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Originally Posted by HarryT
I really don't think that "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" counts as a "Lost Civilization" story; do you? The explorers encounter dinosaurs (in fact, it's the first novel to describe them!) but there are no people involved other than the explorers themselves. It's a "lost world" novel, but not a "lost civilization" one.
The legend of Atlantis comes, of course, from Plato's unfinished dialog, the "Critias", written in the 4th century BC, but again it's not a "novel".
Can you suggest any writer earlier than Haggard who wrote an honest-to-goodness "Lost Civilization" novel?
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No, I can't! But, you know, what's the difference btw. lost world and lost civilization? Presence of 'humanoids' in the story? Or humanoid's participation in the plot? General idea is that good guys go to some hidden places and see exotic things. What about Kin Kong? The island where he lived, was lost world or lost civilization? They were some locals I believe, but can we call them representatives of civilization? Giant chimp were more human then they were. The line is way to thin.
In 1924 Russian scientist Obruchev wrote his lost civilization novel - The Land of Sannikov. An expedition found a prosperous island in Arctic Ocean off the Siberia cost, and there we have bloody struggle of two civilizatios - Scientific/Soviet and prehistoric one. Then volcano eruption destroys everything. No winners.
