This is a new release of the original 1934 edition.

A classic novel, originally published in 1908 and featured in silent film in 1916, Into the Primitive illustrates the lives of a band of castaways from a passenger ship crossing the ocean, who find their way to a deserted island in the middle of the stormy seas. Into the Primitive offers a look into the lives of a small group of people left to fend for themselves in a remote wilderness. What becomes of them in this harsh environment? Their social training smothered by their need to survive. Follow these hardy souls as they struggle with their new world, forging an existence where none have before them, hanging on to the last shreds on their sanity, their dignity, and their lives

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Review by Darius M. Klein: "A Classic of the Genre" is how Jessica Salmonsen has described this work. Robert Ames Bennet was primarily a writer of Westerns, but also wrote two Lost Race romances, one of which is "Thyra: A Romance of the Polar Pit." The plot concerns a group of explorers who fly in a balloon to the North Pole, where they discover, via an opening, that the earth is indeed hollow. Once inside the earth they encounter Viking and Neanderthal communities, along with survivals of Mesozoic megafauna. "Thyra" manages to intertwine the Utopian Lost Race and Lost World subgenres into a single, action-packed plot which never meanders or digresses. The first Viking community upon which the heroes stumble after they enter the bowels of the Earth (and where they find the eponymous heroine) is an unlikely Christian-Socialist Utopia. As they penetrate further into the Earth's interior, they encounter those Vikings who have given themselves over to idolatry and human sacrifice, along with a community of stereotypically aggressive and bestial Neanderthals. At the novel's climax, they have a perilous close encounter with some demonic prehistoric reptiles in the Hela Pool (a particularly well-written scene). The copy of this work which I obtained is a photocopy of the microfilm of the original 1901 edition, which has delightfully quaint illustrations; I don't know if they have been reproduced in the "Lost Race and Adult Fantasy Fiction" series' edition. Mr. Bennet's other Lost Race Romance, "The Bowl of Baal," also combines Lost Race and Lost World motifs, and is recommended here. Of the two, however, "Thyra" is the better.

"Then--But I can't leave you here in this hell-hole! You've no right to ask me to do that, Tom. If I could bring my guns ashore and stay with you--But she'll never be more in need of some one, if you insist upon your plan. I say! I have it--We'll slip you aboard after dark. You can lie in covert till we reach Port Mozambique. I trust I'm clever enough to keep her diverted that long. Can put it that you're outfitting--all that, y' know."

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"Then--But I can't leave you here in this hell-hole! You've no right to ask me to do that, Tom. If I could bring my guns ashore and stay with you--But she'll never be more in need of some one, if you insist upon your plan. I say! I have it--We'll slip you aboard after dark. You can lie in covert till we reach Port Mozambique. I trust I'm clever enough to keep her diverted that long. Can put it that you're outfitting--all that, y' know."