Book Review by Jane V: I knew about Charlotte Perkins Gilman from her short autobiographical novel The Yellow Wallpaper but it was not until I searched for a(n?) utopia authored by a woman that I was reminded of Herland and the fact that, felicitously, I had a copy somewhere. The blurb on the back of … Continue reading
Posted in May 2020 …
We That Were Young (1932) by Irene Rathbone.
Book Review by Sylvia D: Members of our Reading Group will remember that what seems like a hundred years ago now when we still lived real lives, we were reading anti-war and pacifist novels from our period. I read Neville Shute’s On the Beach (1957), the ultimate anti-war novel, which those of you who have … Continue reading
Men Like Gods (1923) by H.G. Wells
Book review by Frances S: Settling down to begin reading Men Like Gods a day or two after The Prime Minister’s 23 March 2020 ‘lockdown’ speech, I was looking forward to escaping into the relative calm of 1921 Sydenham. The novel is divided into three ‘books’. Book 1, The Irruption of the Earthlings, tells how … Continue reading
‘The Murder of Madame Mollard’ (1930) by Winifred Holtby
Book Review by Chris Hopkins. This short feminist dystopia by Winifred Holtby is, as far as I can see, completely forgotten about, but well-worth recovering. It dates from 1930 and was then published in 1937 (after Holtby’s early death in 1935) in a collection called Pavements at Anderby (Collins, London, 1937). This volume, edited by her … Continue reading
Three Weeks (1907) by Elinor Glyn
Book Review by Kathryn R: I found this book in the Old Pier Bookshop* in Morecambe while browsing for other books from 1900-1950. It was in the ‘collectables’ case. There is no publication date in this edition, but the cover and the preface suggest that it was published in the early 1960s, as the writer … Continue reading
Lord of the World (1907) by Robert Hugh Benson
Book Review by Sylvia D: It’s striking that all the reviews that have been posted so far have been of dystopian novels. I wonder if that is a reflection of the strange and troublesome times we are living through. My first choice was Swastika Night but I couldn’t get hold of a reasonably-priced copy so … Continue reading
The Iron Heel (1908) by Jack London
Book review by Alice C: Jack London wrote The Iron Heel, a dystopian novel, in 1908. It sold over 50,000 copies in hardback and according to Wikipedia, London was, for a time, the bestselling and highest earning writer in the USA. It’s the story of the rise of a totalitarian Oligarchy in the United States … Continue reading
Impromptu in Moribundia (1939) by Patrick Hamilton
Book review by George S: Patrick Hamilton is well known as the chronicler of the seedier side of London – the run-down boarding houses and the dubious pubs. It’s a surprise, then, to find him writing the story of a journey to another planet – a book that at first promises to be Science Fiction. … Continue reading
Herland (1915) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Book review by Mary P: When we were given the choice between utopian and dystopian fiction this month, I immediately went for the former. During the lockdown from Covid 19 and all the discussion about how things will be different when it is all over, it seemed appropriate to look at how others have imagined … Continue reading
Swastika Nights (1937) By Murray Constantine
Book Review by Kathryn R: This novel set some 700 years in the future is by Katherine Burdekin, writing under a pseudonym. Katherine Burdekin wrote feminist dystopian fiction in the 1920 both under her own name and the pseudonym. She also wrote some children’s fiction. The novel describes a world ruled by two superpowers, the … Continue reading
Reading 1900-1950 