Arnold, Edwin L

Entry updated 18 November 2024. Tagged: Author.

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(1857-1935) UK author, son of the poet and journalist Sir Edwin Arnold (1832-1904), a poet and popularizer of Buddhism (his book-length mystical poemThe Light of Asia was popular during his lifetime) who is sometimes confused with his son. Arnold's own fantasies include threeReincarnation tales clearly influenced by his father, who introduced the first of these:The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician (1890; vtPhra the Phoenician1910). This is a very early example of what would become a frequent topos in the latticework ofFantastika: a tale whose protagonist, through reincarnations willed or not, careens through lifetimes, sometimes as here adventurous (seeSword and Sorcery) or, sometimes, as in VirginiaWoolf'sOrlando: A Biography (1928), comprising passacaglia-like successions of scryings of perhaps deeper issues. "Rutherford the Twice-Born" (May 1892The Idler) andLepidus the Centurion: A Roman of Today (1901) are similar to their predecessor.

Arnold's best-known novel isLieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation (1905; vtGulliver of Mars1964) (seeGulliver), in which Jones tells the story of his brief disgruntlement with the US Navy, his trip by flying carpet toMars, his rescue of a princess, his witnessing of the destruction of her domain, their adventures together, and his return to a trustful fiancée and promotion. With its emphasis on highly-coloured, sexually-charged adventures off-Earth, it may be the first genuinePlanetary Romance. In the preface to the retitled 1965 edition, Richard ALupoff claims this story as a source for Edgar RiceBurroughs'sBarsoom. The provenance is visible in hindsight, and Burroughs may have in fact read Arnold before 1912. [JC]

see also:History of SF.

Edwin Lester Linden Arnold

born Swanscombe, Kent: 14 May 1857

died London: 1 March 1935

works

The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician (New York: Harper and Brothers,1890) [hb/]
- Phra the Phoenician (London: Chatto and Windus,1910) [vt of above: hb/]
The Story of Ulla and Other Tales (London: Longman,1895) [coll, of which one story, "Rutherford the Twice-Born", is fantasy: hb/]
Lepidus the Centurion: A Roman of Today (London: Cassell,1901) [hb/]
Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation (London: S C Brown, Langham,1905) [hb/nonpictorial]
- Gulliver of Mars (New York: Ace Books,1964) [vt of above: "Gulliver" may represent an Ace Books editorial decision: pb/FrankFrazetta]