First published 2021
Richard Fallon gathers Victorian literature that brought prehistoric creatures to life on the page. Nineteenth century fossil discoveries of pterodactyls, iguanodons, and woolly mammoths shook scientific understanding and religious doctrine. These revelations also fired the creative minds of writers across genres. Authors crafted adventure tales starring ancient beasts, penned science fiction featuring primordial monsters, and wrote horror stories with dinosaur antagonists. Some writers took unexpected approaches, composing ballads sung by ichthyosaurs or mock Elizabethan dramas with casts of prehistoric animals. The collection includes stories, poems, plays, and essays from celebrated authors like Arthur Conan Doyle, George Sand, and Jack London alongside forgotten writers who once commanded popular audiences. Fallon provides context with a new introduction that frames how fossil discoveries transformed both science and storytelling in the Victorian era.
Genres: fiction, science-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, adventure, 19th-century
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: monsters, supernatural
Period: 19th Century, Victorian Era
224 pages · Hardcover · Valancourt Books