Books by Gertrude Barrows Bennett

Un antico oggetto, sembrerebbe un artefatto a forma di Cerbero, contiene al suo interno una polvere sconosciuta. Al contatto con essa, tre amici vengono catapultati in una dimensione lontana dalla realtà, dove tempo e spazio non esistono. Ma così come vengono dapprima allontanati, saranno in seguito riportati di nuovo negli Stati Uniti, a Filadelfia precisamente, ma la città non è esattamente il posto che conoscevano. Una dittatura distopica si è infatti instaurata, un potere potente e sfarzoso, che renderà la vita dei tre amici dura e crudele.Pubblicato nei primi del Novecento, "Le teste del Cerbero" è uno dei primi romanzi fantascientifici scritti da una donna.Gertrude Barrows Bennett (1883-1948) è stata una scrittrice americana. Considerata una pioniera della letteratura fantascientifica, le sue opere sono state di grandissima ispirazione per tutta la narrativa di genere.

The story is set on an island separated from the rest of the world, on which evolution has taken a different course. "The Nightmare" resembles Edgar Rice Burroughs'' The Land That Time Forgot, which was published a year later. While Bennett had submitted "The Nightmare" under her own name, she had asked to use a pseudonym, Jean Vail, if it was published. The magazine''s editor instead chose to use Francis Stevens, which she stuck to for rest of her writings as well. Excerpt: "I never met a burglar, but if I ever should it would be embarrassing to point a pistol at him and not be able to fire it off. I admire the heroes of burglar stories. They''re always such efficient people."

One of Bennett''s most famous novel, Claimed, narrates the tale of a supernatural artifact which summons an ancient and powerful god to early 20th century New Jersey. Augustus T. Swift called the novel, "One of the strangest and most compelling science fantasy novels you will ever read"). Excerpt: "From where we stood the illusion of ruins was nearly perfect, and indeed - who knows? - we may to-day have looked upon the last surviving trace of some ancient city, flung up from the abyss that engulfed it ages before the brief history we have of the race of man began. I would have liked to investigate the "ruins" more closely, but thought best not to attempt it. From many fissures hot, ill-smelling, and probably poisonous vapor is still pouring up, and though the rock is sufficiently cool so that it is possible to walk on it, I deemed it safer to confine exploration to a comparatively small space near our landing-place."