The End of Illa () is a novella by the French writer José Moselli, published in 1925.
The novel begins with marines discovering a manuscript on a Pacific atoll, which reveals the existence of an advanced civilization that no longer exists today. The narrator, the military chief Xié, recounts the last days of the city of Illa when the city, led by its dictator Rair, went to war against the neighboring city Nour.
Classified as scientific marvel and utopian literature, this novel reinterprets the myth of Atlantis. José Moselli addresses themes of technological advance and its social consequences. In effect, the installation of a dictatorship and the moral decadence that accompanies scientific progress lead progressively to the self-destruction of the brilliant civilization of Illa.
The story, published initially in serial form in the magazine Sciences and Voyages between January 29 and July 9, 1925, is illustrated by the artist André Galland. The novel was republished numerous times in France during the second half of the 20th century, but was not translated into English until the 21st century.
Background
After a career in the merchant marine, José Moselli met in 1910 one of the Offenstadt brothers, who suggested writing an adventure novel. Their collaboration proved fruitful, and José Moselli rapidly became a leading author for the Offenstadt brothers.
During his literary career, Moselli wrote nearly a hundred episodic novels for magazines published by Offenstadt, like The Splendid, The Intrepid, The Little Illustrated, or Cry-Cry. Thus, when the two brothers launched the magazine Sciences and Voyages on September 4, 1919, they asked him for short writings belonging to the fantastic subgenre. José Moselli therefore started the publication of Ice Prison (1919–1920) in the first edition of the magazine; for many years afterward, he furnished the magazine with The "Phi" Ray (1921), The Conquerors of the Abyss (1922), or in its annual supplement (The Scientific Almanach) with The Eternal Voyage or the Prospectors of Infinity (1923) and The Messenger from the Planet (1924).
At the time The End of Illa was published, the Offenstadt brothers were launching a defamation lawsuit against the abbot Calippe, who had categorized Sciences and Voyages as dangerous for youth in his newspaper. This court case was one of many undertaken by the Offenstadts with the goal of preserving the youth market of Sciences and Voyages. As with the previous lawsuits, on May 27, 1924, the Amiens court rejected the lawsuit on the basis that the novels and articles the magazine published had nothing scientific about them, and could consequently have a pernicious effect on the imagination and intelligence of children. Science fiction essayist Jacques Van Herp believed this court case may have led Moselli to self-censor and reduce the scope of the described inventions in the novel.
Science fiction writings represented only a part of Moselli's work; he wrote mostly adventure novels. Nevertheless, between 1919 and 1929, he published ten conjectural novels in Sciences and Voyages.
Summary Prologue: Grampus Island
On March 22, 1875, the American whaler Grampus is sailing the Pacific under the command of Captain Ellis when it discovers an unlisted islet. The crew disembarks to find potable water and discover, in the middle of the vestiges of an ancient civilization, a violet stone made of an unknown substance as well as a manuscript written in a mysterious alphabet. Returning to San Francisco, Captain Ellis recounts his discovery, which nobody takes seriously. The manuscript and stone are sold to Doctor Akinson for a meager price.
For 30 years, the doctor works on these two objects to discover their secret, to the point of exhausting all his financial resources. It is not until April 1905 that he finally deciphers the first part of the manuscript. This part recounts the life of a certain Xié, an inhabitant of Illa, an ancient and very technologically advanced city which completely sank into oblivion. The doctor Akinson sends his translated manuscript to a colleague in Washington on May 5, 1905, later reporting the translation of the second part, which contains all the science and novel mathematical formulas discovered by the brilliant civilization of Illa. However, Akinson's servant, persuaded that he was sinking into madness, throws both the manuscript and the violet stone into the fire. The strange stone explodes and destroys a large portion of San Francisco. Meanwhile, the translation arrives at the home of Doctor Isambard Fullen, a Harvard professor. However, the professor dies before ever reading the translation, so it is sold to a bookstore in New York before being finally delivered to readers.
First part: The Blood War The manuscript is authored by Xié, head of Illa's armies, with the goal of explaining the end of Illa to future generations. His story starts with a meeting of the Grand Supreme Council during which the leader of Illa, Rair, informs the audience of his plan to wage war against the neighboring city of Nour. As inventor of the blood machinesBlood machines, invented by Rair, turn the blood of pigs and monkeys into waves, which then nourish the Illian population. Rair now wishes to feed his machines with Nourians instead of animals, which would considerably prolong the life expectancy of Illians.
Disgusted by Rair's projects, Xié goes back home and discovers that his daughter Silmée had just escaped an attempted assassination. After discussing with Toupahou, her fiancé and Rair's grandson, Xié and Toupahou conclude that they must put an end to the actions of Rair, who likely instigated the attack.
Deciding not to compromise with Rair, Xié joins Fangar, head of the air force, to prepare the offensive against the rival city. He learns that Rair chose to use "monkey men", genetically modified individuals who do the most thankless of Illa's jobs, to pilot the flying shells. When he goes back home, his daughter Silmée had disappeared.
