Babylon Electrified, The History of an Expedition Undertaken to Restore Ancient Babylon by the Power of Electricity and How It Resulted

Philadelphia: Gebbie & Co, 1889. Hardcover. Very Good. First edition in English. 304 pp + 16 (publisher's ads), with map frontispiece, illustrations. Pictorional cloth boards have some light staiing, lower corners bumped; contents clean, binding tight. Originally published as La Babylone Electrique (1888), translated from the French by Frank Linstow White. Illustrated by Montader. Bleiler (228) describes this as a "geographical novel in the manner of Jules Verne, with elements of science fiction." The plot involves an attempt to establish a new cit-- powered entirely by electricity via hydroelectic works and wind and solar stations--at the site of ancient Babylon. A contemporary review (in The Critic, Vol. 11) states that "the purpose of the author is to display in a romance of travel and excavation the wonders of applied electricity," and opines that "this thoroughly French book is full of points that are scientific, witty, amusing, and informing. It is in the vein of Jules Verne, but has a little more regard for the possibilities within the range of contemporaneous science. (Inventory #: 2592)