A Princess of Mars

ByEdgar Rice Burroughs

Release Date: 2008-06-23
Genre: Adventure Sci-Fi

Score: 4.5

4.5

From 385 Ratings

Description

A Princess of Mars (1917) is a science fantasy novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first of his Barsoom series. Full of swordplay and daring feats, the novel is considered a classic example of 20th century pulp fiction. It is also a seminal instance of the planetary romance, a sub-genre of science fantasy that became highly popular in the decades following its publication. Its early chapters also contain elements of the Western. The story is set on Mars, imagined as a dying planet with a harsh desert environment. This vision of Mars was based on the work of the astronomer Percival Lowell, whose ideas were widely popularized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Barsoom series inspired a number of well-known 20th century science fiction writers, including Jack Vance, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein, and John Norman. The series was also inspirational for many scientists in the fields of space exploration and the search for extraterrestrial life, including Carl Sagan, who read A Princess of Mars when he was a child.

Reviews

John Carter
5
By Walter VaShel
This book is very good really the idea book.
Came for the Classic, Stayed for the Adventure
5
By JACoogan
I started this book almost entirely as a sort of research, so that I could get to the roots of science fiction and the planetary romance genre. I fully expected this story to be dull, dry and unimaginative compared to the fiction of today, and brimming with the bigotry that was common for its time. But I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it more than holds up after all these years. The world is wondrous, imaginative and full of adventure, the characters are surprisingly compelling, and most of all, the action is gripping and makes you eager to find out what happens next. I can definitely see why this is considered a space opera classic.
Mediocre
3
By Nakepatt26
Very mediocre and uninteresting story 🤷🏻‍♂️
A Princess of Mars
5
By beanlol
What a great, fun Summer read!
That science and politics had birthed this kind of story in hindsight, makes perfect sense. From this author and H. G. Welles were born all our favorite Sci-if writers since.
Great
5
By Xdakotakid
A good fiction read with a mysterious look into the dying planet of Mars.
A SciFi Romance from the early 1900s
5
By Lucentrip
I have heard of this book multiple times over the course of my 36 years on our beautiful blue green planet, but somehow never read it. I rectified that over the last week or so, and am very glad I did so. Thank you to Project Gutenberg for making this classic available free of charge. I can easily understand why it was inspirational to Edgar Rice Burroughs' writer peers and to sci fi writers that came in to e generations after. It is a delightful example of what we now call Space Opera, a distinction from hardcore sci fi in that it doesn't go onto great technical detail, instead focusing on a great romance and rollicking adventure. Burroughs does do an excellent job imagining what the various races of Mars would be like, both in form and culture. The book itself was a great read, and I only wish I had stumbled upon it sooner. This is a book I could see myself reading to my children. I'll continue to comb through Project Gutenberg for more hidden gems!
What a surprise!
5
By Scottyd
I read this book in the anticipation of seeing the movie. I really thought it was pretty good, especially when you think about when it was written. I love old classic sci fi. This hit the spot.

More by Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Land That Time Forgot

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4
Warlord of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
Tarzan of the Apes

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
The Chessmen of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
Thuvia, Maid of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
50 Masterpieces you have to read before you die vol: 1 [newly updated] (Book House Publishing)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Aldous Huxley, Jane Austen, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, E. E. Cummings, Alexandre Dumas, Joseph Conrad, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Brontë, Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Victor Hugo & E. M. Forster

3.5
Return of Tarzan

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
A Princess of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
A Princess of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
The Gods of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
John Carter of Mars Series

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4
Beasts of Tarzan

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
Son of Tarzan

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
Tarzan the Terrible

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
Tarzan the Untamed

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
Jungle Tales of Tarzan

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
The Lost Continent

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4
The People That Time Forgot

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
100 Greatest Books Collection

Ernest Hemingway, Agatha Christie, Ayn Rand, Isaac Asimov, Kurt Vonnegut, D. H. Lawrence, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. M. Forster, Oscar Wilde, Alexandre Dumas, Anna Sewell, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Daniel Defoe, Dante Alighieri, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Émile Zola, Emily Bronte, Franz Kafka, Frederick Douglass, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, George Bernard Shaw, George Eliot, Gustave Flaubert, H.G. Wells, Henrik Ibsen, Henry Fielding, Herman Melville, Hermann Hesse, Homer, James Joyce, Jane Austen, Johanna Spyri, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Conrad, Jules Verne, Kenneth Grahame, L. M. Montgomery, L.M. Montgomery, Lewis Carroll, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Mary Shelley, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sinclair Lewis, Stendhal, Victor Hugo, Virginia Woolf, Voltaire, William Faulkner, William Shakespeare, Honoré de Balzac, J.M. Barrie, L. Frank Baum, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Giovanni Boccaccio, Frances Hodgson Burnett, George Gordon Byron, Geoffrey Chaucer, Anton Chekhov, Wilkie Collins, James Fenimore Cooperf, Stephen Crane, Philip K. Dick, Franklin W. Dixon, Theodore Dreiser, W.E.B. Du Bois, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ford Madox Ford, Sigmund Freud, Kahlil Gibran, Elizabeth Gaskell, Susan Glaspell, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, J.W. von Goethe, Nikolai Gogol, The Brothers Grimm, George and Weedon Grossmith, Thomas Hardy, Thomas Hobbes, Anthony Hope, Aldous Huxley, Henry James, Harriet Jacobs, Rudyard Kipling, Gaston Leroux, John Locke, Jack London, George MacDonald, A. A. Milne, A.A. Milne, John Milton, Thomas Paine, Edgar Allan Poe, Rafael Sabatini, Felix Salten, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sun Tzu, J. R. R. Tolkien, Leo Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoi, Ivan Turgenev, H. G. Wells, Edith Wharton & Yevgeny Zamyatin
At the Earth's Core

