Vril: The Power of the Coming Race

About this book

Far below the surface of the Earth lives a civilisation whose members wield Vril, a force capable of almost limitless destruction. Their society looks orderly and peaceful until an outsider understands the scale of the power behind it.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel mixes subterranean adventure with speculation about technology, evolution and political authority. Its Vril-ya seem to have solved problems that trouble the surface world while creating others of their own. Later occult conspiracy theories borrowed the name Vril, often distorting the novel's contents. The original story is unsettling enough on its own, especially in its suggestion that human civilisation may be dangerously outclassed.