Impressions from Lost Worlds made of seaside embedded shells with Edgar Poe and Charles Lyell Pierre-François PUECH commentateur Ami du Musée Fabre Molluscs, Seashells, Conchology, Malacology, Gulf of Aigues-Mortes, I am coming back from the beach where there are shells on the shore and stones washed up by the sea after the storm in the part where the waves broke. Seeing angular pebbles of sandstone with limestone cement among rounder stones, such as variolites and jadeites which we are told come from the Durance and carried by the Rhône before ending up in the sea, really allows us to realize changes occurring on the Earth's surface. This common fact gives rise to certain narrative sequences concerning shells and the geological domain, stories of the Earth which take us around strange shells which perforate the stone by Charles Lyell and Edgard Poe. The pale blue eye of Edgar Allan Poe, who was the father of the detective tale, recognized some most direct and energetic efforts of nature in its adaptation. In 1839, Poe wrote an introduction to the illustrated textbook, The Conchologist’s First Book Published in Philadelphia by Haswell, Barrington, and Haswell. Though most of the work was taken from a book by Prof. Thomas Wyatt, Poe reshaped the classification scheme, organized the book and added some of his own translated material from Georges Cuvier. Figure 1. Lower Pliocene bioclastic carbonates, sandstone with a fine and homogeneous grain size, excavated from deep flats near Palavas. The holes correspond to lithobionts bivalves © P.-F. Puech. It was a considerable success, and the book was reprinted twice in six years. This interest may seem surprising because at the time those who collected shells tended to ignore the creatures that lived inside. Poe decided to reorganize the description by foregrounding "internal anatomy" to then include the description of their shells. He thus converted the manual by describing the life of molluscs (malacology). We can even point out that these modifications gave a form comparable to that of his novels. Edgard Poe's plots are shaped by incidents involving inert shell-like materials and vulnerable humans who experience the dangers of life and seek protection. In the case that interests us today, it concerns the shells and rocks of the seabed in which the marine molluscs find refuge. Poe was quite explicit about his intentions. He chose to focus attention not only on the relationships between the animal and the shell, but also on the animal's dependencies (Lilley, 2022). So, there is a place for books about shells; and a book which fulfils such a role will be the same as a book intended for amateurs, who look at living things for pleasure.