In the novel, a series of tremors creates a global flood that destroys all civilization save for a few areas of the English Midlands that remain above water.

A film version made in Hollywood, very loosely based upon the book, but instead set in New York City was released in 1933.

Unable to sell his story to a commercial publisher, Wright opted to self-publish Deluge after noting the positive reception garnered from his previous novel The Amphibians.

However, the positive reception received by Deluge attracted the attention of Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, which allowed for mass production of the novel.

[6] In the novel, modern civilization is dissolved, and Deluge depicts this new, less advanced society as noble, admirable, and natural rather than savage, contending futuristic comforts are unrealistic and ultimately inherently corrupt societal goals.

Deluge influenced Storm Jameson's novel of a Britain devastated by floods, The World Ends (1937, using the pseudonym William Lamb).