First Men in the Moon A Critical Text of the 1901 London First Edition, with an Introduction and Appendices
Produktdetaljer
Om bidragsyterne
The late Leon Stover, professor emeritus at the Illinois Institute of Technology, was the first to bring science fiction to the college curriculum and was the author of numerous landmarks of intellectual history. He lived in Chicago.“Wells’s masterpieces get the red-carpet treatment here in these luxurious editions...academic collections supporting English departments should definitely invest in this volume”—<i>Library Journal</i>; “Stover is to be thanked for his years of Wellsian scholarship”—<i>Public Library Quarterly</i>; “Stover, by presenting the intellectual underpinnings of Wells’ work, has provided a powerful tool for understanding his writings, one sees them more deeply, without losing that earlier sense-of-wonder that originally opened the vistas of the young reader’s mind...a crucial guide to these classics of science fiction”—<i>Fosfax</i>; “two cheers for Stoverism...formidable scholarship...serious students of Wells would be foolish to ignore ‘Stoverism’”—<i>The Wellsian</i>; “Stover should be commended for a painstaking and meticulous editorial commentary”—<i>Utopian Studies</i>; “extensively annotated and analyzed by Stover...annotations are filled with insights into Wells’ writings and philosophy”—<i>C&RL News</i>.
The First Men in the Moon is the last in a series of "scientific romances" begun by Wells with The Time Machine. In the opinion of many, it is also the last in a series of pessimistic and anti-utopian novels before Wells took up the tone of an optimistic and utopian social prophet with Anticipations. The present critical edition of First Men questions that opinion. The lunar utopia described is far from a satire on the industrial order as many critics claim, but in historical context is instead related to the international scientific management movement, stemming from the Saint-Simonian school of socialism. This critical edition shows how First Men consciously builds on the whole literary tradition of moon voyages.
Preface
Introduction
1. The Text
2. Utopia or Dystopia?
3. “World Machine”
4. Verne and Wells
5. Noble Formicary
6. Coal City
7. Managerial Revolution
The First Men in the Moon (1901)
(Annotated text of the first London edition)
Appendices
I. Review by Arnold Bennett (1902)
II. “An Age of Specialisation,” by H.G. Wells (1904a)
III. “About Sir Thomas More,” by H.G. Wells (1905d)
IV. Verne on Wells and Vice Versa
V. “Is the Moon Inhabited?” by Camille Flammarion (1894)
VI. Excerpt from “Recent Studies in Gravitation,” by John H. Poynting (1900)
Bibliography
Index