{"product_id":"2940014504058","title":"The Gods of Mars","description":"FOREWORD\u003cbr\u003eTwelve years had passed since I had laid the body of my great-uncle,\u003cbr\u003eCaptain John Carter, of Virginia, away from the sight of men in that\u003cbr\u003estrange mausoleum in the old cemetery at Richmond.\u003cbr\u003eOften had I pondered on the odd instructions he had left me governing\u003cbr\u003ethe construction of his mighty tomb, and especially those parts which\u003cbr\u003edirected that he be laid in an OPEN casket and that the ponderous\u003cbr\u003emechanism which controlled the bolts of the vault's huge door be\u003cbr\u003eaccessible ONLY FROM THE INSIDE.\u003cbr\u003eTwelve years had passed since I had read the remarkable manuscript of\u003cbr\u003ethis remarkable man; this man who remembered no childhood and who\u003cbr\u003ecould\u003cbr\u003enot even offer a vague guess as to his age; who was always young and\u003cbr\u003eyet who had dandled my grandfather's great-grandfather upon his knee;\u003cbr\u003ethis man who had spent ten years upon the planet Mars; who had fought\u003cbr\u003efor the green men of Barsoom and fought against them; who had fought\u003cbr\u003efor and against the red men and who had won the ever beautiful Dejah\u003cbr\u003eThoris, Princess of Helium, for his wife, and for nearly ten years had\u003cbr\u003ebeen a prince of the house of Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium.\u003cbr\u003eTwelve years had passed since his body had been found upon the bluff\u003cbr\u003ebefore his cottage overlooking the Hudson, and oft-times during these\u003cbr\u003elong years I had wondered if John Carter were really dead, or if he\u003cbr\u003eagain roamed the dead sea bottoms of that dying planet; if he had\u003cbr\u003ereturned to Barsoom to find that he had opened the frowning portals of\u003cbr\u003ethe mighty atmosphere plant in time to save the countless millions who\u003cbr\u003ewere dying of asphyxiation on that far-gone day that had seen him\u003cbr\u003ehurtled ruthlessly through forty-eight million miles of space back to\u003cbr\u003eEarth once more. I had wondered if he had found his black-haired\u003cbr\u003ePrincess and the slender son he had dreamed was with her in the royal\u003cbr\u003egardens of Tardos Mors, awaiting his return.\u003cbr\u003eOr, had he found that he had been too late, and thus gone back to a\u003cbr\u003eliving death upon a dead world? Or was he really dead after all,\u003cbr\u003enever\u003cbr\u003eto return either to his mother Earth or his beloved Mars?\u003cbr\u003eThus was I lost in useless speculation one sultry August evening when\u003cbr\u003ePage 1\u003cbr\u003eThe Gods of Mars\u003cbr\u003eold Ben, my body servant, handed me a telegram. Tearing it open I\u003cbr\u003eread:\u003cbr\u003e'Meet me to-morrow hotel Raleigh Richmond.\u003cbr\u003e'JOHN CARTER'\u003cbr\u003eEarly the next morning I took the first train for Richmond and within\u003cbr\u003etwo hours was being ushered into the room occupied by John Carter.\u003cbr\u003eAs I entered he rose to greet me, his old-time cordial smile of\u003cbr\u003ewelcome\u003cbr\u003elighting his handsome face. Apparently he had not aged a minute, but\u003cbr\u003ewas still the straight, clean-limbed fighting-man of thirty. His keen\u003cbr\u003egrey eyes were undimmed, and the only lines upon his face were the\u003cbr\u003elines of iron character and determination that always had been there\u003cbr\u003esince first I remembered him, nearly thirty-five years before.\u003cbr\u003e'Well, nephew,' he greeted me, 'do you feel as though you were seeing\u003cbr\u003ea\u003cbr\u003eghost, or suffering from the effects of too many of Uncle Ben's\u003cbr\u003ejuleps?'\u003cbr\u003e'Juleps, I reckon,' I replied, 'for I certainly feel mighty good; but\u003cbr\u003emaybe it's just the sight of you again that affects me. You have been\u003cbr\u003eback to Mars? Tell me. And Dejah Thoris? You found her well and\u003cbr\u003eawaiting you?'\u003cbr\u003e'Yes, I have been to Barsoom again, and--but it's a long story, too\u003cbr\u003elong to tell in the limited time I have before I must return. I have\u003cbr\u003elearned the secret, nephew, and I may traverse the trackless void at\u003cbr\u003emy\u003cbr\u003ewill, coming and going between the countless planets as I list; but my\u003cbr\u003eheart is always in Barsoom, and while it is there in the keeping of my\u003cbr\u003eMartian Princess, I doubt that I shall ever again leave the dying\u003cbr\u003eworld\u003cbr\u003ethat is my life.\u003cbr\u003e'I have come now because my affection for you prompted me to see you\u003cbr\u003eonce more before you pass over for ever into that other life that I\u003cbr\u003eshall never know, and which though I have died thrice and shall die\u003cbr\u003eagain to-night, as you know death, I am as unable to fathom as are\u003cbr\u003eyou.\u003cbr\u003e'Even the wise and mysterious therns of Barsoom, that ancient cult\u003cbr\u003ewhich for countless ages has been credited with holding the secret of\u003cbr\u003elife and death in their impregnable fastnesses upon the hither slopes\u003cbr\u003eof the Mountains of Otz, are as ignorant as we. I have proved it,\u003cbr\u003ethough I near lost my life in the doing of it; but you shall read it\u003cbr\u003eall in the notes I have been making during the last three months that\u003cbr\u003e...","brand":"All classic book warehouse","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070657347824,"sku":"2940014504058","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014504058_p0.jpg?v=1763610083","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014504058","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}