After several hours of intolerable waiting, Xié receives a visit by the head of the militia, Grosé, who had come to arrest him for negligence. In fact, during the preparation of the assault against Nour, he had been surprised by Limm, head of Rair's secret police, while he was not performing his arms verification duties. He is imprisoned in a minuscule cell. Well afterwards, when he had lost all sense of time, Xié is secretly freed by Fangar. However, while the two men are escaping on board a flying engine, the machine suddenly stops flying and starts to fall.
Thanks to Fangar's ability, the two men manage to land without damage. After learning that his 7 week detention could not have ended without information from Grosé, Xié rejoins a seditious group opposed to Rair's dictatorship.
Hidden in the stables that house animals destined to feed the blood machines, Xié and Fangar are joined by Grosé and Foug, a member of the Supreme Council, who tells them that the head of electric devices, Ilg, had deserted to Nour, taking a piece of zero-stone with him. The theft of this mineral of extreme destructive potential motivates Rair to try to ally with Xié for the purpose of subjugating the Nourians as quickly as possible. To free his daughter Silmée and protect Illa from an imminent peril, Xie agrees to retake command of the Illian army.
The next day, Xié launches the offensive by sending flying shells guided by monkey men toward Nour. However, warned by Ilg, the king Houno had evacuated the city just before its destruction. In reprisal, Nour's air force approaches Illa, but Xié sends flying shells to meet it. Profiting from the enthusiasm of Illians, who saw the Nourian offensive fail, Rair publicly announces that he had improved the blood machines so that by feeding them the blood of future prisoners of war, they could prolong Illians' life expectancy by one century. He therefore announces his wish to extend the conflict to the neighboring cities of Aslur and Kisor. Although Illa falls asleep in joy, cries and panic soon overtake the streets.
Attacking from under ground by surprise, the Nourians spread asphyxiating gas inside the houses. Disoriented by the disappearance of his daughter and after having just escaped a land torpedo, Xié takes charge of the excavation work to find the Nourians.
Faced with panicked Illians looking to take refuge inside the Grand Pyramid, Rair sends his monkey men to slaughter his fellow citizens, accentuating the panic and the terror. Xié intervenes to neutralize the dictator and subsequently takes command of the city. Thanks to his level headedness, he is able to decimate the Nourian air force using "radioactive vibrations". He could not savor this victory, however, because he is soon overwhelmed by Rair's monkey men, allowing Rair to retake power. Xié is then condemned for attempted assassination of Rair and sent into the mines to work alongside the monkey men.
Second part: The Mines While Xié is tortured, then sent into the metal mines, Rair obtains the complete surrender of the Nourians, who are forced to deliver prisoners of war to feed the blood machines.
While he resigns himself to his new life of labor and violence, Xié manages nevertheless to befriend a monkey man named Ouh. Ouh teaches him the secret language of the slaves and gives him tips for survival. Provided with allies, he then prepares his escape. Xié incites 3000 monkey men to revolt and, after many losses, succeed in taking control of the mine.
After taking control, the insurgents manage to leave the mine by the access wells. Massacring every human on the way, including the militiamen and engineers responsible for the blood machines, Xié and only a dozen monkey men reach the surface of the city.
During his escape, Xié encounters Limm and assassinates him. He then seizes the spy's identification plaque and weapon, in order to pass checkpoints. On the pretext of carrying out an inspection, he flees on board an aircraft and leaves Illa in the direction of Nour. After landing his flying engine, he pursues an individual on foot, who attacks him. Easily neutralizing him, he discovers, stunned, that it is his friend Fangar, who had succeeded in fleeing and hiding in this Nourian region. In agony, Fangar tells Xié just before dying that Silmée and Toupahou are still alive and hiding in Nour.
Arriving in a devastated Nour, Xié steals and kills to meet his needs. He goes to the place indicated by Fangar and falls across the traitor Ilg, who reveals to him where his daughter and her fiancé are. After reuniting with them, Xié sends Toupahou to Illa to negotiate their return with his grandfather Rair. A few days later, learning that her fiancé was executed on arrival, Silmée kills herself. Deciding to take vengeance, Xié goes back to Illa. He discovers a city devastated after the revolt of the monkey men, a revolt which stopped the extraction of the mineral necessary for the blood machines to function well. Xié ends his manuscript in declaring his intention to destroy Illa by causing a zero-stone explosion, and bequeathing his writing to posterity.
The writing concludes on a note by the author, who recounts that when Doctor Akinson's servant threw the manuscript and stone (which was visibly a fragment of zero-stone) into the fire on May 5, 1905, the city of San Francisco was destroyed.An editor's note states that José Moselli is making an allusion to the earthquake suffered by San Francisco on April 18, 1906.
Principal characters
The story is introduced by a long prologue aiming to explain how the author found himself in possession of the manuscript. Said manuscript was discovered by marines, then sold to Professor Akinson, a doctor who would dedicate his entire life to its translation. Managing to decipher the writing, he could not profit from the discovery because he was killed in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.