This edition includes the following editor's introduction: Robert William Chambers, a successful, influential and chameleonic writer
American writer Robert W. Chambers is best known for his book “The King in Yellow,” a collection of short stories mostly of the macabre horror variety. His book “In Search of the Unknown,” published in 1904, shows a more light hearted side to Chambers. This work is ostensibly a novel, but it reads more like a collection of short stories that have been cobbled together into one continuous narrative. They are linked by a frame narrative (the protagonist is sent to help secure an odd creature) and similar structure (the protagonist falls in love and fails to win the heart of the source of his infatuation).
Chambers' early novel explores the mysteries of the unknown. Throughout the stories, the book's protagonist and narrator, Mr. Gilland, will go on the hunt for strange animals and the supernatural.
“In Search of the Unknown” is science fiction in the most literal sense, in that it’s not about speculative visions of outer space or the future, but rather about a scientist and the practice of science.
