A Guide to Speculative Fiction at Gustavus Library: Beginnings to 1926

"For all its concern with change in the present and future, science fiction is deeply rooted in the past and, surprisingly, engages especially deeply with the ancient world. Indeed, both as an area in which the meaning of "classics" is actively transformed and as an open-ended set of texts whose own 'classic' status is a matter of ongoing debate, science fiction reveals much about the roles played by ancient classics in modern times. Classical Traditions in Science Fiction is the first collection in English dedicated to the study of science fiction as a site of classical receptions, offering a much-needed mapping of that important cultural and intellectual terrain. This volume discusses a wide variety of representative examples from both classical antiquity and the past four hundred years of science fiction, beginning with science fiction's "rosy-fingered dawn" and moving toward the other-worldly literature of the present day. As it makes its way through the eras of science fiction, Classical Traditions in Science Fiction exposes the many levels on which science fiction engages the ideas of the ancient world, from minute matters of language and structure to the larger thematic and philosophical concerns."--Publisher's description

"Because science has played the leading role in defining our world today, science fiction has become the twentieth century's most characteristic form of literature. It excels at articulating the new possibilities for good and evil that shape our destinies in an age when science has created technologies once beyond even the reach of fantasy. Reflecting too the global nature of science, science fiction is the most international of all genres. Moreover, no other form better illustrates the fact that genres serve ethical as well as aesthetic purposes. With impressive scope and vitality, science fiction engages us in a moral dialogue centering on whether science will ultimately advance humanity or destroy it. Given the sweeping range of these urgent concerns, it is no surprise then that science fiction counts among its ranks an amazingly diverse lot of writers, including H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Ursula K.Le Guin, Kingsley Amis, Anthony Burgess, Pierre Boulle, Stanislaw Lem, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Kobo Abe, and Isaac Asimov; that its authors hail from countries as divergent from one another as the United States, Russia, Poland, Japan, France, Australia, and England; and that its themes include time travel, atomic warfare, invasions from Mars, genetic experiments, and visits to and from outer space.In Science Fiction Before 1900, Paul K. Alkon provides a detailed survey of the hallmarks of the evolution of science fiction: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Albert Robida's The Twentieth Century, Villiers de L'Isle-Adam's Tomorrow's Eve, Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and H.G. Wells's The Time Machine and War of the Worlds. Stressing that full appreciation of these key texts depends on understanding the nature and advent of the genre, Alkon first provides a brimming introductory chapter, "A Short History of the Future." After thus defining science fiction and examining the genre's origins, aesthetics, and social context, he proceeds to chapters on England, France, and America, an unusual arrangement vastly different from the patented chronological order." - from the publisher

"Billion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction (1973), a large survey of sf marked by iconoclasms, enthusiasms, and impatience, remains Aldiss's most important single nonfiction work (see History of SF); its central argument – that sf is a child of the intersection of Gothic romance (see Gothic SF) with the Industrial Revolution, and that Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is the first true sf writer, and Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus (1818; rev 1831) is the founding text of the genre – gives profound pleasure as a myth of origin. Though it fails circumstantially to be altogether convincing, its focus on the early nineteenth century, a period during which Western consciousness underwent revolutionary change (see Fantastika; Ruins and Futurity) remains salutary; as is its (sometimes intemperate) downgrading of twentieth-century American sf. The book was much expanded and, perhaps inevitably, somewhat diluted in effect as Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction (1986) with David Wingrove, which won a Hugo." - from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, "Brian W Aldiss"

"The researcher and writer must make value judgments on what is imperative and what is not. [...] Once he has presented a generally accepted, broad-gauge view of the field, it then becomes not only possible but also desirable to focus on thos specific areas that provide a rich lode of important and fascinating historical lore. Such a period for science fiction began in 1891 and ended in 1911. We have somewhat nostalgically (yet accurately) termed this time the "gaslight era," but the fact that the days of gas illumination and these writings coincide is but a fortunate accident. 1891 was the year when THE STRAND MAGAZINE, the first mass-circulation, quality middle-class general publication was issued at a price within the reach of all, the equivalent of ten cents. It was a British magazine, but between its American edition and the mass of imitators, it ushered in a golden age of magazines, which began with its January 1891 publication and ended about 1914, at the beginning of World War I. Never before had the middle class and even the working class had such an incredible selection of superb magazines of well-balanced general interest at a reasonable price, and probably they never will again." - from the Preface

