Fiction · 1895
The Crack of Doom
Arthur Marcel falls in with Herbert Brande, a scientist convinced that life is not worth living, and is drawn into Brande's Cui Bono Society — a circle sworn to end all suffering by ending the world. Brande has calculated that a single grain of matter holds enough energy to hurl a hundred thousand tons nearly two miles, and means to release it. Marcel's feelings for Brande's sister, Natalie, complicate his resolve to stop him.
Robert Cromie published the novel in 1895 through Digby, Long & Co. in London; its description of an atomic blast releasing world-ending force predates real atomic weapons by roughly fifty years.
Bibliomancer restores the 1895 text exactly as Cromie wrote it.
Contents
- Preface
- Chapter I — The Universe a Mistake!
- Chapter II — A Strange Experiment
- Chapter III — “It Is Good to Be Alive.”
- Chapter IV — George Delany—Deceased
- Chapter V — The Murder Club
- Chapter VI — A Telepathic Telegram
- Chapter VII — Guilty!
- Chapter VIII — The Woking Mystery
- Chapter IX — Cui Bono?
- Chapter X — Force—A Remedy
- Chapter XI — Morituri Te Salutant
- Chapter XII — “No Death—Save in Life.”
- Chapter XIII — Miss Metford’s Plan
- Chapter XIV — Rockingham to the Sharks
- Chapter XV — “If Not Too Late!”
- Chapter XVI — L5000 to Detain the Ship
- Chapter XVII — “This Earth Shall Die.”
- Chapter XVIII — The Flight
- Chapter XIX — The Catastrophe
- Chapter XX — Conclusion
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About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
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