The Coming Race

<p>Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s book is ostensibly a work of science fiction.  It deals with an underground race of advanced beings masters of <em>vril</em> energy – a strange power that can both heal and destroy – who intend to leave their subterranean existence and conquer the world.  But the book has been seen by many as a barely concealed account of hidden  wisdom a theory that has attracted many strange bed-fellows including the French author Louis Jacolliot the Polish explorer Ferdinand Ossendowski and Adolf Hitler.</p>