Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of James De Mille

In Short

This volume is an exhaustive index and guide to the diverse works of James De Mille, a nineteenth-century novelist whose output ranged from boys' adventure serials and historical romances to pioneering works of science fiction. It documents his varied output, including his famous B.O.W.C. series, tales of ancient Rome, and his masterwork, A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder. By cataloging these titles, the book preserves the legacy of an author who balanced rigorous research, historical detail, and a flair for the fantastic, ensuring his unique voice remains accessible.

The Story

The bibliography outlines a literary career that moves between the grounded and the supernatural. It begins with the B.O.W.C. series, which follows a group of schoolboys in the Canadian Maritimes through a six-volume arc of misadventure. These boys—brimming with youthful energy—navigate foggy coasts, survive fires in the woods, and hunt for hidden pirate treasure, their growth defined by the trials of the wilderness and the eccentric leadership of Captain Corbet. This domestic, adventurous world contrasts sharply with De Mille’s historical works, such as The Martyr of the Catacombs, which transports the reader to the gravity of ancient Rome, focusing on the spiritual and physical struggle of early Christians facing the power of the Coliseum and the Praetorian Guard.

The narrative scope broadens further with his travelogues, such as The Dodge Club and A Castle in Spain. Here, the tone shifts into a picaresque mode, where groups of travelers—often Americans abroad—find themselves caught in comedic and perilous entanglements with landlords, brigands, and Spanish monarchs. These stories are defined by their episodic structure, where the characters stumble into absurd traps only to rely on their wits and their camaraderie to escape.

Finally, the arc of De Mille’s work culminates in his most ambitious project, A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder. This story begins with a discovery in the Antarctic, leading the protagonist into a subterranean world of fire and desolation. Within this hidden civilization, the narrator encounters the Kosekin, a society whose values are the inverse of his own, prioritizing darkness and death over life and light. The story tracks his survival, his forced integration into their culture, his relationship with the maiden Layelah, and his eventual, Icarus-like fall back toward the sea. The bibliography reveals an author who moved from the local, schoolboy humor of Nova Scotia to the philosophical depths of an inverted utopia, concluding his career with a profound meditation on the relativity of human values.

How It Unfolds

The schoolyard initiation begins with the formation of the "B.O.W.C." club, where the boys establish their history and mysterious doings. Their adventures quickly transition from playful processions to life-threatening escapades in the foggy Minas Basin.

The shift toward discovery occurs as the boys move from simple schoolboy pranks to genuine exploration. They build shelters in the wilderness, endure the loss of friends, and eventually find themselves caught in the search for the treasure of the seas.

The travel and peril cycle defines the middle period of the bibliography, marked by the movements of the Dodge Club through Italy and the captives in A Castle in Spain. The structure relies on constant interruptions—sudden railway stops, kidnappings, and masquerades—that prevent the characters from ever finding rest.

The descent into the unknown marks the transition to the author’s most complex work, starting with the finding of a copper cylinder. The narrative follows a scientific skeptic who is pulled into a subterranean world, where he must navigate the rigid, alien laws of the Kosekin.

The final confrontation occurs within the "Amir" and the cavernous realms of the Kosekin, where the narrator faces his own mortality. The cycle concludes not with a simple return home, but with the narrator's dramatic escape and eventual fall into the sea, ending his account as abruptly as it began.

The People

The characters in these works are defined by their reactions to extraordinary circumstances. Captain Corbet acts as a central, erratic pillar for the schoolboys, constantly oscillating between incompetence and a desperate, guiding wisdom. He is a man who thrives on the chaos of the coast. The boys of the B.O.W.C., including Bart and Bruce, grow from children obsessed with "secret clubs" into hardened young explorers who learn to value survival over their initial quest for gold.

In the travelogues, the characters are archetypes of their era, such as the Senator in The Dodge Club, who represents a blustering but ultimately resilient American spirit. He wants only to observe and experience the Old World, yet he is constantly waylaid by the very European systems he seeks to understand. Russell and Harry in A Castle in Spain serve as foils, their romantic and tactical decisions driving the plot as they negotiate for their lives against their captors. Finally, in the Antarctic manuscript, the narrator—a man of science—is forced to confront the limits of his own worldview when he encounters the Kosekin. Through his relationship with Layelah, he learns that what he perceives as horror is, to her culture, the highest form of virtue, a shift that leaves him permanently changed.

In Its Own Voice

"The 'B. O. W. C.,' with their History, Mystery, and Wonderful Doings; and how an aged African became elevated to the Dignity of 'Grand Panjandrum.'"

This chapter title introduces the boys' club and their penchant for creating elaborate titles for their schoolyard hierarchy.

"A world of fire and desolation."

This phrase describes the harsh, subterranean landscape the narrator enters after drifting into the Antarctic regions.

"The Kosekin, belief and unbelief."

This chapter heading highlights the central conflict the narrator faces while trying to reconcile his own logic with the strange faith of the people he discovers.

What It's Really About

At its core, this body of work explores the instability of human perspective. Whether through the boys’ evolving understanding of their own world or the narrator’s encounter with the Kosekin, the writing consistently challenges the idea that any single moral or cultural system is absolute. De Mille uses the tension between the familiar and the foreign to ask whether our values are innate or merely products of our environment. The recurring theme of the "money-hole" or "treasure" suggests a human obsession with uncovering hidden truths, though these treasures often prove elusive or dangerous. Ultimately, the work questions the reliability of the storyteller and the scientist alike, suggesting that the search for truth is as fraught with fog and fire as the physical journeys the characters undertake.

Why Read It Today

Readers who appreciate a blend of Victorian-era intellectual curiosity and the brisk, episodic pace of nineteenth-century adventure will find much to admire here. The bibliography provides a fascinating glimpse into an era of literature that valued both the playfulness of the boys' school story and the high-stakes imagination of speculative fiction. It feels like uncovering a forgotten library, where one moment you are reading about a schoolboy’s struggle to cook a meal on a desert island, and the next, you are confronting a society that finds beauty in darkness.

One must be prepared for the realities of the period; the prose reflects the nineteenth-century fascination with dialect and occasional period attitudes that may feel dated or difficult to a modern reader. However, the energy of the writing often overrides these barriers. What stays with the reader is the sheer breadth of the author's curiosity. For those interested in the roots of Canadian literature or the development of the "lost world" genre, these works provide a necessary and enriching context. It is a rewarding experience to trace the path from the simple, muddy banks of the Gaspereau to the subterranean, fire-lit halls of the Kosekin, discovering a voice that remains uniquely persistent through time.