Looking Backward
| Average rating |
|
3 out of 5
|
| Based on 1,753 Ratings and 280 Reviews |
Book Description
A huge bestseller in its day, Looking Backwards is a pure Utopia with no dark notes. Like Caesar's Column and The Iron Heel, we get huge swaths of exposition and a love story. However, because the narrator pops up in the best of all possible worlds (the USA in the year 2000), the story lacks the conflict and characterizations which make the Donnelly and London works interesting. The one part of th...
MoreA huge bestseller in its day, Looking Backwards is a pure Utopia with no dark notes. Like Caesar's Column and The Iron Heel, we get huge swaths of exposition and a love story. However, because the narrator pops up in the best of all possible worlds (the USA in the year 2000), the story lacks the conflict and characterizations which make the Donnelly and London works interesting. The one part of the story with dramatic impact is an extended sequence at the end where he revisits the harsh 19th Century he thought he had left behind.
Bellamy predicts shopping malls, mass media (including sermons delivered by telephone!) and, most notably, credit cards. The whole of future society is explored, one component at a time; it gives the appearance of a well-engineered Victorian machine, each part functional, rational and a little bit cold to the touch. While this work had an enormous impact at its time, today it is primarily of historical interest. However, this is required reading if you are studying 19th Century utopian thought. (Quote from sacred-texts.com)
About the Author
Edward Bellamy (1850 - 1898)
Edward Bellamy (March 26, 1850 - May 22, 1898) was an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward, set in the year 2000. Edward Bellamy was born in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. His father was Rufus King Bellamy (1816-1886), a Baptist minister and a descendant of Joseph Bellamy. His mother was Maria Louisa (Putnam) Bellamy, a Calvinist. Her father, Benjamin Putnam, had also been a Baptist minister, but had to withdraw from the ministry in Salem, Massachusetts, following objections to him being made a freemason. He had two older brothers, Frederick and Charles. He attended Union College, but did not graduate. While there, he joined the T
You must be a member of JacketFlap to add a video to this page. Please
Log In or
Register.
View Edward Bellamy's profile