Devil-Tree of El Dorado

The Devil-Tree of El Dorado (1897) is a novel by Frank Aubrey. Set in the colony of British Guiana, the novel falls into the lost world genre of science fiction made popular by such writers as H. Rider Haggard, Jules Verne, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. What he lacks in name-recognition alongside these titans of popular fiction, Aubrey makes up for with a keen storytelling ability and a talent for merging history and geography with unsettling visions of monsters and gods. A staunch imperialist, Aubrey’s novel exhibits troubling depictions of the author’s racist ideology, and remains a difficult yet essential example of the function of literature in upholding global white supremacy. “Beneath the verandah of a handsome, comfortable-looking residence near Georgetown, the principal town of British Guiana, a young man sat one morning early in the year 1890, attentively studying a volume that lay open on a small table before him.” As all adventurers know, fortune tends to favor the bold. While this maxim, of course, never ensures success, it does grant confidence to those bold enough—or crazy enough—to push themselves to extremes in search of adventure. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, a small expedition sets out through the jungle to find the lost city of El Dorado, confident their destination—the treacherous Mt. Roraima—could hide what remains of a once-vibrant civilization. Despite the odds, they make it to the top of the plateau, where they discover a terrible being. This edition of Frank Aubrey’s The Devil-Tree of El Dorado is a classic of British science fiction reimagined for modern readers.

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