4 h 15 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 4 h 15 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What waits beyond a line no ship is allowed to cross?
In 2137, the Americas stand apart from the Eastern Hemisphere. Jefferson Turck, a young naval officer of the Pan-American Federation, guards the boundary that keeps them separate. His duty is clear: stay on his side. But a voyage beyond that forbidden line brings him toward lands his world no longer knows.
In The Lost Continent, Edgar Rice Burroughs takes Turck into a forgotten Europe, where life has become harsher and simpler. There he meets Victory Harding, a young woman who shows him how people have lived on. Beneath the sea voyage and adventure lies a troubling question: what does a nation lose when it shuts out the world?
What you’ll discover
- A boundary worth questioning Follow an officer whose journey carries him beyond the limits of his orders and knowledge.
- Europe beyond the map Enter old lands where the past gives way to a harsher way of living.
- Victory Harding's world Meet a young woman whose life reveals what Turck's distant homeland no longer understands.
- The cost of isolation Explore how a nation can preserve its comfort while losing its understanding of others.
- An early future imagined Discover how Burroughs turns fears of war and separation into a vivid science fiction adventure.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy fast adventure, lost worlds, ruined cities overgrown by wilderness and daring heroines.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A forbidden line threatens everything
- Honesty puts Turck against the law
- England answers with silence and bones
- Survival has swallowed a nation's memory
- Victory becomes more than someone rescued
- Ruined London brings danger and closeness
- Civilization cannot be worn like clothes
- Turck reveals more than he intends
- War destroys memory as well as lives
Who’s who
- Jefferson TurckA young Pan-American naval lieutenant, proud and brave, who defies a law he believes unjust and wants to see the forgotten lands of Europe.
- VictoryA young queen of Grabritin, fierce and quick-witted, who refuses to bow to anyone and wants freedom for herself and her people.
- John AlvarezTurck's first officer, twenty years older, who is so loyal that he risks his own life to protect his commander.
- Porfirio JohnsonThe jealous second officer and expert on gravity screens, whom Turck suspects of sabotaging the Coldwater.
- DelcarteA cheerful, fearless sailor of good family who stands his ground against a tiger and stays loyal to Turck.
- TaylorA young sailor of good family who follows Turck without question and helps him in every danger.
- SniderA fearful, sullen sailor who resents Turck, doubts the journey, and watches Victory too closely.
- BuckinghamA brutal, cowardly chief who calls himself king of the camp near the Camp of the Lions and wants Victory to keep his throne.
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The Lost Continent
by Edgar Rice Burroughs · 1916
Lieutenant Jefferson Turck crosses a forbidden line at sea and finds lions ruling the ruins of London.
Medium level2–5 hours to read2 languages
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In short
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.
The Lost Continent at a glance
- 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
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1916
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2 h 45 min
- Level
- Medium level
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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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.
The author
Edgar Rice Burroughs
1875–1950 · American adventure novelist
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American writer born in Chicago in 1875. He wrote novels about Tarzan and novels set on Mars. His first Mars story appeared in 1912 and became the book A Princess of Mars in 1917. He later lived in California and died in Encino in 1950.
More by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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