Etidorhpa (1895 novel)

Etidorhpa, or the End of Earth: the Strange History of a Mysterious Being and the Account of a Remarkable Journey as Communicated in Manuscript to Llewellyn Drury Who Promised to Print the Same, but Finally Evaded the Responsibility Which Was Assumed by John Uri Lloyd is an allegorical novel by John Uri Lloyd featuring illustrations by John Augustus Knapp, in which is described a journey through the underworld (via a cave entrance in Kentucky) and the narrator's development of occult wisdom thereby. The first edition was printed privately in 1895, later being republished and expanded for a wider audience, becoming such a popular title that it was ultimately published in eighteen editions and in seven translations, inspiring the formation of Etidorhpa literary clubs.

Synopsis
The novel is layered into three stories: the meta-story of the compilation and publishing of the book by John Uri Lloyd; the framing story of the transmission of the manuscript by I-Am-The-Man to Johannes Llewellyn Llonggollyn Drury; and the story contained in the manuscript, in which I-Am-The-Man is convinced to become initiated into a secret society in order to discover and reveal their secrets, only to discover the society itself had been the ones who convinced him to join, and who then capture and artificially age him, and from there send him to tour the underworld of the hollow earth with an eye-less guide, where he is shown the wonders therein and spiritually tested.

Translations

 * in Swedish &mdash;
 * in German &mdash;