8 /10 1 Votes
Language English Media type Print (Hardback) Followed by People of the Darkness Publisher Hutchinson | 4/5 Goodreads Publication date 1923 Pages 288 pp Originally published 1923 Genre Fantasy literature Country United Kingdom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar Robin Hood: A Classic Ill, With the Royal Army Medical, A King There Was‑‑, With the Scottish Regiment, A history of aeronautics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fields of Sleep is a fantasy novel by E. C. Vivian. It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1923 by Hutchinson. In the United States, the novel first appeared in the magazine Famous Fantastic Mysteries under the title The Valley of Silent Men. An edition with illustrations by Thomas Canty was published by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in 1980. A sequel, People of the Darkness, appeared in 1924. An omnibus edition of the two volumes was published by Arno Press as Aia in 1978.
Plot introduction
The novel concerns English adventurer Victor Marshall who is hired to find a fellow Englishman who is lost in Asiatic Sapelung. Marshall discovers a hidden valley and is imprisoned by its inhabitants who are descended from ancient Chaldean colonists. The inhabitants are dependent on a narcotic flower whose fragrance produces ecstasy. Marshall finds his countryman living among the inhabitants. After a flood, the flowers are destroyed and without it, the inhabitants including Marshall's countryman perish. Not dependent on the flower, Marshall survives.