Poster from the French 1948 production of Atlantida (Fair Use)

Atlantida (L'Antlantide) by Pierre Benoit Tr. by Mary C. Tongue and Mary Ross [1920]

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Contents Start Reading Page Index

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This French novel of 'Atlantis in the Sahara' made a huge splash when it was published. The exotic Saharan setting, the stories of desert survival, the overpowering allure of the last Queen of Atlantis, make a memorable, if a bit pulpy, read. Over a dozen films have been made of this plot, to the point where it is almost a subgenre of the lost-civilization adventure film in itself. The author was sued (and lost) at one point because the plot is fairly close to that of Haggard's She. However, it is thought Benoit had no exposure to Haggard prior writing L'Antlantide, so this appears to be a case of literary convergent evolution. This online text was scanned and proofed from scratch, from a 1920 edition of this translation of the book. Therefore it may differ slightly from the Project Gutenberg version, which was sourced from a 1964 Ace paperback edition. That edition has 192 pages and some obvious differences, e.g., a dedication in the Ace which does not appear in the 1920 printing. NOTE: Unicode is used to display Greek in this text. I've also made a sketch map of the route in the book through the Sahara.

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Title Page
Contents
Preface
Chapter I. A Southern Assignment
Chapter II. Captain de Saint-Avit
Chapter III. The Morhange-Saint-Avit Mission
Chapter IV. Towards Latitude 25
Chapter V. The Inscription
Chapter VI. The Disaster of the Lettuce
Chapter VII. The Country of Fear
Chapter VIII. Awakening At Ahaggar
Chapter IX. Atlantis
Chapter X. The Red Marble Hall
Chapter XI. Antinea
Chapter XII. Morhange Disappears
Chapter XIII. The Hetman of Jitomir's Story
Chapter XIV. Hours of Waiting
Chapter XV. The Lament of Tanit-Zerga
Chapter XVI. The Silver Hammer
Chapter XVII. The Maidens of the Rocks
Chapter XVIII. The Fire-Flies
Chapter XIX. The Tanezruft
Chapter XX. The Circle Is Complete