The Nightmare

The Nightmare, serialised in 1917, is Francis Stevens's first novel. When Roland Jones is cast ashore on a mysterious island, he encounters beings that seem drawn from classical myth — but whose true nature proves more disturbing than any legend. Stevens uses the lost-world framework to explore themes of evolution, consciousness, and the boundaries of the human, writing with a vividness and philosophical ambition unusual for popular fiction of the period. The novel established her as a distinctive new voice in American fantastic fiction and anticipates the cosmic scope of later weird fiction.