressure grows for complete disarmament and scrapping of the International Peace Fleet. Due to resistance by the King of Britain, half of the Fleet and of the world's armament industries are retained—which is not enough to resist the Kalkar invasion fleets, built and led by Orthis, which descend on the world in 2050.
London and Washington are captured at once by the invaders, who range the world at will. In a last effort they are confronted by the remnants of the Peace Fleet; the heroic Julian V and the evil Orthis destroy each other. However, the Kalkars remain in possession of the world and bring millions of their fellows from the Moon to colonize it. But lacking Orthis' organizing genius, they are unable to maintain the civilization they conquered. Their oppressive rule degenerates into semi-feudal enclaves, and they lose contact with the Moon. Eventually, Americans fleeing Kalkar rule and reverting to nomadic tribal life on the Great Plains grow stronger—and the Kalkars correspondingly weaker—until at last the American tribes capture California and the last Kalkars flee into the Pacific.
Copyright
The copyright for this story has expired in Australia, and thus now resides in the public domain there. The text is available via Project Gutenberg Australia. It is now in the public domain in the United States as well as of 2022 due to its 1926 publication date.[3]
See also
References
- ^ Richard A. Lupoff (1965). Master of Adventure: The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Canaveral Press.
- ^ "The Reference Library", Analog, April 1970, p. 170.
- ^ "LibGuides: Copyright at Cornell Libraries: Copyright Term and the Public Domain".
External links
- The Moon Maid at Standard Ebooks
- "The Moon Maid" entry in ERBzine C.H.A.S.E.R. Online Bibliography
- Free Ebook from Project Gutenberg Australia
- The Moon Maid at Project Gutenberg - the 1926 book
- The Moon Maid at Project Gutenberg - 1923 book containing just the first part
- The Moon Maid public domain audiobook at LibriVox
- Edgar Rice Burroughs Summary Project Page for The Moon Maid