Lieutenant Gullivar Jones: His Vacation
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Lieutenant Gullivar Jones: His Vacation is an escapist novel by Edwin Lester Arnold combining elements of both fantasy and science fiction, first published in 1905. The last of Arnold's novels, its lukewarm reception led him to stop writing fiction. It has since become his best known work, and is considered important in the development of 20th century science fiction in that it is a precursor and likely inspiration to Edgar Rice Burroughs's classic A Princess of Mars (1911), which spawned the sword and planet genre. Ace Books reprinted Arnold's novel in paperback in 1964, retitling it Gulliver of Mars (sic). A more recent Bison Books edition (2003) was issued as Gullivar of Mars, adapting the Ace title to Arnold's spelling.
Arnold's novel bears a number of striking similarities to Burroughs's. Both Gullivar and Burroughs's protagonist John Carter are Southern United States soldiers who arrive on Mars by apparently magical means (magic carpet in the the case of the former, astral projection in that of the latter) and have numerous adventures there, including falling in love with Martian princesses. Gullivar is a more hapless character, however, paling beside the heroic and accomplished Carter. Gullivar, in contrast, stumbles in and out of trouble and never quite succeeding in mastering it. Richard A. Lupoff, the first critic to argue for the connection of the two works, has suggested that while Burroughs' Mars was inspired by Arnold's, his hero may harken back to an earlier Arnold creation, the ancient warrior Phra from his first novel, The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician (1890). The fact that Gullivar doesn't quite defeat his enemies or get the girl in the end helps explain why his Martian adventure was not as popular as Burroughs's, which spawned by ten sequels.
[edit] In other media
Marvel Comics did a brief comic version of Gullivar of Mars during the early 1970's, possibly as a reaction to DC gaining the rights to publish Burroughs' John Carter during this time. With art by Gil Kane, it ran in several issues of Monsters Unleashed. Marvel's version modernized the setting, recasting Gullivar as a Vietnam War veteran. Though the series used many of Arnold's characters and concepts, the series was not a strict adaptation of the original book.
Both Gullivar and John Carter make an appearance at the beginning of volume two in Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic book series.
[edit] External links
- Text of the novel at Project Gutenberg
- Review of Gullivar of Mars on SF Site.
- Forward to Gulliver of Mars on The Nostalgia League website.Edgar Rice Burroughs
