The legendary island of Atlantis has often been depicted in literature, television shows, films and works of popular culture.
Fiction
Start of genre fiction Before 1900, there was an overlap between verse epics dealing with the fall of Atlantis and novels with a pretension to fine writing which are now regarded as pioneering genre fiction. Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1869/71) includes a visit to sunken Atlantis aboard Captain Nemo's submarine Nautilus – with protagonists walking for miles over the sea bottom until reaching the impressive sunken ruins, an obvious impossibility (Verne was not aware of water pressure in the ocean deeps).Ch.33, "A Lost Continent" In Elizabeth Birkmaier's Poseidon's Paradise: the Romance of Atlantis (San Francisco 1892), the island sinks following an earthquake.Available online C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne also depicted the end of Atlantis in his fantasy The Lost Continent: The Story of Atlantis, first published in 1899. Its main character, the soldier-priest Deucalion, is unable to prevent the tragic decline of his continent under the rule of the evil queen Phorenice. According to D. Bridgman-Metchim, the author of Atlantis, the Book of the Angels (London 1900), his account is an interpretation of the Book of Genesis covering the events immediately preceding the Flood, as recorded by one of the fallen angels.Available online
After 1900 (Alphabetical by author, then by title) In Poul Anderson's 1971 novel The Dancer from Atlantis, the Atlantis myth refers to the volcanic explosion of Thera, which is depicted as having destroyed Minoan civilization.
In Anderson's 1961 novelette "Goodbye, Atlantis!",Published in the August 1961 issue of Fantastic the soon-to-be-sunken continent of Atlantis has undergone a radical social revolution, with an ideology similar to Communism. As a last-ditch effort, the diehard remnants of the old regime invoke savage old gods, which the Atlanteans have forgotten for centuries. However, the awakened vengeful deities have no interest in the Atlanteans' political and ideological struggles and destroy the continent and its inhabitants. In The Mutation (1999), from K. A. Applegate's series of novels Animorphs, the titular group pursue their alien enemies, the Yeerks, and discover a hostile civilization in a city at the bottom of the ocean. The civilisation, known as the Nartec, tell their own tale as to how they came to be under the sea, but although Marco jokingly suggests that the group have discovered Atlantis, the name never appears. After the Animorphs make their escape, the Nartec do not appear or are mentioned in later novels, leaving their fate unknown. Another series by K. A. Applegate, Everworld, depicts Atlantis as an underwater city in Everworld's oceans. The gods Poseidon and Neptune---who both seem to have their own underwater cities nearby---war over control of the city, but the politically savvy leader of the city, Jean-Claude LeMieux, manages to keep it independent. Alexander Beliaev, famous Russian sci-fi writer, depicted the last days of Atlantis in his 1926 novel "The Last Man From Atlantis", the highlight of the book being the love story of princess Sel and sculptor Adishirna. Pierre Benoit's classic L'Atlantide (1919) was a variation on a theme introduced by Henry Rider Haggard in She, and told the story of two French Officers who find the lost city of Atlantis in the midst of the Sahara, and fall in love with its beautiful queen, Antinea. It was filmed several times.HathiTrust copy online Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Fall of Atlantis (1987) ties in to her Avalon Series, which tells the story of how the ancient druids were descendants of the survivors of Atlantis who landed in Britain. Bertolt Brecht's 1935 poem "Questions From a Worker Who Reads", written to emphasize the role played by the lower classes in history, includes the lines: "Even in fabled Atlantis, the night that the ocean engulfed it / The drowning still cried out for their slaves" (). In John Brunner's The Atlantic Abomination (1960), Atlantis was dominated by giant alien beings who had the mental power to control humans and make them into completely obedient slaves. The sinking of the continent broke their power and set the surviving humans free to eventually create the present civilization. However, American researchers in the depths of the Atlantic inadvertently awaken one of these beings from a long hibernation on the sea floor, with disastrous results. Fredric Brown's 1949 short story "Letter to a Phoenix" mentions Atlantis as the most recent civilization of six that the immortal narrator has lived in. Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan series features a lost city known as Opar, said to be a colony of Atlantis. The city first appears in The Return of Tarzan (1913). The 1975 novel Romance of Atlantis by Taylor Caldwell. Atlantis is mentioned in Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996) by Orson Scott Card; it is revealed through a machine that can look into the past that Atlantis was a 'raft city' on the banks of the Red Sea, and was completely submerged when the water from the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans came over the natural dams. Lincoln Child's 2007 novel Deep Storm features a supposed find of the site of sunken Atlantis. However, the reality is much more sinister. In Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series, Atlantis is a Lower Elements city populated by Atlanteans, first appearing in Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex (2010). In book three of Bruce Coville's Alien Adventures series, The Search for Snout (1995), Rod Albright's father is eventually revealed to be an Atlantean starfarer, from 35,000 years ago. The 1999 novel Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler, inspired by the non-fiction book When the Sky Fell by Rand & Rose Flem-Ath. Kara Dalkey's Water Trilogy (2002) is a blend of Atlantis and