Seola

Seola is an antediluvian novel published in 1878, written by Ann Eliza Smith. The publishers of the novel are Boston: Lee and Shepard, New York: Charles T. Dillingham.

The majority of the novel purports to be a translation of an ancient scroll diary written by a woman named Seola, who is identified as the wife of Japheth. The Book of Genesis indicates that Noah had three sons named Ham, Shem and Japheth. In the appendix section of the novel, Ann Smith describes how she was inspired to write the fantasy. She writes:

"Seola is a fantasy, revealed to the writer while listening to the performance of an extraordinary musical composition. It was sudden and unforeseen as the landscape which sometimes appears to a benighted traveller, for one instant only, illumined by the lightning's flash.

It does not therefore pretend to be either history or theology, but yet the theory upon which the story is founded is in strict accordance with the sacred writings of the Hebrews and traditions of other ancient nations."

Some of her research into the ancient traditions of these nations can be found in her first published work, From Dawn to Sunrise. The appendix and notes section at the end of the novel Seola explain certain passages within the story and how they are supported by real ancient texts. Portions of the story can be perceived as extrapolations from the Haggada, the Mahabharata, The Book of Enoch and the creation myths of Greek mythology.