Cover

Intro Blurb

THE FIRST AMERICAN PUBLICATION OF

THE SERPENT by Jane Gaskell

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One of the most astonishing fantasy novels of our

time—a work to rank with Tolkien’s THE LORD

OF THE RINGS and Eddison’s THE WORM

OUROBOUROS.

Set in the legendary beginnings of time, THE SER-

PENT tells the story of Cija, Princess of Atlantis,

who has been raised in complete seclusion, believ-

ing herself a goddess. Suddenly she is thrust into

the world on an incredible mission. She must

marry and slay the powerful general threatening

her kingdom—the strange, brutal half-human

Zerd, also known as The Serpent.

Crammed with lust, violence, intrigue, set against

the barbaric splendor of the world of sword and

sorcery, THE SERPENT is a gripping fantasy no

one will ever forget.

Title

Copyright

PAPERBACK LIBRARY EDITION

First Printing: June, 1968

Copyright © 1966 by Jane Gaskell

The characters in this book are entirely imaginary and bear no relation to any living person.

This Paperback Library Edition is published by arrangement with Hodder and Stoughton Limited.

Paperback Library books Ore published by Paperback Library, Inc.

Its trademark, consisting of the words “Paperback Library’’ ac-

companied by an open book, is registered in the United States

Patent Office. Paperback Library, Inc., 315 Park Avenue South,

New York, N.Y. 10010.

FOREWORD

I’ve translated this as nearly as I can not only into the language of our country, but into the language of our day; for the Diarist herself used a great deal of then-colloquial slang, even in the earliest parts of her book, which leads us to suppose either that she picked it up from her mother’s servants on the rare occasions that she met them, or that her nurses were not quite so abysmally strict as she came, in her adolescence, to believe. It will be noted how this style leaves her as her journey forces her out of childhood.

The almost unbelievable age of the Diary is indisputable. Also, most convincingly, its accounts of everyday life at the time of Atlantis almost exactly correspond with legend and the calculations of Atlantis experts. Quite a number of separate details in this book are now known as ancient myths. They are mainly ancient Celtic or South American myths—and Britain is believed to be a remnant of Atlantis, after it had grown ugly in the sight of Heaven and the princess who had found out the secrets of the Great Dikes helped to destroy it.