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
Pellucidar

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
Out of Time's Abyss

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4
The Outlaw of Torn

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
Science Fiction Stories

Philip K. Dick, H.G. Wells, Kurt Vonnegut, Randall Garrett, Jack London, Isaac Asimov, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ayn Rand & Rudyard Kipling

3.5
The Beasts of Tarzan

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
The Mad King

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
Tarzan of the Apes

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
A Princess of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
The Mucker

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
The Efficiency Expert

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
50 Classic Science Fiction Works: Volume One

Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Edward Bellamy, G. K. Chesterton, Isaac Asimov, Edgar Rice Burroughs & George Allan England

3.5
At the Earth's Core

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
100 Classic Book Collection II (2025)

Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Marcus Aurelius, Jane Austen, E.M. Berens, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Giovanni Boccaccio, Frances Hodgson Burnett, George Gordon Byron, Lewis Carroll, Willa Cather, Robert W. Chambers, Anton Chekhov, Agatha Christie, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Joseph Conrad, Stephen Crane, Daniel Defoe, Philip K. Dick, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alexandre Dumas, George Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. M. Forster, Sigmund Freud, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Kahlil Gibran, Susan Glaspell, George and Weedon Grossmith, Thomas Hardy, Ernest Hemingway, Homer, Anthony Hope, Victor Hugo, Aldous Huxley, Henry James, James Joyce, Washington Irving, Franz Kafka, Rudyard Kipling, D. H. Lawrence, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Sinclair Lewis, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, John Milton, L.M. Montgomery, Edith Nesbit, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Friedrich Nietzsche, Blaise Pascal, Edgar Allan Poe, John William Polidori, Samuel Richardson, José Rizal, Felix Salten, Thomas Seltzer, William Shakespeare, Adam Smith, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sun Tzu, Sunzi, Jonathan Swift, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoi, A. W. Tozer, Anthony Trollope, Mark Twain, Vatsyayana, Jules Verne, Virgil, Elizabeth Von Arnim, Kurt Vonnegut, Horace Walpole, Gertrude Chandler Warner, H.G. Wells, H. G. Wells, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Anonymous, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Grossmith & Weedon Grossmith
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
The Oakdale Affair

Edgar Rice Burroughs

3.5
200 Greatest Novels of All Time

Dante Alighieri, Isaac Asimov, Jane Austen, Honoré de Balzac, J.M. Barrie, Louisa May Alcott, L. Frank Baum, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Bronte, Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Marcus Aurelius, E.M. Berens, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Giovanni Boccaccio, Frances Hodgson Burnett, George Gordon Byron, Lewis Carroll, Willa Cather, Robert W. Chambers, Anton Chekhov, Agatha Christie, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Joseph Conrad, Stephen Crane, Daniel Defoe, Philip K. Dick, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alexandre Dumas, George Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. M. Forster, Sigmund Freud, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Kahlil Gibran, Susan Glaspell, George and Weedon Grossmith, Thomas Hardy, Ernest Hemingway, Homer, Anthony Hope, Victor Hugo, Aldous Huxley, Henry James, James Joyce, Washington Irving, Franz Kafka, Rudyard Kipling, D. H. Lawrence, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Sinclair Lewis, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, John Milton, L.M. Montgomery, Edith Nesbit, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Friedrich Nietzsche, Blaise Pascal, Edgar Allan Poe, John William Polidori, Samuel Richardson, José Rizal, Felix Salten, Thomas Seltzer, William Shakespeare, Adam Smith, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sun Tzu, Sunzi, Jonathan Swift, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoi, A. W. Tozer, Anthony Trollope, Mark Twain, Vatsyayana, Jules Verne, Virgil, Elizabeth Von Arnim, Kurt Vonnegut, Horace Walpole, Gertrude Chandler Warner, H.G. Wells, H. G. Wells, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith, Geoffrey Chaucer, Kate Chopin, Wilkie Collins, James Fenimore Cooper, Frederick Douglass, Theodore Dreiser, W.E.B. Du Bois, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, William Faulkner, Henry Fielding, Gustave Flaubert, Elizabeth Gaskell, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, J.W. von Goethe, Nikolai Gogol, Kenneth Grahame, The Brothers Grimm, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hermann Hesse, Thomas Hobbes, Henrik Ibsen, Harriet Jacobs, Gaston Leroux, Jack London, George MacDonald, Niccolò Machiavelli, Sir Thomas Malory, W. Somerset Maugham, Herman Melville, A. A. Milne, Thomas Paine, Ayn Rand, Rafael Sabatini, Anna Sewell, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de Cervantes, George Bernard Shaw, Mary Shelley, Johanna Spyri, Stendhal, Bram Stoker, Harriet Beecher Stowe, J. R. R. Tolkien, Ivan Turgenev, Voltaire, Lew Wallace, Edith Wharton & Émile Zola

