Adrift in the Unknown; or, Queer Adventures in a Queer Realm

The narrator, a reformed burglar turned writer, recounts the disappearance of an eccentric inventor and his projectile-shaped steel house, which vanish along with several powerful financiers. Transported to a strange planet inhabited by mercurial beings, the group is catalogued and confronted with baffling customs, linguistic devices, and political dangers that include a death sentence and schemes to seize buildings. Resourcefulness, physical daring, and cunning are employed to survive trials, outwit a monarch, and survey the alien world before a return to Earth. The tale mixes brisk adventure, speculative invention, and satirical attention to social and economic power.