 First US edition | |
| Author | E. Phillips Oppenheim |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Thriller |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton (UK) Little, Brown (US) |
Publication date | 1922 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | |
The Great Prince Shan is a 1922 thriller novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim. [1]
In 1922, the columnist 'Lucette' described, and critiqued, the book thus:
With scene laid in the year 1934, in an England whose navy and army have almost disappeared and where the Briton puts his faith in peaceful, commercial enterprises and the League of Nations, Phillips Oppenheim has built his latest story... It is, of course, well told, chatty, witty, and the tale of how catastrophe is averted is cleverly unfolded. Not, perhaps, quite as good as others from the same pen, but not a volume to be passed over, for all that. [2]
In 1924 it was adapted by Stoll Pictures into a film The Great Prince Shan directed by A. E. Coleby and starring Sessue Hayakawa.
Robert William Chambers was an American artist and fiction writer, best known for his book of short stories titled The King in Yellow, published in 1895.
Thaddeus Maxim Eugene (Ted) Dikty was an American editor who also played a role as one of the earliest science fiction anthologists, and as a publisher.
Edward Phillips Oppenheim was an English novelist, a prolific writer of best-selling genre fiction, featuring glamorous characters, international intrigue and fast action. Notably easy to read, they were viewed as popular entertainments. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1927.
"The Tower of the Elephant" is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard. Set in the fictional Hyborian Age, it concerns Conan infiltrating a perilous tower to steal a fabled gem from an evil sorcerer named Yara. Its unique insights into the Hyborian world and atypical science fiction elements have led the story to be considered a classic of Conan lore, and it is often cited by Howard scholars as one of his best tales.
Donald Henry Tuck was an Australian bibliographer of science fiction, fantasy and weird fiction. His works were "among the most extensive produced since the pioneering work of Everett F. Bleiler."
Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System, has appeared in works of fiction across several centuries. The way the planet has been depicted has evolved as more has become known about its composition; it was initially portrayed as being entirely solid, later as having a high-pressure atmosphere with a solid surface underneath, and finally as being entirely gaseous. It was a popular setting during the pulp era of science fiction. Life on the planet has variously been depicted as identical to humans, larger versions of humans, and non-human. Non-human life on Jupiter has been portrayed as primitive in some works and more advanced than humans in others.
Asteroids have appeared in fiction since at least the late 1800s, the first one—Ceres—having been discovered in 1801. They were initially only used infrequently as writers preferred the planets as settings. The once-popular Phaëton hypothesis, which states that the asteroid belt consists of the remnants of the former fifth planet that existed in an orbit between Mars and Jupiter before somehow being destroyed, has been a recurring theme with various explanations for the planet's destruction proposed. This hypothetical former planet is in science fiction often called "Bodia" in reference to Johann Elert Bode, for whom the since-discredited Titius–Bode law that predicts the planet's existence is named.
Neptune has appeared in fiction since shortly after its 1846 discovery, albeit infrequently. It initially made appearances indirectly—e.g. through its inhabitants—rather than as a setting. The earliest stories set on Neptune itself portrayed it as a rocky planet rather than as having its actual gaseous composition; later works rectified this error. Extraterrestrial life on Neptune is uncommon in fiction, though the exceptions have ranged from humanoids to gaseous lifeforms. Neptune's largest moon Triton has also appeared in fiction, especially in the late 20th century onwards.
Uranus has been used as a setting in works of fiction since shortly after its 1781 discovery, albeit infrequently. The earliest depictions portrayed it as having a solid surface, whereas later stories portrayed it more accurately as a gaseous planet. Its moons have also appeared in a handful of works. Both the planet and its moons have experienced a slight trend of increased representation in fiction over time.
Fictional planets of the Solar System have been depicted since the 1700s—often but not always corresponding to hypothetical planets that have at one point or another been seriously proposed by real-world astronomers, though commonly persisting in fiction long after the underlying scientific theories have been refuted. Vulcan was a planet hypothesized to exist inside the orbit of Mercury between 1859 and 1915 to explain anomalies in Mercury's orbit until Einstein's theory of general relativity resolved the matter; it continued to appear in fiction as late as the 1960s. Counter-Earth—a planet diametrically opposite Earth in its orbit around the Sun—was originally proposed by the ancient Greek philosopher Philolaus in the fifth century BCE, and has appeared in fiction since at least the late 1800s. It is sometimes depicted as very similar to Earth and other times very different, often used as a vehicle for satire, and frequently inhabited by counterparts of the people of Earth. Following the discovery of the first asteroids in the early 1800s, it was suggested that the asteroid belt might be the remnants of a planet predicted by the Titius–Bode law to exist between Mars and Jupiter that had somehow been destroyed; this hypothetical former fifth planet is known as Phaëton in astronomy and often dubbed "Bodia" in science fiction. Bodia was popular in the pulp era of science fiction, where it was often depicted as similar to Earth and inhabited by humans who might occasionally be the ancestors of humans on Earth, and stories about its destruction became increasingly common following the invention of the atomic bomb in 1945. Additional planets in the outer reaches of the Solar System, such as a ninth planet beyond Neptune or especially a tenth beyond Pluto, appear regularly. Many different names for this hypothetical outermost planet have been used, the most common being "Persephone". Some stories depict so-called rogue planets that do not orbit any star entering the Solar System from without, typically on a collision course with Earth. Less frequently, fictional planets appear in other locations, such as between Venus and Earth or inside a hollow Earth. Similarly, fictional moons appear in some works; fictional additional moons of the Earth largely fell out of favour with the advent of the Space Age.