2.5
100 Masterpieces You Have to Read Before You Die

Edgar Rice Burroughs, Edgar Allan Poe, Giovanni Boccaccio, Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Marcus Aurelius, Jane Austen, Willa Cather, Robert W. Chambers, Anton Chekhov, Agatha Christie, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Joseph Conrad, Stephen Crane, Daniel Defoe, Philip K. Dick, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alexandre Dumas, George Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. M. Forster, Sigmund Freud, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Kahlil Gibran, Susan Glaspell, George and Weedon Grossmith, Thomas Hardy, Ernest Hemingway, Homer, Anthony Hope, Victor Hugo, Aldous Huxley, Henry James, James Joyce, Washington Irving, Franz Kafka, Rudyard Kipling, D. H. Lawrence, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Sinclair Lewis, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, John Milton, L.M. Montgomery, Edith Nesbit, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Friedrich Nietzsche, Blaise Pascal, John William Polidori, Samuel Richardson, José Rizal, Felix Salten, Thomas Seltzer, William Shakespeare, Adam Smith, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sun Tzu, Sunzi, Jonathan Swift, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoi, A. W. Tozer, Anthony Trollope, Mark Twain, Vatsyayana, Jules Verne, Virgil, Elizabeth Von Arnim, Kurt Vonnegut, Horace Walpole, Gertrude Chandler Warner, H.G. Wells, H. G. Wells, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Anonymous, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Grossmith & Weedon Grossmith
The Gods of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
200 Greatest Books of All Time

E.M. Berens, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Giovanni Boccaccio, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Dante Alighieri, Isaac Asimov, Jane Austen, Honoré de Balzac, J.M. Barrie, Louisa May Alcott, L. Frank Baum, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Bronte, Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Marcus Aurelius, George Gordon Byron, Lewis Carroll, Willa Cather, Robert W. Chambers, Anton Chekhov, Agatha Christie, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Joseph Conrad, Stephen Crane, Daniel Defoe, Philip K. Dick, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alexandre Dumas, George Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. M. Forster, Sigmund Freud, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Kahlil Gibran, Susan Glaspell, George and Weedon Grossmith, Thomas Hardy, Ernest Hemingway, Homer, Anthony Hope, Victor Hugo, Aldous Huxley, Henry James, James Joyce, Washington Irving, Franz Kafka, Rudyard Kipling, D. H. Lawrence, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Sinclair Lewis, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, John Milton, L.M. Montgomery, Edith Nesbit, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Friedrich Nietzsche, Blaise Pascal, Edgar Allan Poe, John William Polidori, Samuel Richardson, José Rizal, Felix Salten, Thomas Seltzer, William Shakespeare, Adam Smith, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sun Tzu, Sunzi, Jonathan Swift, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoi, A. W. Tozer, Anthony Trollope, Mark Twain, Vatsyayana, Jules Verne, Virgil, Elizabeth Von Arnim, Kurt Vonnegut, Horace Walpole, Gertrude Chandler Warner, H.G. Wells, H. G. Wells, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith, Geoffrey Chaucer, Kate Chopin, Wilkie Collins, James Fenimore Cooper, Frederick Douglass, Theodore Dreiser, W.E.B. Du Bois, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, William Faulkner, Henry Fielding, Gustave Flaubert, Elizabeth Gaskell, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, J.W. von Goethe, Nikolai Gogol, Kenneth Grahame, The Brothers Grimm, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hermann Hesse, Thomas Hobbes, Henrik Ibsen, Harriet Jacobs, Gaston Leroux, Jack London, George MacDonald, Niccolò Machiavelli, Sir Thomas Malory, W. Somerset Maugham, Herman Melville, A. A. Milne, Thomas Paine, Ayn Rand, Rafael Sabatini, Anna Sewell, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de Cervantes, George Bernard Shaw, Mary Shelley, Johanna Spyri, Stendhal, Bram Stoker, Harriet Beecher Stowe, J. R. R. Tolkien, Ivan Turgenev, Voltaire, Lew Wallace, Edith Wharton & Émile Zola
Tarzan of the Apes

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
The Warlord of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
The Master Mind of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4
Swords of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
The Chessmen of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

5
A Fighting Man of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
Thuvia, Maid of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
A Princess Of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
The Synthetic Men of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
Llana of Gathol

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4.5
Barsoom 1-7: John Carter of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

4