The Great Stone of Sardis

Early futuristic "adventure" tale written in 1897, depicting the-then-far-flung world of the year of 1947. A double adventure written at the end of the nineteenth century, somewhat in the theme of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Great Stone of Sardis tells of a submarine trip to reach the North Pole and a project to examine the center of the Earth by boring a deep shaft. What they find at the core of the planet surprises the enterprising explorers. The conception was bizarre and grotesque enough, but the author developed it into a fascinating tale, incidentally injecting into it a good deal of drollery and fun. The tale shows that aspect of Stockton's genius that is inclined to the whimsical and chimerical, as well as the mechanical turn of his invention.