In The Murderer of the World (1910), Gaston de Wailly imagined that the Earth is a living being, whose surface we inhabit as parasites. Moved by revenge against the "evil beast" which destroyed his family, a mad scientist schemes to literally murder the world by striking one of its vital organs. The novel may seem primitive to a modern eye but its mind-boggling scope and action-packed plot gives it a certain reckless bravado.