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the unknown
A curated path through fragments connected by a shared motif, atmosphere, or recurring literary concern.
2026-04-01
“In a moment I was clutched by several hands, and there was no mistaking that they were trying to haul me back. I struck another light, and waved it in their dazzled faces. You can scarce imagine how nauseatingly inhuman they looked—those pale, chinless faces ...
2026-03-31
Van Helsing and I looked at each other, and as we moved away he said: “We can attend to them later.” Then we ascended to Lucy’s room. For an instant or two we paused at the door to listen, but there was no sound that we could hear. With white faces and trembli...
2026-03-29
My wife stood in the light of the doorway, and watched me until I jumped up into the dog cart. Then abruptly she turned and went in, leaving my cousins side by side wishing me good hap. I was a little depressed at first with the contagion of my wife’s fears, b...
2026-03-18
Are you not thinking of getting back to the surface of our beautiful earth?" This was said more as a feeler than with any hope of success. "Go back, nephew," cried my uncle in a tone of alarm, "you are not surely thinking of anything so absurd or cowardly.
2026-03-04
We moved to explore the house, all keeping together in case of attack; for we knew we had a strong and wily enemy to deal with, and as yet we did not know whether the Count might not be in the house. In the dining-room, which lay at the back of the hall, we fo...
2026-02-10
I felt them put an iron-pointed stick into my hand, and some minutes later, after going through the usual form, we set foot on the bottom of the Atlantic at a depth of 150 fathoms. The waters were profoundly dark, but Captain Nemo pointed out in the distance a...
2026-01-28
We are about to pay a visit to the very bottom of the crater. Others have done it and did not perish from that course. "That, however, is not the whole matter to be considered.
2026-01-24
It swam crossways in the direction of the _Nautilus_ with great speed, watching us with its enormous staring green eyes. Its eight arms, or rather feet, fixed to its head, that have given the name of cephalopod to these animals, were twice as long as its body,...
2026-01-08
We had attained a depth of 16,000 yards (four leagues), and the sides of the _Nautilus_ then bore a pressure of 1,600 atmospheres, that is to say, 3,200 lbs. to each square two-fifths of an inch of its surface. “To overrun these deep regions where man has neve...
2026-01-05
What would become of us?" "Don't be alarmed at the heat, my boy." "How so?" "Neither you nor anybody else know anything about the real state of the earth's interior. All modern experiments tend to explode the older theories.
2026-01-03
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2026-01-03
They were huge round bodies—or, rather, heads—about four feet in diameter, each body having in front of it a face. This face had no nostrils—indeed, the Martians do not seem to have had any sense of smell, but it had a pair of very large dark-coloured eyes, an...
2026-01-03
Just then a bubbling began at the back of this strange thing (which was evidently propelled by a screw), and it began to move. We had only just time to seize hold of the upper part, which rose about seven feet out of the water, and happily its speed was not gr...
2026-01-03
Mate getting very impatient with them; feared some trouble ahead. * * * * * On 17 July, yesterday, one of the men, Olgaren, came to my cabin, and in an awestruck way confided to me that he thought there was a strange man aboard the ship.
2025-12-13
Something was moving to and fro there, very quietly; every now and then it tapped against the wall, or started on its movements with a faint metallic ringing, like the movements of keys on a split-ring. Then a heavy body—I knew too well what—was dragged across...