By the World Forgot

By the World Forgot is a romantic adventure novel by Cyrus Townsend Brady, published around 1915. Brady, who lived from 1861 to 1920, was one of the most prolific American writers of his generation, producing more than seventy books that ranged across historical fiction, frontier adventure, religious writing, and contemporary romance. By the World Forgot belongs to his more romantic strand of fiction rather than to his historical adventure novels.

The novel uses one of the standard plot devices of early twentieth century popular romance fiction. Two characters are stranded together on a remote island, far from the conventional pressures of civilized society, and the slow development of their relationship under these unusual circumstances becomes the central drama of the book. The premise allowed writers like Brady to explore the conventions of romantic attachment with a particular intensity, since the characters are removed from the family expectations, social rivalries, and class considerations that normally complicate the development of such relationships in conventional society.

The story works through the various stages of the island situation. There is the initial shipwreck or other circumstance that strands the characters together. There is the practical struggle for survival and the establishment of a working partnership for the basic tasks of food, shelter, and safety. There is the slow development of personal knowledge between the two characters as the artificial barriers of social convention give way to the realities of shared dependence. There is eventually some resolution, whether through rescue and return to society or through a more permanent settling on the island, that resolves the question of what kind of life the characters will ultimately live together.

Brady’s treatment of the standard premise combines adventure plot with the moralizing tone characteristic of his clerical background. The romantic relationship that develops on the island is presented with the kind of careful regard for propriety that the popular fiction of the period generally required, and the moral character of the central figures is developed alongside the romantic interest. The book is essentially a piece of romantic escapism with a serious moral undercurrent.

The book is of moderate length and reads well as a single weekend project. For readers interested in early twentieth century American popular romance with adventure elements, this is a representative example. It pairs naturally with the other island romance fiction of the period.