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| Cover of the program for the 1891 event 'The Coming Race' and 'Vril-Ya' Bazaar and Fete |
In Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1871 short novel The Coming Race (or Vril, the Power of the Coming Race), an American explorer falls into a mine shaft and stumbles upon an underground race of somewhat "angelic" humanoids wielding a form of advanced energy called "vril" (hinted to be related to a electricity or magnetism). During his stay, the narrator describes the utopian society which the "Vril-ya" have achieved, although these people also have no qualms about destroying "inferior" races with their awesome weapons of mass destruction. Also, although the Vril-ya lead idyllic lives devoid of crime and stress, the creation of new art and literature no longer takes place, as there isn't any passion in their perfect lives.
One of the other major differences between the American narrator's world of 1871 and the Vril-ya is that Vril-ya women are the dominant sex in terms of courtship, and thus "chivalrous" women regularly propose to "coquettich" male partners. The female Vril-ya (also known as "Gy-ei") are also larger and more scholarly than the males ("Ana"), although after marriage a female Gy takes on a more subservient role.
After a period during which the explorer is introduced to the various social structures and industrial centers of the Vril-ya, he attracts the attentions of the daughters of some Vril-ya leaders. Unfortunately, due to his "impure" racial background, he is sentenced to death for even being considered for such a role. Fortunately, one of his admirers takes pity on him and helps him return to the surface. However, the narrator believes that one day the Vril-ya will invade the surface world and eradicate mankind for its inferior and aggressive ways.
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| 2017 Praetorius Books, Corget Julia |
In some ways an early "lost race" novel (a sub-genre later invigorated by H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines (1885)), the "Hollow Earth" aspect of the premise was famously explored seven years earlier in Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864). However, because Bulwer-Lytton's novel is dominated by long, almost academic descriptions of the Vril-ya's society (and has very little plot), it probably works more as a kind of speculative essay on a form of "anaemic utopia", rather than an "adventure romance". In some ways, H.G. Wells would revisit this idea with the "Eloi" of his novel The Time Machine (1895). The concept of a society with courtship rituals dominated by females would also be explored at greater length in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's novel Herland (1915).
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Bulwer-Lytton in later life |
- While exploring an underground mine, the narrator's engineer friend discover a strange chasm, at the bottom of which he sees a paved street lighted with gas lamps.
- The next day, the two of them descend with ropes, but the engineer falls to his death in an accident. At the bottom, the narrator flees when he encounters an alligator-like creature emerging from a fissure in the rock.
- After the creature disappears with the engineer's body, the narrator discovers a cultivated landscape filled with strange plants and animals formerly thought extinct. He also sees figures flying through an underground sky.
- The narrator soon comes across an Egyptian-styled structure, where he encounters a giant, winged humanoid with odd clothing.
- Although he cannot understand the language of the humanoid, the narrator is invited into the building and introduced to several more of its kind. He soon learns that the wings are mechanical, but this doesn't prevent him from a moment of violent panic in which he begins to wonder of these beings are subterranean demons of some kind. The humanoids eventually render him unconscious.
- When he wakes up several days later, he learns that in his dreams he has been unconsciously teaching the humanoids English.
- The narrator describes the surface world to his host Aph-Lin and his daughter Zee, a land and people totally unknown to these underground beings. The host advises the narrator to not speak of this other world to other natives of his underground world. Later, Zee explains the idea of "vril", a form of exotic electro-magnetic power with great destructive power. Vril can also be used for healing and for achieving a form of telepathy.
- When Taë, the son of the Tur (chief magistrate) arrives, the narrator describes the alligator-creature to him.
- After more language lessons, the narrator is introduced to the culture of his hosts the Vril-ya, a subgroup of the underground humanoids named the Ana, who had survived an ancient "Deluge" after their lands had sunk underwater.
- The narrator describes the Gy-ei, the female of the Ana species and how their roles differ from females of the surface world, in part due to their greater control over the vril power.
- The narrator describes the comfortable climate in the Vril-ya's underground world, despite the modern theories of an increasingly hot core at the center of the Earth.