Everett Franklin Bleiler was an American editor, bibliographer, and scholar of science fiction, detective fiction, and fantasy literature. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he co-edited the first "year's best" series of science fiction anthologies, and his Checklist of Fantastic Literature has been called "the foundation of modern SF bibliography". Among his other scholarly works are two Hugo Award–nominated volumes concerning early science fiction—Science-Fiction: The Early Years and Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years—and the massive Guide to Supernatural Fiction.
Richard James Bleiler is an American bibliographer of science fiction, fantasy, horror, crime, and adventure fiction. He was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction in 2002 and for the Munsey Award in 2019–2022. He won the 2023 Munsey Award, given to “an individual or organization that has bettered the pulp community.” He is the son of bibliographer and publisher Everett F. Bleiler.
Imagination Unlimited is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Everett F. Bleiler and T. E. Dikty, first published in hardcover by Farrar, Straus & Young in 1952. As originally published, the anthology includes thirteen stories by various authors, with an introduction and four brief essays by the editors. In the UK The Bodley Head published the work as two separate anthologies in 1953, one, containing the first six stories, under the same title as the American edition and the other, containing the remaining seven stories, as Men of Space and Time. The anthology was also reprinted in an abridged paperback edition containing seven of the stories by Berkley Books in April, 1959. Only the original edition included the introduction and the essays.
Supernovae, extremely powerful explosions of stars, have been featured in works of fiction since at least the early 1900s. The idea that the Sun could explode in this manner has served as the basis for many stories about disaster striking Earth, though it is now recognized that this cannot actually happen. Recurring themes in these stories include anticipating the inevitable destruction while being helpless and evacuating the planet, sometimes with the assistance of helpful aliens. The destruction of Earth in this manner occasionally serves as backstory explaining why humanity has started colonizing the cosmos. Another recurring scenario is radiation from more distant supernovae threatening Earth. Besides humans, alien civilizations are also occasionally subject to the dangers of supernovae. Supernovae are induced intentionally in several works, typically for use as weapons but sometimes for more peaceful purposes, and naturally occurring supernovae are likewise exploited in some stories.
Comets have appeared in works of fiction since at least the 1830s. They primarily appear in science fiction as literal objects, but also make occasional symbolical appearances in other genres. In keeping with their traditional cultural associations as omens, they often threaten destruction to Earth. This commonly comes in the form of looming impact events, and occasionally through more novel means such as affecting Earth's atmosphere in different ways. In other stories, humans seek out and visit comets for purposes of research or resource extraction. Comets are inhabited by various forms of life ranging from microbes to vampires in different depictions, and are themselves living beings in some stories.
Fancies and Goodnights is a collection of fantasies and murder stories by John Collier, first published by Doubleday Books in hardcover in 1951. A paperback edition followed from Bantam Books in 1953, and it has been repeatedly reprinted over more than five decades, most recently in the New York Review Books Classics line, with an introduction by Ray Bradbury. A truncated British edition, omitting roughly one-quarter of the stories, was published under the title Of Demons and Darkness.
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it features technological and social advancements in faster-than-light travel, futuristic weapons, and sophisticated technology, on a backdrop of galactic empires and interstellar wars with fictional aliens, often in fictional galaxies. The term does not refer to opera music, but instead originally referred to the melodrama, scope, and formulaic stories of operas, much as used in "horse opera", a 1930s phrase for a clichéd and formulaic Western film, and "soap opera", a melodramatic domestic drama. Space operas emerged in the 1930s and continue to be produced in literature, film, comics, television, video games and board games.
The Great Prince Shan is a 1924 British silent drama film directed by A.E. Coleby and featuring Sessue Hayakawa, Ivy Duke, Tsuru Aoki, Valia, David Hawthorne, Fred Raynham and Henry Vibart in important roles. The film is adapted from the 1922 novel of the same title by E. Phillips Oppenheim. It was made at Cricklewood Studios by Stoll Pictures, the largest British production company of the era. Location shooting took place on the French Riviera. It was one of two films former Hollywood star Hayakawa made for Stoll along with Sen Yan's Devotion released later the same year.
A Lost Leader is a 1906 politically-themed novel by British writer E. Phillips Oppenheim. Later better known for his thrillers, it was one of several novels Oppenheim wrote at the time centred on "social political life". In it, a potential Liberal Party politician, Lawrence Mannering, is lured back from his country estate to London to revive the party's fortunes.
Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo is a 1915 spy novel by the British writer E. Phillips Oppenheim. The action takes place in Monaco, a favourite setting in the author's novels. Oppenheim was a pioneer of the modern spy genre, often giving his works a glamorous international setting. Although published in 1915, it was likely to have been written in 1914.
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