Publisher's Synopsis
Fitzgerald wrote the short story -actually a novella- for his own experimentation with writing fantasies. As it turned out, this genre not as popular as realistic fiction. Nevertheless, part from the extreme extravagances -which defy the suspension of disbelief- Fitzgerald's style is quite obvious. John Unger, the protagonist of the story, comes from a town called Hades, which in Greek mythology refers to the realm of the dead. For young Unger, the story turns into a round-trip ticket: from Hades, to pseudo-glory, and back to Hades. Much like Ulysses, Tiresias (the old Greek seer), Orpheus, Aeneas, and a few other heroes, he escapes from Hell. Fitzgerald's experimentation takes him from Hades, to Utopia, to Eden: arguably not out of place, readers will find an allusion to the fall of man: "His was a great sin who first invented consciousness."