- The narrator describes the language of the Vril-ya and its relationship to aboriginal languages of the surface.
- The narrator describes the monotheistic religion of the Vril-ya.
- The narrator further describes the religion of the Vril-ya, which incorporates a belief in reincarnation.
- Zee describes the social structure of the Vril-ya to the narrator.
- The narrator describes the vril staff, a weapon by which the Vril-ya focus vril energy to destroy or heal. While visiting a museum, the narrator learns of a controversial theory linking the Ana with tadpoles and humans in the ancient primeval past.
- The narrator learns of the Vril-ya's culture and arts. Due to the utopian nature of their society, their arts lack passion, although the pursuit of science remains undimmed. Aph-Lin also explains that there exist unenlightened Ana "primitives" (also known as Koom-Posh), whom the narrator identifies with in many ways. Were the Koom-Posh to declare war, the Vril-ya could easily destroy them with their advanced vril technology.
- Taë takes the narrator on a trip to hunt down the giant reptile he had reported encountering upon his arrival. When the narrator resists being used as bait, Taë uses his vril mental powers to bend the narrator's will. When the creature (a Krek) tries to attack the narrator, Taë incinerates it with his vril staff.
- The narrator describes some of the vehicles and automatons which the Vril-ya use in their daily lives. He also explains that the Vril-ya have a system of fair taxation which benefits everyone in their society.
- The narrator tries to learn how to use the Vril-ya's artificial wings but is unable to achieve any practical skills with them due to his "hereditary defects". Nonetheless, Zee begins to show some attraction for her "pet", the narrator.
- The narrator believes that Zee is attracted to him as a form of sympathy for his "inferior" nature and decides to tell her father in order to halt the developing relationship (which he does not desire).
- When the narrator asks to return to his people, Aph-Lin tells him that he will not be permitted to leave for fear of attacks from his barbarian peoples. When he tells Aph-Lin that his daughter might be attracted to him, the Vril-yan tells the narrator that he should resist, otherwise the community would probably destroy him (for fear of polluting their genetic line).
- Aph-Lin gives the narrator a tour of the farming communities of the Vril-ya (which include automatons as laborers). Later, Zee joins them and further expresses her devotion to the surface-dweller.
- The narrator is permitted to witness a Vril-ya funeral and cremation (a practice unknown to the narrator).
- When the narrator meets Taë's sister, he senses her attraction for him, and hopes that marrying the daughter of the Tur might probably prevent his execution by the community's fear of genetic pollution. He also fantasizes about inheriting the Tur's position and remaking the Vril-ya's customs into something closer to his own sensibilities (for example, the abolishing of vegetarianism and the reintroduction of wildlife hunts). After Zee appears and whisks the narrator away, she tells him that were he to join with the "Princess", her father the Tur would have him incinerated immediately.
- In the following days, Zee's overtures cool, but the narrator realizes that he must escape the Vril-ya. Although the Vril-ya have a utopian social structure, their lives are passionless and without accomplishment. Furthermore, if they were to become interested in the surface world, a war would soon break out for dominance of the globe.
- The narrator reflects on how the social positions of men and women are reversed here from his own society. Female Gy-ei, being stronger, larger and more learned than the Ana (the males), woo the Ana with "chivalry", while the men act "coquettishly". One day, the Princess flirts with the narrator once again, but her father the Tur sees them.
- When the narrator learns that the Tur has ordered his son Taë to execute him, he asks Taë to allow him to return to the surface. Unfortunately, he learns that the chasm passage has already been blocked off for a long time under Aph-Lin's orders. Learning of the narrator's fear of death (a fear unknown to his own kind), Taë offers to consult his father once again.
- When Zee learns that the Tur has insisted on the narrator's execution the next day, she uses her vril wand to blast open a tunnel in the rock and takes the narrator back to the mine from which he had originally descended from. Afterwards, she returns to her own people and the tunnel is resealed. Years later, diagnosed with a terminal disease, the narrator writes an account of his experience in order to warn mankind of the destructive power of the Vril-ya, the Coming Race.
