The Coming Race

Far beneath a mine, a road shines under evenly spaced lamps, and the traveler hears voices rising from a hidden world. Who—or what—has built a city in the depths of the earth?

In Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s 1871 novel, an American wanderer follows an engineer into the shadowy galleries of a mine, where a newly opened chasm reveals a silvery glow, a vast underground valley and a building lit from within. Curiosity draws the traveler down, but the way back proves perilous, and the strange inhabitants of this subterranean realm may be the least of his dangers. Alone beneath the earth, he must discover what lies beyond the lamps—and whether he can ever return to the world above.

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.