The Forgotten Civilizations: 20 Lost World Novels surveys the durable literary fascination with concealed continents, vanished empires, subterranean realms, and survivals of remote antiquity. Ranging from satirical voyage and Gothic speculation to scientific romance, imperial adventure, proto–science fiction, and supernatural horror, the volume traces how "lost worlds" became laboratories for imagining evolution, race, technology, empire, and cultural memory. Its striking episodes of inacc...