"Plato, a philosopher with the soul of a poet, died in the year 347 before Christ. Plutarch was writing at the close of the first century after Christ, and in his parallel "Lives of Greeks and Romans," the most famous of his many writings, he took occasion to paint an ideal commonwealth as the conception of Lycurgus, the half mythical or all mythical Solon of Sparta. To Plutarch's 'Life of Lycurgus,' as well as to Plato, Thomas More and others have been indebted for some part of the shaping of their philosophic dreams. The discovery of the New World at the end of the fifteenth century followed hard upon the diffusion of the new invention of printing, and came at a time when the fall of Constantinople by scattering Greek scholars, who became teachers in Italy, France, and elsewhere, spread the study of Greek, and caused Plato to live again. Little had been heard of him through the Arabs, who cared little for his poetic method. But with the revival of learning he had become a force in Europe, a strong aid to the Reformers." - from the introduction by Henry Morley

"The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World, better known as The Blazing World, is a 1666 work of prose fiction by the English writer Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle. Feminist critic Dale Spender calls it a forerunner of science fiction. It can also be read as a utopian work." - from Wikipedia

"The voyages of an Englishman carry him to such strange places of Lilliput, a land of people six inches high, Brobdingnag, a land of giants, and Glubbdubdrib, an island of sorcerers. Jonathan Swift's classic satire is annotated and profusely illustrated in an edition that includes discussions of Swift's life and politics and the medicine, geography, and astronomy of his times." - from the publisher

"Niels Klim's Underground Travels, originally published in Latin as Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum (1741), is a satirical science-fiction/fantasy novel written by the Norwegian-Danish author Ludvig Holberg. His only novel, it describes a utopian society from an outsider's point of view, and often pokes fun at diverse cultural and social topics such as morality, science, sexual equality, religion, governments, and philosophy." - from Wikipedia

"New English translation of this "demise of the human race" story. Originally published in French in 1805, The Last Man is a powerful story of the demise of the human race. Drawing on the traditional account in Revelations, The Last Man was the first end-of-the-world story in future fiction. As the first secular apocalypse story, The Last Man served as the departure point for many other speculative fictions of this type throughout the 19th century, including works by Shelley, Flammarion and Wells. Grainville's masterful imagination is evident in the vast scale of the action as Omegarus, the Last Adam, and Syderia, the Last Eve, are led toward the moment when "the light of the sun and the stars is extinguished." This is essential reading for anyone interested in the roots of apocalyptic science fiction."

"This new critical edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was developed by leading scholars for aspiring scientists, engineers, and medical professionals. This unique framing will make this a core text in promoting and enhancing interdisciplinary dialogue on the nature, roles, and responsibilities of scientists and engineers in society. To be published in time for the 2018 bicentennial of its original publication, this edition will be produced in print and as an enhanced e-book. The e-book will contain the full text of the novel (in the public domain) plus all of the substantial scholarly material that was commissioned and developed for this new edition, including essays by leading scholars, and will be most valuable to students and teachers of ethics. Digital features will include include reader annotation, bookmarking, and multimedia content." - from the publisher

"The Last Man is an apocalyptic, dystopian science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, first published in 1826. The narrative concerns Europe in the late 21st century, ravaged by a mysterious plague pandemic that rapidly sweeps across the entire globe, ultimately resulting in the near-extinction of humanity. It also includes discussion of the British state as a republic, for which Shelley sat in meetings of the House of Commons to gain insight to the governmental system of the Romantic era. The novel includes many fictive allusions to her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, who drowned in a shipwreck four years before the book's publication, as well as their close friend Lord Byron, who had died two years previously. The Last Man was critically savaged and remained largely obscure at the time of its publication. It was not until the 1960s that the novel resurfaced for the public as a work of fiction, not prophecy. The Last Man is one of the first pieces of dystopian fiction published." - from Wikipedia