Arthurian legends. Alyssa Day's Warriors of Poseidon series is a modern-day twist combining paranormal romance novels and the myth of Atlantis. Arthur Conan Doyle's 1929 science fiction novel The Maracot Deep describes the discovery of the sunken remains of Atlantis by a deep-sea diving expedition, who find that it is still inhabited by a high-technology society which has adapted to life underwater. In The Towers of February (1973), the Dutch writer Tonke Dragt describes Atlantis as a country in the parallel world IMFEA (Inter Menses Februarium Et Aprilem). Diane Duane's 1985 young adult fantasy novel Deep Wizardry describes how the downfall of Atlantis was triggered by the failure of an ancient wizardry meant to preserve the balance of the earth and sea. Atlantis is referenced in Neverwhere (1996), by Neil Gaiman. Jane Gaskell's Atlan Saga features the young Atlantean princess Cija, who considers the continent's vicious Emperor Zerd to be "The most vile man alive". David Gemmell's fantasy novels make use of story of Atlantis in the Jon Shannow series (Wolf of Shadow, The Last Guardian and Bloodstone) and the Stones of Power series (Ghost King and Last Sword of Power). The 2005 novel Atlantis by David Gibbins. Intended to be the fifth book in its Godzilla novel series, Godzilla and the Lost Continent would have seen Godzilla encounter monsters on a landmass risen from the Pacific sea, rather than the Atlantic, which may have been Atlantis. However, the book was never published by Random House Publishing, which had produced the previous four books, for unknown reasons. In the novel Raising Atlantis (2005) and its sequels by Thomas Greanias, Atlantis is depicted as being buried beneath the ice of Antarctica, suggesting a large climate shift took place and covered up the ancient city. In Traci Harding's An Echo in Time: Atlantis (1997), Tory Alexander travels back in time to visit the lost city paradise of Atlantis and its superior civilization, where she is taught of the mind sciences and expands her psychic capabilities, and is inspired of a city plan which features in later books. Robert A. Heinlein's 1941 novella Lost Legacy imagined Atlantis as a colony of Mu. In a war for independence both lands sank. In the short stories of Robert E. Howard, the character Kull was an Atlantean – this version of Atlantis being inhabited by Barbarian tribes – and eventually became King of the civilized Valusia. His more famous character, Conan the Cimmerian, was descended from these Atlanteans. John Jakes' 1972 novel Mention My Name in Atlantis takes a humorous and satirical look at the Atlantis myth, being narrated by an Atlantean con-man whose account is manifestly unreliable. William Joyce's Guardians of Childhood series mentions the wizard Ombric Shalazar as being the last survivor of Atlantis. In Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series, the leader of the Dark-Hunters is an Atlantean god. Henry Kuttner's Atlantis stories feature the sword-and-sorcery adventures of the hero Elak. Henry Kuttner's Hogben series feature a family of mutants originating in Atlantis, which was destroyed in a nuclear catastrophe. Mercedes Lackey's Dragon Jousters series is loosely based on the myth of Atlantis, as well as on the predynastic period of Ancient Egypt. In the Pendragon Cycle of Stephen R. Lawhead, the survivors of Atlantis settle in Britain. In C. S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew (1955), Digory Kirke's uncle Andrew received a box with Atlantean symbols from his dying godmother that contained dust from another world, which he used to make the magic rings that sent Digory and his friend Polly Plummer to the worlds of Charn and Narnia. In C.S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength (1945), it is debated by two of the villains that the character of Merlin may be from Numinor or, as it is more commonly known, Atlantis. Other characters in the book believe that Merlin was not himself from Atlantis/Numenor, but was rather the last in a long-lasting magical tradition which was started by refugees from the sunken continent, who brought magical knowledge to prehistoric Britain. H. P. Lovecraft's "The Temple" (1920) tells the story of a German naval submarine sinking to the bottom of the ocean after a World War I battle and ultimately settling on the lost city of Atlantis.
The 2007 novel The Hunt For Atlantis by Andy McDermott revolves around the main character's searching for the last location of the survivors of Atlantis using a recovered piece of Orichalcum. Walter Moers' 1999 novel The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear bases several chapters in Atlantis, a megacity and capital of Zamonia. It is described as having every civilization in time occupying it, since sailors came there from every period and stayed. The tale includes some real creatures, as well as a myriad of fantasy ones which make up the citizenry. Talbot Mundy's King of the World (1930–31) featured Jimgrim, the dashing adventurer appearing in several of Mundy's books, battling the antagonist Dorje, who has discovered the scientific secrets of Atlantis and seeks to use them to conquer the world. Edith Nesbit's The Story of the Amulet (1906) contains a chapter describing the fall of Atlantis. Stories in Larry Niven's The Magic Goes Away series often mention Atlantis or feature Atlantean characters. The Burning City (2000), a novel by Niven and Jerry Pournelle set in the same fictional universe, features an Atlantean wizard. Within the novel the wizard briefly tells the story of how waste and misuse of mana, the scarce "magic energy" resource, had caused the sinking of Atlantis. David Maclean Parry's The Scarlet Empire (1906) is a political satire set in Atlantis. Stel Pavlou places Atlantis two miles under the ice in Antarctica in the adventure novel Decipher (2001). He also suggests orichalcum was pure C60. Diana L. Paxson wrote Ancestors of Avalon (2004), a book linking Bradley's Fall of Atlantis with the rest of Avalon Series.