Story summary
The Lost Continent summary
- 8 min read
- 8 parts
- Audio soon
Lieutenant Jefferson Turck crosses a forbidden line at sea and finds lions ruling the ruins of London.
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The Lost Continent at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 2 h 25 min1 h 55 min fast, 2 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 34,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1916by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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The Lost Continent in short
The Lost Continent follows a young officer carried by accident across the line his whole nation fears. Lieutenant Jefferson Turck leaves a world sealed in peace and enters a Europe that war and plague have emptied. He finds ruins swallowed by trees, lions in place of crowds, and tribes who have forgotten ships, cities and even the name of England.
What The Lost Continent is about
What would you do if one line on the sea could end your career, your name and your family's honor? In the world of Lieutenant Jefferson Turck, that line is the thirtieth meridian. In the year 2137 the Pan-American Federation holds the Western Hemisphere under one flag, and no one has crossed the dead lines and lived to tell of it in two hundred years.
The Lost Continent was written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan, while the First World War was still raging. Turck, twenty-one and proud, commands the aero-submarine Coldwater when a storm strikes.
Who it’s for. You will love this book if you enjoy fast adventure, lost worlds, ruined cities overgrown by wilderness and daring heroines.
The story in 8 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A forbidden line and a failing ship
The story opens in a world that has closed its eyes. For two hundred years the Eastern Hemisphere has been wiped from maps and schoolbooks. Crossing the dead line, even by accident, means court-martial, and many officers take their own lives rather than face the shame.
Turck is on patrol when the Coldwater fails piece by piece. The gravity-screen generators die. Then the engines fail one after another. Johnson, a dark and jealous officer, watches with disappointment whenever the ship seems to survive. John Alvarez, the loyal first officer, shoots every instrument on the bridge so that nobody can say the ship has crossed.
Turck will not let a lie protect him. He sets up the spare instruments and refuses arrest. After three days of storm the sun comes out, and he announces their coordinates. For the first time he feels real anger at the law itself.
A rule that punishes bad luck as if it were treason makes honest people think about rebellion.
- 2Start free to read
The Coldwater leaves and England lies silent
Two weeks of work on the engines show clear signs of tampering.
- 3Start free to read
On the Isle of Wight, people forget England
Turck still hopes for civilization, so the party sails to the Isle of Wight.
- 4Start free to read
Lions, a bound girl and a sacrifice
On July 6, 2137, the launch enters the Thames, once the busiest river in the world, and finds nothing on it.
- 5Start free to read
A palace of lions and a leap into the river
With Buckingham's warriors searching for them, Victory and Turck do the one thing nobody expects.
- 6Start free to read
War destroys more than cities and kings
The book keeps asking one question, and it asks it through ruins.
- 7Start free to read
Civilization is more than clothes and weapons
Turck keeps calling Victory a little savage and a barbarian.
- 8Start free to read
A boastful narrator tells it at a run
The book is told in the first person, by Turck himself, to a public that demanded his story.
Read all 8 key ideas now
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Check yourself
Why does Turck begin to question the law against crossing the dead line?
Right. “A rule that punishes bad luck as if it were treason makes honest people think about rebellion.”Not quite. “A rule that punishes bad luck as if it were treason makes honest people think about rebellion.”
What does Victory challenge in Turck's idea of civilization?
Right. “Courage, loyalty and kindness belong to people, not to the clothes or machines they carry.”Not quite. “Courage, loyalty and kindness belong to people, not to the clothes or machines they carry.”
What deeper loss does Turck discover in Europe's ruins?
Right. “War can take away not just lives but memory, and civilization is a matter of character as much as machines.”Not quite. “War can take away not just lives but memory, and civilization is a matter of character as much as machines.”
Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Jefferson Turck A young Pan-American naval lieutenant, proud and brave, who defies a law he believes unjust and wants to see the forgotten lands of Europe.
- Victory A young queen of Grabritin, fierce and quick-witted, who refuses to bow to anyone and wants freedom for herself and her people.
- John Alvarez Turck's first officer, twenty years older, who is so loyal that he risks his own life to protect his commander.
- Porfirio Johnson The jealous second officer and expert on gravity screens, whom Turck suspects of sabotaging the Coldwater.
- Delcarte A cheerful, fearless sailor of good family who stands his ground against a tiger and stays loyal to Turck.
- Taylor A young sailor of good family who follows Turck without question and helps him in every danger.
- Snider A fearful, sullen sailor who resents Turck, doubts the journey, and watches Victory too closely.
- Buckingham A brutal, cowardly chief who calls himself king of the camp near the Camp of the Lions and wants Victory to keep his throne.
How it ends (spoiler)
Turck and Victory fall into the hands of Abyssinian conquerors, and he is made a slave, until he rescues her from the emperor's palace as Chinese troops take the city. The two are captured by the Chinese and treated with honor, and they are taken to Peking. Meanwhile Alvarez's trial at home forces the government to lift the dead lines. Turck marries Victory at the imperial court, is hailed as a hero on returning home, and prepares an expedition to reclaim England for its queen.
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Questions about The Lost Continent
What is The Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs about?
It follows a young Pan-American naval officer, Jefferson Turck, who is carried across a forbidden line in the Atlantic in 2137. He finds England and Europe ruined and wild, and meets a young queen named Victory.
Who is Victory in The Lost Continent?
Victory is a young woman of the Grabritin tribe near the ruins of London. She belongs to the royal family, is brave and skilled with a knife, and becomes Turck's closest companion.
What are the dead lines in The Lost Continent?
They are the thirtieth and one hundred seventy-fifth meridians, the borders of Pan-America's protected zone. Crossing them is treason, and the navy patrols them so nobody goes beyond and nobody comes back.
When was The Lost Continent written and is it science fiction?
Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote it during the First World War, setting it in the future of 2137. It is science fiction and adventure, with flying submarines, ruined cities and wild animals loose across Europe.
Is The Lost Continent easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that the plain language, short chapters, and constant action keep it moving. Turck tells the story in a lively first-person voice, and each scene brings a fresh danger or discovery.
Cite this edition
Burroughs, Edgar Rice. The Lost Continent. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-lost-continent.
Burroughs, E. R. (2026). The lost continent. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-lost-continent (Original work published 1916)
Burroughs, Edgar Rice. The Lost Continent. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-lost-continent.
@book{burroughs2026lost,
author = {Burroughs, Edgar Rice},
title = {The Lost Continent},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-lost-continent},
note = {First published 1916}
}
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