Thanks to Scott Cupp, I finally got around to reading C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne’s The Lost Continent, one of the best stories of Atlantis you’ll ever read. The Lost Continent was published in 1899. Lin Carter reprinted the book in his famous
Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in 1972. I, of course, bought an original copy. But that now resides at SUNY at Buffalo. The tale of death and destruction is narrated by Deucalion, a warrior-priest of ancient Atlantis. He’s about the only honorable character in the book. Atlantis is engaged in a civil war. The ruler of Atlantis, the beautiful Phorenice, launches her kingdom on a doomed course. If you enjoy High Adventure in the classic style, you’ll love The Lost Continent.
Great cover!
In the early 1970’s I bought a lot of those Ballantine Adult Fantasy titles but must have missed this one.
Here’s the list of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series from 1969 to 1974, Jeff:
The Blue Star, Fletcher Pratt (May 1969) (#01602)
The King of Elfland’s Daughter, Lord Dunsany (Jun. 1969) (#01628)
The Wood Beyond the World, William Morris (Jul. 1969) (#01652)
The Silver Stallion, James Branch Cabell (Aug. 1969) (#01678)
Lilith, George MacDonald (Sep. 1969) (#01711)
Dragons, Elves, and Heroes, Lin Carter, ed. (Oct. 1969) (#01731)
The Young Magicians, Lin Carter, ed. (Oct. 1969) (#01730)
Figures of Earth, James Branch Cabell (Nov. 1969) (#01763)
The Sorcerer’s Ship, Hannes Bok (Dec. 1969) (#01795)
Land of Unreason, Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague de Camp (Jan. 1970) (#01814)
The High Place, James Branch Cabell (Feb. 1970) (#01855-9)
Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees (Mar. 1970) (#01880-X)
At the Edge of the World, Lord Dunsany (Mar. 1970) (#01879-6)
Phantastes, George MacDonald (Apr. 1970) (#01902-4)
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft (May 1970) (#01923-7)
Zothique, Clark Ashton Smith (Jun. 1970) (#01938-5)
The Shaving of Shagpat, George Meredith (Jul. 1970) (#01958-X)
The Island of the Mighty, Evangeline Walton (Jul. 1970) (#01959-8)
Deryni Rising, Katherine Kurtz (Aug. 1970) (#01981-4)
The Well at the World’s End, Vol. 1, William Morris (Aug. 1970) (#01982-2)
The Well at the World’s End, Vol. 2, William Morris (Sep. 1970) (#02015-4)
Golden Cities, Far, Lin Carter, ed. (Oct. 1970) (#02045-6)
Beyond the Golden Stair, Hannes Bok (Nov. 1970) (#02093-6)
The Broken Sword, Poul Anderson (Jan. 1971) (#02107-X)
The Boats of the “Glen Carrig”, William Hope Hodgson (Feb. 1971) (#02145-2)
The Doom that Came to Sarnath and Other Stories, H. P. Lovecraft (Feb. 1971) (#02146)
Something About Eve, James Branch Cabell (Mar. 1971) (#02067-7)
Red Moon and Black Mountain, Joy Chant (Mar. 1971) (#02178-9)
Hyperborea, Clark Ashton Smith (Apr. 1971) (#02206-8)
Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley, Lord Dunsany (May 1971) (#02244-0)
Vathek, William Beckford (Jun. 1971) (#02279-3)
The Man Who Was Thursday, G. K. Chesterton (Jul. 1971) (#02305-6)
The Children of Llyr, Evangeline Walton (Aug. 1971) (#02332-3)
The Cream of the Jest, James Branch Cabell (Sep. 1971) (#02364-1)
New Worlds for Old, Lin Carter, ed. (Sep. 1971) (#02365-X)
The Spawn of Cthulhu, Lin Carter, ed. (Oct. 1971) (#02394-3)
Double Phoenix, Edmund Cooper and Roger Lancelyn Green (Nov. 1971) (#02420-6)
The Water of the Wondrous Isles, William Morris (Nov. 1971) (#02421-4)
Khaled, F. Marion Crawford (Dec. 1971) (#02446-X)
The World’s Desire, H. Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang (Jan. 1972) (#02467-2)
Xiccarph, Clark Ashton Smith (Feb. 1972) (#02501-6)
The Lost Continent, C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne (Feb. 1972) (#02502-4)
Discoveries in Fantasy, Lin Carter, ed. (Mar. 1972) (#02546-6)
