The Lost Continent (original title Beyond Thirty) is a short, pared-down action novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs first published in 1916, only four years after ERB’s breakout work, Tarzan. 1916 was, of course, smack in the middle of World War I, and the influence is clear.
The story takes place in the 22nd century. Pan-America is the sole power through both the northern and southern American continents in the aftermath of a tremendous war in Europe in the 20th century. And Pan-America is deliberately and utterly isolated, by law and tradition forbidden to cross the 30th meridian to the east and 175th to the west. A powerful navy patrols the seas and enforces the borders. The narrator and hero of the story, Lt. Jefferson Turck, is a young naval commander. His combination flying ship/submarine, is forced through a combination of mechanical failure, storm, and sabotage, to break the convention and cross the 30th. He is then abandoned (along with three companions) in a boat which he navigates to England and subsequently the continent, encountering tribes reduced to primitive savagery and preyed upon by tigers, lions, and wolves. A romance with a barbarian woman (apparently a direct descendant of the British monarchy) largely drives what plot there is while Turck gleans some of what occurred during the devastating war, its aftermath, and what transpires in the rest of the world beyond Pan-America’s self-imposed borders.
It is a quick, entertaining read, if not particularly inspired in plot. (ERB employed much the same basic plot, though not setting, in other tales; e.g. The Land of Hidden Men.) What intrigued me the most was the suggestions the book provided into ERB’s depth of concerns regarding the Great War. The descriptions of the remnants of Europe are apocalyptic, bombs having utterly leveled most cities. There are references to gas attacks. ERB seemed genuinely worried that the war might nearly depopulate England and, perhaps, much of Europe. He might also have been commenting on America’s isolationism, though whether he favored intervention or preferred the US to remain uninvolved I could not ascertain from the story.
The Lost Continent remains one of ERB’s more obscure works. But I for one was glad it did not remain lost to me.
Now, if you will indulge me, I would like to direct your attention to the Cirsova Kickstarter for my next book. It is (as of this writing) close to funding. But it isn’t there yet. Please back the project and help push it over the top. I’m proud of this one and hope to share it with as many readers as possible. I think you’ll like it. I thank you — and I am sure the publisher would thank you — for your patronage.