When the World Shook

H. Rider Haggard

Library - Science Fiction and Fantasy Novel Project Gutenberg Science Fiction _isfdb pgh

Publisher: Cassell

Published: Jan 2, 1919

Magazine: When the World Shook: Being an Account of the Great Adventure of Bastin, Bickley and Arbuthnot

Description:

977. WHEN THE WORLD SHOOK. BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT ADVENTURE OF BASTIN, BICKLEY AND ARBUTHNOT. Cassell; London, 1919. +Longmans; New York, 1919. Science-fiction with a supernatural note and a strong note of parable. 
*  Locale: an unknown Polynesian island somewhere west of Samoa, and caverns far beneath the surface of the earth. The story is told by Arbuthnot, a middle-aged Englishman who has made his fortune and retired. His wife and child died in childbirth, and he has never really recovered from the blow, although his two friends Bastin and Bickley do much to comfort him. These gentlemen are types in a metaphoric situation. Bastin, jwho is stupid, fearless, meddling, but kind-hearted, stands for religion; Bickley, who is irascible, highly intelligent, but utterly without imagination and limited in mental horizon, stands for science. The two men perpetually wrestle (figuratively speaking) for Arbuthnot's soul. 
*  Arbuthnot decides to voyage to the South Seas with his two friends. Somewhere west of Samoa a powerful typhoon and tsunami shatter their yacht, and the three men and a dog, the sole survivors, are cast up on an uncharted island. The natives, who are cannibals, are sufficiently overawed by the weapons of the whites to accept them as at least demigods, but the egregiously asinine Bastin takes it into his head to convert them to Christianity. When he sets fire to the idol of their great god Oro, the natives cannot tolerate the crime and attack. The three Britons and their dog make their escape to a tabu island in a lagoon, which the natives dare not approach, considering it the territory of Oro. 
*  The island is not without interest, for it holds remarkable ruins of great antiquity. There is also a small mountain, which apparently has just risen from the lake during the recent storm. Most significant of all, a cave-like passage leads into the heart of the mountain, where wonders await the travellers. In the cave are the remains of ancient flying machines and, perfectly preserved, two crystal coffins in which lie a bearded old man and a handsome young woman. When the Britons examine the coffins, they see that the man and woman are alive and in suspended animation. 
*  It is not difficult to revive them. The old man is Oro, and the woman is his daughter Yva. 
*  Background: As is revealed piecemeal during the story, in part by conversation, in part by the thought-projection images created by Yva, Oro and Yva have been lying in suspended animation for about two hundred and fifty thousand years. Oro had set this period for his reawaking, and has prepared star maps to verify the time lapse. 
*  In the world of the past, Oro and his fellows, the so-called Sons of Wisdom, had ruled an earth much more advanced scientifically than ours. Oro, who was and is a monster of pride and intellect, was king, high priest, and leading mind of the Sons of Wisdom. Their rule, which they maintained with many paranormal abilities as well as by science, was harsh, and their subjects revolted. 
*  Eventually, the Sons of Wisdom, who lived to enormous ages (a thousand years or so) were pressed back to their underground city beneath the present island, from which they waged war against the surface world. But despite their advanced science they did not thrive underground; the birth rate dropped; and eventually only Oro and Yva were left. When a peace embassy from outside appeared offering a cessation of war, but asking for the hand of Yva, Oro flew into a passion and killed the ambassadors, including the man whom Yva loved. 
*  Oro then decided to destroy the outer nations. By means not described until later in the novel he disturbed the earth's isostatic balance, so that some lands sank and others rose. The ancient civilization was wrecked, and most of mankind died. 
*  Oro placed himself and Yva in suspended animation, and lowered his mountain into the waters of the lake. A mechanism Oro set will raise the mountain at the proper time in the future. 
*  On being awakened, Oro is not especially grateful, and would undoubtedly have killed the British with his psychic powers, but his daughter persuades him to let them live, for she is as goodhearted as he is vicious. Arbuthnot and Yva fall in love, and it is eventually revealed that while she was lying asleep, her spirit had been incarnated several times, including as Arbuthnot's dead wife. 
*  But Oro is a problem. He is perpetually enraged against Bickley, who cannot accept what lies before his eyes and as good as calls Oro a liar. It takes all Yva's diplomacy to save Bickley's life. 
*  Bastin, too, creates difficulties. In his arrogant way he states that Christianity offers personal immortality, a concept that is of great interest to the aged Oro, who is gradually becoming moribund and is terrified at the thought of death. But Oro cannot accept the notion of Love instead of Fate and is most annoyed that after death he should be treated like everyone else. 
*  Oro has conversed with Arbuthnot, who is more balanced than Bastin or Bickley, and decides to inspect the outside work. He projects his mind out around the world, taking Arbuthnot along as an interpreter of events. After witnessing episodes of the Great War in Belgium, misery, and degeneracy, Oro comes to the conclusion that mankind must be destroyed again. While at first he was displeased at a possible romance between Yva and Arbuthnot, he now agrees to their marriage if Arbuthnot will help him in the new world that will arise after the destruction of the present. 
*  The crisis comes when Oro and Yva take the three Englishmen (via a seemingly magic escalator and a floating rock) deep into the center of the earth. The balance of the earth, Oro reveals, is controlled by an inner gyroscopic mechanism, a mountain- sized rock that rolls around inside the world in a channel. Oro, xsTith his control of energy, knocked this rock into a different channel a quarter of a million years ago, and he proposes to do so again. 
*  Yva, however, is determined that the mass death shall not be repeated, and when her pleas are met by violent rejection, she sacrifices herself, throwing herself in front of the rock. Oro's energy beam misses, and Yva is disintegrated. 
*  Oro is at first minded to kill the Englishmen, whom he blames for the death of his daughter, for in his savage, cruel way he had loved her; but for the sake of their dog, whom he likes, he spares them. They return to the surface by long subterranean passages, while Oro remains underground, causing his mountain once again to sink back into the lake. 

#  Haggard does not reveal what will happen to him, though it seems probable that he will soon die of old age. In any case, he can no longer wreck the world, for it will be many years before the rolling rock is in a suitable position again. Back in England Arbuthnot soon dies from a head injury he received from the natives. Presumably his and Yva's souls will meet. 
*  Other fantastic elements include the vast subterranean city of the Sons of Wisdom; a drink called Life-water, which provides remarkable energy, removes much of the need for food, and ultimately would confer the extreme longevity of the people of Oro; and Oro and Yva's enormous psychic powers, including clairvoyance, teleportation, mind control, and other abilities. 
*  Stodgily written, with the characters of the allegory hardly fitting their roles. All in all, a tired book, but every now and then, when the power of Haggard's mythic thought emerges, the result is thrilling.