Domnei, James Branch Cabell (Mar. 1972) (#02545-8)
Kai Lung’s Golden Hours, Ernest Bramah (Apr. 1972) (#02574-1)
Deryni Checkmate, Katherine Kurtz (May 1972) (#02598-9)
Beyond the Fields We Know, Lord Dunsany (May 1972) (#02599-7)
The Three Impostors, Arthur Machen (Jun. 1972) (#02643-8)
The Night Land, Vol. 1, William Hope Hodgson (Jul. 1972) (#02669-1)
The Night Land, Vol. 2, William Hope Hodgson (Jul. 1972) (#02670-5)
The Song of Rhiannon, Evangeline Walton (Aug. 1972) (#02773-6)
Great Short Novels of Adult Fantasy I, Lin Carter, ed. (Sep. 1972) (#02789-2)
Evenor, George MacDonald (Nov. 1972) (#02874)
Orlando Furioso: The Ring of Angelica, Volume 1, Ludovico Ariosto, translated by Richard Hodgens (Jan. 1973) (#03057-5)
The Charwoman’s Shadow, Lord Dunsany (Feb. 1973) (#03085-0)
Great Short Novels of Adult Fantasy Volume II, Lin Carter, ed. (Mar. 1973) (#03162-8)
The Sundering Flood, William Morris (May 1973) (#03261-6)
Imaginary Worlds: the Art of Fantasy, Lin Carter (Jun. 1973) (#03309-4)
Poseidonis, Clark Ashton Smith (Jul. 1973) (#03353-1)
Excalibur, Sanders Anne Laubenthal (Aug. 1973) (#23416-2)
High Deryni, Katherine Kurtz (Sep. 1973) (#23485-5)
Hrolf Kraki’s Saga, Poul Anderson (Oct. 1973) (#23562-2)
The People of the Mist, H. Rider Haggard (Dec. 1973) (#23660-2)
Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat, Ernest Bramah (Feb. 1974) (#023787-0)
Over the Hills and Far Away, Lord Dunsany (Apr. 1974) (#023886-9)
I read this one when it came out. Fun stuff.
I love the cover, too, Bill! Dean Ellis painted it.
Wow – there were more than I’d remembered. Thanks for the list.
I remember seeing that Kai Lung book in the Penguin edition all over England.
There are also some pre-BAF books and a couple post-BAF books, Jeff. But this list is the official series.
There was a lot of great cover art in this series.
You’re right, Drongo. The cover artwork first attracted me to the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series.
I have just 7 of those, and this one I hadn’t read or heard of. The cover makes it look like sword-and-sorcery adventure in the Conan mold (though it predates Howard, obviously) but your description seems to contradict that. Interesting.
THE LOST CONTINENT is more of a High Adventure novel, Rick. Well work reading!
Great book. Now I want to go back and read Wheatley’s THEY FOUND ATLANTIS.
In this Ballantine series I have a perfect copy of The Boats of the “Glen Carrig.” I’m afraid to open the damn thing and may never get to read it.
William Hope Hodgson’s The Boats of the “Glen-Carrig” was published in a new edition by Night Shade Books a few years ago, JF. You could read the Night Shade edition and leave your perfect copy alone.
Well, they only had a relatively limited palette of ways of marketing fantasy at the time, Rick, when they didn’t try to claim it was sf or hide that it was fantasy some other way (or, it always amuses me when I’m reminded of it, the Award edition of CONJURE WIFE which packages it as a supermarket gothic).
Speaking of looking great for your years, Bill…you read THE LOST CONTINENT in its first edition when it came out?
Did Scott send/lend you a copy of the BAF version, George?
Donald Wollheim and, spottily, Lester Del Rey did try, to some extent, to make up for the disappearance of the Carter series…some of Carter’s choices were a lot more to my taste than others, though his list was better than Del Rey’s pile of Donaldsons and Brookses, but which also offered THE DRAGON AND THE GEORGE and the shortlived Del Rey horror line…and Del Rey got a lot of points from me for the Thorne Smith revival program…
Scott Cupp surprised me by including THE LOST CONTINENT in a box of books he sent me, Todd. It was a welcome gift. I have those Thorne Smiths, too. Nice.