First published in 1919, "The Moon Pool" embodies all the romanticism and poetic nostalgia characteristic of Abraham Merritt's writings and has become one of the most gripping fantasies ever written.<br /><br />Set on the island of Ponape, full of ruins from ancient civilizations, the novel chronicles the adventures of a party of explorers who discover a previously unknown underground world full of strange peoples and super-scientific wonders. From the depths of this world, the party unwittingly unleashes the Dweller, a monstrous terror that threatens the islands of the South Pacific. <br />The protagonist, Dr. Goodwin, would later appear in Merritt's second novel "The Metal Monster", originally published in 1920.<br /><br />Although Merritt did not invent the lost world novel, following in the footsteps of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Burroughs and others, he greatly elaborated upon that tradition.