Vril, the Power of the Coming Race

VRIL follows a young Englishman (the narrator), who accidentally finds his way into a subterranean world occupied by beings called the Vril-ya.  He discovers that the Vril-ya are descendants of an antediluvian civilisation who live in networks of subterranean caverns, where they make use of an "all-permeating fluid" called "Vril", a source of tremendous power.  The Vril-ya seem to be expanding, and they are running out of space under the ground. 

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) was an English politician, poet, playwright, and successful novelist.  In a career spanning more than forty years he wrote a stream of novels which were read widely in the English-speaking world.  He coined the phrases "the great unwashed," "pursuit of the almighty dollar," "the pen is mightier than the sword," and the famous opening line from PAUL CLIFFORD, "It was a dark and stormy night."