The Moon Maid
Dust jacket from the first edition of The Moon Maid.
|
|
| Author | Edgar Rice Burroughs |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | J. Allen St. John |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy novel, Lost world |
| Publisher | A. C. McClurg |
|
Publication date
|
6 February 1926 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 412 pp |
The Moon Maid is an Edgar Rice Burroughs Lost World novel. It was written in three parts, Part 1 was begun in June 1922 under the title The Moon Maid, Part 2 was begun in 1919 under the title Under the Red Flag, later retitled The Moon Men, Part 3 was titled The Red Hawk. As evident from its name, Under the Red Flag was originally set in contemporary Soviet Russia, with the Bolsheviks as villains; as this was not popular with the publishers, Burroughs transferred it to a science-fictional setting, with the evil Communist-like "Kalkars" taking over the Moon (in the first part) and then the Earth (in the second part, with the help of a renegade Earthman) and being finally overthrown in the third part. (Also the Thorists, villains of Pirates of Venus, are clearly modeled on the Russian Communists.)
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.
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.
The book is well regarded, and described by one critic, Richard A. Lupoff, as the best of Edgar Rice Burrough's non-series "scientific romances". He describes the book as conveying a remarkable sense of wonder. He goes on to say that the extrapolation of society, including the feudal and nomadic societies of the conquered earth, display new facets of Burrough's skill as a writer. For example, a surviving Stars and Stripes flag which had been in the Battle of Argonne Forest in World War I comes after many generations to be worshipped as a powerful totem by Americans who had reverted to tribal nomadic life on the Great Plains, with the flag's original meaning completely forgotten. P. Schuyler Miller wrote that "Most readers agree that 'The Moon Maid' was Burroughs's best book and best science fiction."
...
Wikipedia