Booknews
First published in 1888, Bellamy's utopian novel concerns a 19th century Bostonian who awakes from a sleep to find himself in the year 2000 in a world of near-perfect cooperation and prosperity. Historian Daniel Borus adds a 28-page introduction, a chronology of Bellamy's life, a selected bibliography, and questions to consider when reading the novel. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Professor of History at the University of Southern Richard Fox
There is no better book than Looking Backward for understanding the intersecting private and public spheres in Victorian America.”
Alex MacDonald
One of the great utopian novels...remains at its heart a profoundly radical work of social prophecy.”
APR/MAY 02 - AudioFile
Here is the sort of intellectual Buck Rogers. In this nearly forgotten classic, a member of the Boston leisure class falls asleep in 1888 and wakes in 2000. Thence follows endless conversations reflecting journalist/fictionalist Edward Bellamy's prescient solutions to the problems of Victorian industrialism. This is less a novel than a dialectic, a quality that Edward Lewis's dry reading emphasizes. He sounds like an academic reading a paper to the Academy. His precise diction and phrasing are important pluses, given the fustian locutions he has to deal with. Y.R. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine
