On the liner bringing him back from New York, Arthur Marcel, a well-off Englishman, meets Herbert Brande, a brilliant scientist who believes the universe is a mistake. Arthur is fascinated by Natalie, the scientist's sister. To stay close to her, he joins the secret society that Brande leads, and discovers that its members communicate by thought. They want to destroy the Earth with the energy locked inside atoms.
Written in 1895, long before the atomic bomb, this strange novel already imagines science becoming a threat to the whole world.
Told in the first person, it is easy to read in the language you are learning.
