A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder: The Fantastic Tale of a Lost Civilization

Four friends happen upon a strange copper cylinder which holds a bizarre and wonderful manuscript. As they make their way through it, we are returned from the narrative at points as they offer their thoughts and ideas about what is written within.

The tale within the cylinder was, we come to know, written by one Adam More: a British Sailor who, on his return voyage home from Tasmania, finds himself shipwrecked. Passing through a volcanic tunnel, More discovers a lost society of death worshipers, whose antithetical values lie in direct contrast with those of the civilized western world.

Part love story, part parable, part satire, and part fantasy, this often overlooked title serves as a solid foundation upon which far more well-known books in this same vein, in the following years and decades, were built.