11 h 7 minAudiobook16 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 7 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the search for a perfect society takes you beyond the world you know?
In The Perfect World, Ella M. Scrymsour brings science fiction adventure to the search for utopia. The journey reaches beyond familiar boundaries, toward hidden civilizations and alien worlds. These distant societies open a question close to home: what would life look like without want, cruelty or fear?
Here, other worlds become mirrors for human ideas. Peoples who live by different rules offer a way to question familiar habits and quarrels. The dream of an ideal society draws you onward, while its comforts and costs invite a slower look. This is an adventure for readers who like to pause and think.
What you’ll discover
- Beyond the familiar world Follow the pull of adventure toward places beyond the known map.
- Civilizations apart from ours Consider how a hidden society might grow beyond the wider world's habits and quarrels.
- Other planets as mirrors Look back at human ideas through the possibilities of life beyond Earth.
- The cost of perfection Explore the comforts and costs within the dream of a society without fear.
- Room to stop and think Enjoy a reflective adventure that gives questions about the ideal society space to unfold.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy Victorian and Edwardian adventure, lost worlds beneath the earth, ingenious flying machines, old curses and tales that mix danger, romance and big questions about how people ought to live.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A village that fears strangers
- Children vanish and suspicion grows
- The Light strikes and Scotland Yard fails
- Alan falls into the earth
- The purple people and the temple of fire
- Language, history and a dying fire
- A guide, a serpent and the road to a tomb
- Korah's tomb and the leap into the river
- Home to a changed world
- What the book is about and how it is told
Who’s who
- Alan ForsythA brave, thoughtful young man who learns the mine trade, solves the riddle of the hidden people's language and becomes the natural leader of the group.
- Desmond ForsythAlan's warm-hearted cousin, who is taken by the Light and must find the strength to resist a dangerous attachment.
- Sir John ForsythThe cousins' uncle, an inventor who has long dreamed of a flying ship and who loves his nephews above all.
- Mr. WinthropThe kindly vicar who has served Marshfielden for forty years and tries to calm its fear of an old curse.
- KaweekaThe beautiful and ruthless Princess of Kalvar, who rules by charm and fear and wants Alan's love.
- Jez-RiahA priestess who gives up her veil and her people to guide the cousins, hoping to see the sun.
- Mavis WyltonA kind nurse who cares for the cousins in Australia and builds a new life with Desmond.
- MastersSir John's loyal clerk and friend, who helps build the Argenta and keeps the household steady.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 11 h 7 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 16 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Il Mondo Perfetto in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Il Mondo Perfetto
by Ella M. Scrymsour · 1922
Two cousins in a Derbyshire mining village chase a fiery wire that steals people into the earth.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Perfect World is a science fiction adventure by Ella M. Scrymsour, written in the years after the Great War.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A village that fears strangers
The story opens in Marshfielden, a village tucked among the Derbyshire peaks. It has one cobbled street, gardens full of marigolds and a tiny church. Mr. Winthrop, the vicar, has lived there for forty years and has never left. The men work at the Grimland coal mine two miles away, and an old custom makes them wash off the coal dust before they walk home, so the village always looks spotless.
The villagers also keep a legend. Long ago, when Henry the Eighth took the local priory, an outcast prior is said to have cursed the place. Whenever a stranger settles there, trouble, illness and death will follow. Mary Slater, a young mother, recites the rhyme to the vicar with real fear in her voice. He laughs and tells her that such tales go against the faith he preaches.
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What is The Perfect World by Ella M. Scrymsour about?
It follows two cousins, Alan and Desmond Forsyth, from a cursed Derbyshire village into a hidden world below the earth, then to an inventor's airship and a far-off world. It combines mystery, adventure, romance and questions about how people should live.
Who is Kaweeka in The Perfect World?
Kaweeka is the Princess of Kalvar, the underground land that Alan finds after the mine disaster. She is beautiful, powerful and cruel, descends from the biblical rebel Korah, and sets her heart on Alan.
What is the Light in the book?
The Light is a glowing metal wire that sweeps from the sky and carries off people and animals around Marshfielden. Its source is a secret held by the hidden people, who send it out to find living things.
The author
Ella M. Scrymsour
1888–1962 · British novelist
Ella M. Scrymsour (1888–1962) was a British actress and author. She wrote under the name Ella Scrymsour. Her books include The Perfect World, published in 1922. She was the daughter-in-law of C. A. Scrymsour Nichol. She lived during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
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