It is also an interesting parallel to the tripartite title of the novel: ‘Etidorhpa’, the inverse of a goddess’s name, ‘The Ends of the Earth’, a fantastic geographic reference, and ‘The Strange History of a Mysterious Being’, giving readers some expectation of the style of narrative to follow. This trinity of layers provide the text with ample room to editorialise upon certain topics outside the flow of the central story in order to build upon the scientific logic that lures the reader into accepting the narrative’s believability. Where many tales employ a secondary narrator/editor to add distance from the original, rendering unto their character sceptical sanity, and in turn an air of plausibility because they can disown the more dubious aspects of the relation, Etidorhpa utilises a tertiary narrator in the form of Lloyd himself, who offers paratextual essays and footnotes. The framing of Etidorhpa is one of the most complex in the terra cava field, which can leave readers confused as to which narrator they are reading at any given moment. Though not dogmatically religious, Etidorhpa embraces Spiritualism, the pseudo-scientific religion that emerged in the later part of the Nineteenth century as practitioners attempted to use the scientific method to delve into the soul and afterlife.

In truth, Etidorhpa is a mixture of narratives adventurous for the many perils encountered as the narrator descends into the Earth, Spiritualist for its Dante-esque theme while examining the nature of the human spirit, and didactic for its tracts on contemporary scientific theories. An admirable publication history for what David Standish calls ‘easily the weirdest hollow earth novel of all’’ by an author who has been accused of using his own pharmacological stock to influence his writing. Some parents even began to name their daughters ‘Etidorhpa’ (Aphrodite spelt backwards, though Lloyd’s reasoning for this is never given). The tome later went through eighteen editions and was translated into seven languages. When John Uri Lloyd wrote Etidorhpa, or The Ends of the Earth: The Strange History of a Mysterious Being in 1895, it was originally circulated privately only among friends as a source of entertainment.

Etidorhpa book