Gertrude Barrows Bennett Livres

Long before The Hunger Games… Before even Philip K. Dick or H.P. Lovecraft… This 1919 pulp classic explored a nightmarish alternative reality where America’s ruling class forces the poor to compete in deadly games. Win, and you’ll earn a lifetime of fame and luxury. But the games are rigged, and a public execution awaits all who dare to try. When a seventeen-year-old girl from our own world follows her adventurous brother and his friend, a disgraced lawyer-turned-thief, across a shadowy hell dimension and into this horrific new reality, their only hope for survival is to win the unwinnable contest. “A fast-paced, imaginative yarn” (Kirkus Reviews) by the woman who “arguably invented dark fantasy” (Publishers Weekly), The Heads of Cerberus helped define and popularize dystopian fiction as a genre and is the first science-fiction novel to explore parallel worlds.

The story is set on an island separated from the rest of the world, on which evolution has taken a different course. "The Nightmare" resembles Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Land That Time Forgot, which was published a year later. While Bennett had submitted "The Nightmare" under her own name, she had asked to use a pseudonym, Jean Vail, if it was published. The magazine's editor instead chose to use Francis Stevens, which she stuck to for rest of her writings as well. Excerpt: "I never met a burglar, but if I ever should it would be embarrassing to point a pistol at him and not be able to fire it off. I admire the heroes of burglar stories. They're always such efficient people."

The story follows Dr. John Vanaman, who is summoned to aid Jesse J. Robinson, a wealthy industrialist gravely ill after a burglary attempt. The thief sought Robinson's mysterious green box, inscribed with an unknown language, which propels Vanaman and Robinson's brave niece, Leilah, into a perilous journey exploring the box's ancient and sinister origins. Celebrated as a significant work by Gertrude Barrows Bennett, the narrative blends fantasy, philosophy, and horror, highlighting her as a pioneering female voice in the genre.