Editing Vril (section)

==Literary significance and reception==

The book was popular in the late 19th century, and for a time the word "Vril" came to be associated with "life-giving elixirs".<ref name = "dav">{{Citation | first1 = David | last1 = Seed | orig-year = 1870 | title = The Coming Race | first2 = Sir Edward | last2 = Bulwer-Lytton | publisher = Wesleyan University Press | date = 2007 | pages = xvii, 159}}.</ref> An example is in the name of [[Bovril]], coined as a [[blend word]] of Bovine and Vril.<ref>{{Citation | first = Peter | last = Hadley | title = A History of Bovril Advertising | place = London | publisher = Bovril | date = 1972 | page = 13}}.</ref> There was a [[Vril-Ya Bazaar and Fete|Vril-ya Bazaar]] held at the [[Royal Albert Hall]] in London in March 1891.{{sfn|Strube|2013|p=48ff}}<ref name="RAH2">{{cite web |title='The Coming Race' and 'Vril-Ya' Bazaar and Fete, in joint aid of The West End Hospital, and the School of Massage and Electricity |url=https://memories.royalalberthall.com/content/coming-race-and-vril-ya-bazaar-and-fete-joint-aid-west-end-hospital-and-school-massage-and-1 |website=Royal Albert Hall |date=27 August 2019 |access-date=29 March 2021 |archive-date=12 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412195504/https://memories.royalalberthall.com/content/coming-race-and-vril-ya-bazaar-and-fete-joint-aid-west-end-hospital-and-school-massage-and-1 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The same year, a sequel named ''The Vril Staff: A Romance'' was published, written by an unknown author using the pseudonym XYZ.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=3Fk8EAAAQBAJ&pg=PT456 ''Handbook of the English Novel, 1830–1900'']</ref>

It also had a strong influence on other contemporary authors. When [[H. G. Wells]]' novella ''[[The Time Machine]]'' was published in 1895, ''[[The Guardian]]'' wrote in its review: "The influence of the author of ''The Coming Race'' is still powerful, and no year passes without the appearance of stories which describe the manners and customs of peoples in imaginary worlds, sometimes in the stars above, sometimes in the heart of unknown continents in Australia or at the Pole, and sometimes below the waters under the earth. The latest effort in this class of fiction is ''The Time Machine'', by H. G. Wells."<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/11/hg-wells-the-time-machine-reviewed-1895 H. G. Wells' ''The Time Machine reviewed'' - archive, 1895 H. G.  Wells | Books | The Guardian]</ref>

It has been suggested that Bulwer-Lytton developed his ideas about "Vril" against the background of his long preoccupation with occult natural forces, which were widely discussed at that time, especially in relation to [[animal magnetism]], or later, [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualism]].<ref>Strube (2013), 13–44.</ref> In his earlier novels ''[[Zanoni]]'' (1842) and ''A Strange Story'' (1862), Bulwer-Lytton had discussed electricity and other "material agents" as the possible natural causes for occult phenomena. In ''The Coming Race'', those ideas are continued in the context of a satirical critique of contemporary philosophical, scientific, and political currents. In a letter to his friend John Forster, Bulwer-Lytton explained his motives:

{{blockquote|1=I did not mean Vril for mesmerism, but for electricity, developed into uses as yet only dimly guessed, and including whatever there may be genuine in mesmerism, which I hold to be a mere branch current of the one great fluid pervading all nature. I am by no means, however, wedded to Vril, if you can suggest anything else to carry out this meaning namely, that the coming race, though akin to us, has nevertheless acquired by hereditary transmission, etc., certain distinctions which make it a different species, and contains powers which we could not attain to through a slow growth of time; so that this race would not amalgamate with, but destroy us. [...]

Now, as some bodies are charged with electricity like the torpedo or electric eel, and never can communicate that power to other bodies, so I suppose the existence of a race charged with that electricity and having acquired the art to concentrate and direct it in a word, to be conductors of its lightnings. If you can suggest any other idea of carrying out that idea of a destroying race, I should be glad. Probably even the notion of Vril might be more cleared from mysticism or mesmerism by being simply defined to be electricity and conducted by those staves or rods, omitting all about mesmeric passes, etc.<ref>{{Citation | first = Victor Alexander Robert | last = Lytton | title = The Life of Edward Bulwer Lytton, First Lord Lytton, vol. 1 |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofedwardbulw00lyttuoft| place = London | publisher = Macmillan and Co. | date = 1913 | page = 466f}}.</ref>}}

Bulwer-Lytton has been regarded as an "initiate" or "adept" by esotericists, especially because of his [[Rosicrucian]] novel ''Zanoni'' (1842). However, there is no historical evidence that suggests that Bulwer-Lytton can be seen as an occultist, or that he was a member of any kind of esoteric association. Instead, it has been shown that Bulwer-Lytton has been "esotericized" since the 1870s. In 1870, the [[Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia]] appointed Bulwer-Lytton as its "Grand Patron". Although Bulwer-Lytton complained about this by letter in 1872, the claim was never revoked. Other claims, such as his  supposed membership in the German [[Freemasonry|Masonic]] lodge ''Zur aufgehenden Morgenröthe'', have been proven wrong.<ref>Strube (2013), 55–74.</ref>

Those claims, as well as the recurrent esoteric topics in Bulwer-Lytton's works, convinced some commentators that the fictionalised Vril was based on a real magical force. [[Helena Blavatsky]], the founder of [[Theosophy (Blavatskian)|theosophy]], endorsed this view in her book ''[[Isis Unveiled]]'' (1877) and again in ''[[The Secret Doctrine]]'' (1888). In Blavatsky's writing, the Vril power and its attainment by a superhuman elite are worked into a mystical doctrine of race. However, the character of the subterranean people was transformed. Instead of potential conquerors, they were benevolent (if mysterious) spiritual guides. Blavatsky's recurrent homage to Bulwer-Lytton and the Vril force has exerted a lasting influence on other esoteric authors.<ref>Strube (2013), 69ff., 77ff.</ref>

When the theosophist [[William Scott-Elliot]] described life in [[Atlantis]] in {{Citation | title = The Story of Atlantis & The Lost Lemuria | edition = first | date = 1896}}, he mentioned Atlantean aircraft propelled by Vril-force.<ref>{{Citation | first = L Sprague | last = de Camp | title = Lost Continents | date = 1954 | edition = first | page = 67| title-link = Lost Continents }}.</ref> His books are still published by the [[Theosophical Society]]. Scott-Elliot's description of Atlantean aircraft has been identified as an early inspiration for authors who have related the Vril force to [[UFO]]s after World War II.

[[George Bernard Shaw]] read the book and was attracted to the idea of Vril, according to [[Michael Holroyd]]'s biography of him.

French writer [[Jules Lermina]] included a Vril-powered flying machine in his 1910 novel ''L'Effrayante Aventure (Panic in Paris)''.

In his 2011 book of correspondences with [[David Woodard]], Swiss writer [[Christian Kracht]] discusses his longstanding interest in Vril.<ref>Kracht, C., & Woodard, D., [https://wehrhahn-verlag.de/public/index.php?ID_Section=3&ID_Product=577 ''Five Years''] ([[Hanover]]: [[:de:Wehrhahn Verlag|Wehrhahn Verlag]], 2011), pp. 166–171.</ref>{{rp|166–171}} [[David Bowie]]'s 1971 song "[[Oh! You Pretty Things]]" makes reference to the novel.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|p=167}}