A Princess of Mars

Infobox Book
name = A Princess of Mars
title_orig = Under the Moons of Mars
translator =


image_caption = dust-jacket of "A Princess of Mars"
author = Edgar Rice Burroughs
illustrator = Frank E. Schoonover
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Barsoom
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = A. C. McClurg
release_date = 1917
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = xii, 326 pp
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
followed_by = The Gods of Mars

"A Princess of Mars" is an Edgar Rice Burroughs science fiction novel, the first of his famous "Barsoom" series. It is also Burroughs' first novel, predating his Tarzan stories. He wrote it between July and September 28, 1911, going through four working titles; initially, he was going to call it "My First Adventure on Mars", then "The Green Martians", "Dejah Thoris, Martian Princess", and finally "Under the Moons of Mars".

The finished story was first published under the last of these titles in "All-Story" as a six-part serial in the issues for February-July 1912. For the serial publication, the author's name was given as "Norman Bean"; Burroughs had chosen the pseudonym of "Normal Bean" as a type of pun stressing that he was in his right mind, being concerned he might suffer ridicule for writing such a fantastic story. The effect was spoiled when a typesetter changed "Normal" to "Norman" on the assumption that the former was a typographical error. The story was later published as a complete novel under the present title by A. C. McClurg in October 1917.

Full of swordplay and daring feats, the story is considered a classic example of 20th century pulp fiction.

Plot summary

John Carter, an American Civil War veteran, goes prospecting in Arizona and, when set upon by Indians, is mysteriously transported to Mars, called "Barsoom" by its inhabitants. Carter finds that he has great strength on this planet, due to its lesser gravity. Carter soon falls in among the Tharks, a nomadic tribe of the planet's warlike, four-armed, green inhabitants. Thanks to his strength and combat abilities he rises in position in the tribe and earns the respect eventually the friendship of Tars Tarkas one of the Thark chiefs.

The Tharks subsequently capture Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, a member of the humanoid red Martian race. The red Martians inhabit a loose network of city states and control the desert planet's canals, along which its agriculture is concentrated. Carter rescues her from the green men to return her to her people.

Except for some jewelry and harness for weaponry, all of the planet's races seem to eschew clothing. Burroughs describes Dejah Thoris thus:

:And the sight which met my eyes was that of a slender, girlish figure, similar in every detail to the earthly women of my past life....Her face was oval and beautiful in the extreme, her every feature was finely chiseled and exquisite, her eyes large and lustrous and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair, caught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure. Her skin was of a light reddish copper color, against which the crimson glow of her cheeks and the ruby of her beautifully molded lips shone with a strangely enhancing effect.

:She was as destitute of clothes as the green Martians who accompanied her; indeed, save for her highly wrought ornaments she was entirely naked, nor could any apparel have enhanced the beauty of her perfect and symmetrical figure.

Subsequently Carter becomes embroiled in the political affairs of both the red and green men in his efforts to safeguard his princess, eventually leading a horde of Tharks against the city-state of Zodanga (the historic enemy of Helium). Winning Dejah Thoris' hand, he becomes Prince of Helium, and the two settle down happily until a failure at the Atmosphere Plant which sustains the planet's waning air supply endangers all of Barsoom. In a last-ditch attempt to stave off doom, Carter seemingly sacrifices his own life in restoring the facility to functionality.

He awakens back on Earth, left to wonder what has become of his family and adopted world.

Legacy and Antecedents

This book and its series are noted as early inspiration by many later science fiction authors and scientists, including Robert A. Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, and Carl Sagan. Burroughs' "Barsoom" novels have been cited as a model for H. P. Lovecraft's "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath". [Robert M. Price, "Randolph Carter, Warlord of Mars", "Black Forbidden Things", pp. 66-68.]

Alexei Tolstoy's novel "Aelita" (1922) also presents a princess of Mars, but has a Leninist point of view.

It is possible, as Richard A. Lupoff argues in the book ', that Burroughs took some inspiration from the earlier novel ', which also featured an American military man transported to Mars.

Copyright

The copyright for this story has expired in the United States and, thus, now resides in the public domain there. The text is available via Project Gutenberg.

Feature film

A full-length feature film of this story has been attempted and aborted many times. Currently, a feature project is in production. The feature film version of the story was originally called "A Princess of Mars", but was renamed "John Carter of Mars" during pre-production. Originally due in 2006, Jon Favreau ("Zathura", "Elf") was slated to direct, while Harry Knowles of "Ain't It Cool News" was supposed to be producing. However, the latest news is that the film will be produced by Disney/Pixar combining live action and animation. This would put the film's arrival out to some time after the 2010 delivery of "Toy Story 3".

Notes

References

*cite book | last=Bleiler | first=Everett | authorlink=Everett F. Bleiler | title=The Checklist of Fantastic Literature | location=Chicago | publisher=Shasta Publishers | pages=67 | date=1948

External links

* [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/62 Text of the novel at Project Gutenberg]
* [http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/pmars-table.html Hypertext version of Project Gutenberg text of "A Princess of Mars"]
* [http://librivox.org/a-princess-of-mars-by-edgar-rice-burroughs/ Audio recording] of the novel's text at LibriVox
* [http://www.erblist.com/erblist/pomsummary.html Edgar Rice Burroughs Summary Project page for "A Princess of Mars"]