The Face In The Abyss - A. Merritt (1931 First Edition)
The Face In The Abyss is a fantasy novel by American writer A. Merritt. It is composed of a novelette with the same title and its sequel, "The Snake Mother". It was first published in its complete form in 1931 by Horace Liveright. The novelette "The Face In The Abyss" originally appeared in the magazine Argosy All-Story Weekly in the September 8, 1923 issue. The sequel "The Snake Mother" was originally serialized in seven parts in Argosy beginning with the October 25, 1930 issue. The novel concerns American mining engineer Nicholas Graydon. While searching for lost Inca treasure in South America, he encounters Suarra, handmaiden to the Snake Mother of Yu-Atlanchi. She leads Graydon to an abyss where Nimir, the Lord of Evil is imprisoned in a face of gold. While Graydon's companions are transformed by the face into globules of gold due to their greed, he is saved by Suarra and the Snake Mother whom he joins in their struggle against Nimir. Abraham Grace Merritt was born January 20, 1884 in Beverly, New Jersey. Although he only wrote eight novels and a handful of short stories in his career, nonetheless he is considered one of the giants of imaginative fiction. I like to describe his writing as Edgar Rice Burroughs meets H.P. Lovecraft, via Clark Ashton Smith. His novels and stories are a subtle blending of dream-like fantasy and fast moving adventure. Over the years he was much imitated, but seldom equaled. He had a typically bucolic childhood in small town America. His…
- Series
- The Face In The Abyss
- Genres
- Adventure, Science fiction, Fantasy, Science and mechanics
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Pulp adventure
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Internet Archive