Titre : | A Modern Utopia |
Auteurs : | Herbert George Wells, Auteur |
Type de document : | texte imprimé |
Editeur : | London - Harmondsworth : Penguin Books, 2005 |
ISBN/ISSN/EAN : | 978-0-14-144112-2 |
Format : | 281 pages / Illustré / 19x12 cm |
Langues: | Anglais |
Langues originales: | Anglais |
Résumé : |
Because of the complexity and sophistication of its narrative structure, A Modern Utopia has been called "not so much a modern as a postmodern utopia." The novel is best known for its notion that a voluntary order of nobility known as the Samurai could effectively rule a "kinetic and not static" world state so as to solve "the problem of combining progress with political stability"
In his preface Wells forecasts (incorrectly) that A Modern Utopia would be the last of a series of volumes on social problems that he began in 1901 with Anticipations and that included Mankind in the Making (1903). Unlike those non-fictional works, A Modern Utopia is presented as a tale told by a sketchily described character known only as the Owner of the Voice, who, Wells warns the reader, "is not to be taken as the Voice of the ostensible author who fathers these pages." He is accompanied by another character known as "the botanist." Interspersed into the narrative are discursive remarks on various matters, creating what Wells calls in his preface "a sort of shot-silk texture between philosophical discussion on the one hand and imaginative narrative on the other." In addition, there are frequent comparisons to and discussions of previous utopian works. In his Experiment in Autobiography (1934) Wells wrote that A Modern Utopia "was the first approach I made to the dialogue form," and that "the trend towards dialogue, like the basal notion of the Samurai, marks my debt to Plato. A Modern Utopia, quite as much as that of More, derives frankly from the Republic." The premise of the novel is that there is a planet (for "No less than a planet will serve the purpose of a modern Utopia" exactly like Earth, with the same geography and biology. Moreover, on that planet "all the men and women that you know and I" exist "in duplicate." They have, however, "different habits, different traditions, different knowledge, different ideas, different clothing, and different appliances." (Not however, a different language: "Indeed, should we be in Utopia at all, if we could not talk to everyone?") |
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Code-barres | Cote | Support | Localisation | Section | Disponibilité | L'etagère |
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P ROM 3380 | WEL | Livre | A Rousen | Roman | Disponible | R 3.10 G |