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He is a writer very well known in the modern world due to the stories of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend Watson. But Arthur Conan Doyle left also a legacy of writings exploring possibilities of adventure and discovery fiction.
One of these works is The Lost World (O Mundo Perdido – Portuguese version) , already commented in one of livrosefilmes’ articles.
Another story is The Maracot Deep (A Cidade Submarina – the underwater city – in Portuguese) written between 1927 and 1928, and it describes the adventures of professor Maracot with his companions, the young man Cyrus Headley and the mechanic Bill Scanlan.
In this book, in a situation remembering the climate of more known stories, as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Vinte Mil Léguas Submarinas- in Portuguese) and Journey to the Center of the Earth (Viagem ao Centro da Terra – in Portuguese), by Julio Verne, Conan Doyle takes the reader to an encounter with a civilization considered lost and that is a subject of fiction and non fiction books.
In a research mission about the ocean depths, professor Maracot and his friends are victims of an accident while inside the revolutionary device created by the professor. The accident gets them to the bottom of a part of the ocean in a considerable depth.
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The air inside the device is quickly consumed, and while they are waiting death to take them, they are rescued by men who live in the depths and area conducted to a city where these men abide.
They discover a civilization of many centuries and they stay there for some time, learning the costumes and meeting strange animals never seen by common surface people.
In this story of fantastic fiction, Conan Doyle also demonstrates his capacity of diversification in his writings. Also, this story demonstrates his tendency to the spiritualist faith, for which he became also know due to his efforts to propagate such belief.
The tale deserves to be read by the lovers of Conan Doyle’s narrative The Lost World (O Mundo Perdido – in Portuguese).
The stile of this tale is similar, but not equal. The Lost World (O Mundo Perdido – in Portuguese) is more elaborated in many aspects. The Maracot Deep (A Cidade Submarina – in Portuguese), though, do not lose charm for its simple narrative that flows easily.
The title in English – The Maracot Deep cites the discovery of the protagonist – the motivator of the story. The narrator is the young man Cyrus.
It is a simple tale, and the reader must not require much of it related to scientific approach, but for lovers of fiction classic stories, in the stile of Julio Verne, H.G.Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs, it can be interesting.
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