Ray Cummings 
Tarrano The Conqueror 

The story of "Tarrano the Conqueror" takes place in the year 2430 AD, which is about as far away from our time as Columbus' discovery of America was. It was my intention to give you the idea that you had suddenly been transported back in time, simulating the sensation Columbus may have had had he read a book on modern living. In order to do this, the author has imagined himself as a writer from that period in the future who is writing to his current audience. Imagine that you are reading a modern translation of his original manuscript, one that is so loose that it contains a thousand tiny colloquialisms that would not have any contemporary equivalents in the year 2430. You will occasionally see small footnotes with explanations that are separate from the text. Imagine that the translator placed them there. The story isn't meant to be extraordinary or full of avant-garde concepts. In that sense, the story itself is simply meant to be a love story filled with excitement and passion; it was created for that audience rather than for you.