"The world below" by S. Fowler Wright is a science fiction novel written in the early 20th century. It follows a contemporary narrator who agrees to test a professor’s experimental “projection” into the far future after previous volunteers vanish. In a transformed Earth of opal roads, carnivorous flora, and vast subterranean works, he encounters intelligent Amphibians and the hidden “Dwellers” who rule from below. Drawn into a high‑stakes rescue and an uneasy
clash of species, he must survive alien ecologies, invisible bridges, and moral choices in a civilization long beyond human memory. The opening of the novel introduces the time‑projection premise and the narrator’s deal to go forward after hearing of Brett’s disappearance and Templeton’s daring return and second, fatal attempt. Arriving in a silent, misty night beside an opal roadway and a sheer cliff, he endures a lethal plant attack, rescues a telepathic Amphibian who dies after sending him on a mission, and learns to move carefully through a world of invisible bridges and predatory “frog‑mouths.” Captured and released by a vast subterranean Dweller, he escapes through a spiraling tunnel, crosses a perilous hot‑sand conduit alive with pink worm‑tongues, and reaches the sea. There he meets a marching column of Amphibians, learns telepathically of their ancient treaty with the Dwellers and of a broken rule that led to a comrade’s capture, and is fed and swept along as they head inland for a covert rescue that must avoid the Dwellers’ notice. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)
Reading Level
Reading ease score: 73.7 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read.