"The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838) is the only complete novel written by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The work relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaling ship called the Grampus. Various adventures and misadventures befall Pym, including shipwreck, mutiny, and cannibalism, before he is saved by the crew of the Jane Guy. Aboard this vessel, Pym and a sailor named Dirk Peters continue their adventures farther south. Docking on land, they encounter hostile black-skinned natives before escaping back to the ocean. The novel ends abruptly as Pym and Peters continue toward the South Pole. The story starts out as a fairly conventional adventure at sea, but it becomes increasingly strange and hard to classify. Poe, who intended to present a realistic story, was inspired by several real-life accounts of sea voyages, and drew heavily from Jeremiah N. Reynolds and referenced the Hollow Earth theory. He also drew from his own experiences at sea. Analyses of the novel often focus on the potential autobiographical elements as well as its portrayal of race and the symbolism in the final lines of the work." - from the publisher

"Martin R. Delany’s Blake (1859, 1861–1862) is one of the most important African American―and indeed American―works of fiction of the nineteenth century. It tells the story of Henry Blake’s escape from a southern plantation and his subsequent travels across the United States, into Canada, and to Africa and Cuba. His mission is to unite the black populations of the American Atlantic regions, both free and slave, in the struggle for freedom, whether through insurrection or through emigration and the creation of an independent black state. Blake is a rhetorical masterpiece, all the more strange and mysterious for remaining incomplete, breaking off before its final scene. This edition of Blake, prepared by textual scholar Jerome McGann, offers the first correct printing of the work in book form. It establishes an accurate text, supplies contextual notes and commentaries, and presents an authoritative account of the work’s composition and publication history. In a lively introduction, McGann argues that Delany employs the resources of fiction to develop a critical account of the interconnected structure of racist power as it operated throughout the American Atlantic. He likens Blake to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, in its willful determination to transform a living and terrible present."

"From Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth to Rudy Rucker's The Hollow Earth, subterranean worlds have been a source of both fascination and fear for the literary imagination, and The Coming Race is no exception. An evolutionary fantasy first published in 1871, the story draws upon ideas of Darwinism to describe a near-future world characterized by female dominance, physical perfection, and vast technological progress. The novel was extremely popular in its time and is now considered seminal science fiction text by contemporary scholars. This Wesleyan edition includes scholarly notes and an introduction that places the work in an intellectual and literary context and describes Bulwer-Lytton's interest in the occult." - from the publisher

"This high-tension odyssey follows Professor Hardwigg, his nephew Harry, and their guide Hans as they explore a volcanic crater in Iceland in search of the mysterious center of the earth, risking their chances of ever returning to the surface alive." - from the publisher

"Decades after Edgar Allen Poe's longest and weirdest tale, 'The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym,' was published--the protagonist disappearing into the misty, mystifying Antarctic seas; his fate unknown--Jules Verne took up the challenge to answer what had happened to him. In "The Sphinx of the Ice Realm," he penned the most amazing journey of his fabled career: a voyage across the bottom of the world! An astonishing mix of manhunt, sea story, scientific speculation, and polar nightmare, Verne's epic fantasy novel appears here for the first time as a new and complete translation by noted Verne expert Frederick Paul Walter. The book is a treat for any fan of science fiction and fantasy, and includes many fascinating notes for students and scholars alike. In addition, the book features a complete, reader-friendly rendition of the original Poe tale that sparked Verne's uniquely imaginative response." - from the publisher

"Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward: 2000-1887 (1888) is one of the most influential utopian novels in English. The narrative follows Julian West, who goes to sleep in Boston in 1887 and wakes in the year 2000 to find that the era of competitive capitalism is long over, replaced by an era of co-operation. Wealth is produced by an "industrial army" and every citizen receives the same wage." "This edition contains a rich selection of appendices, including: excerpts from Bellamy's Equality and other writings; contemporary responses (by William Morris, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and others); excerpts from utopian works by Morris and William Dean Howells; and an excerpt from Henry George's Progress and Poverty." - from the publisher

"The Time Machine (1895) is H. G. Wells’s first published novel as well as his most enduring and influential work. Intrigued by the possibilities of time travel as a student and inspired as a journalist by the great scientific advances of the Victorian Age, Wells drew on his own scientific publications―on evolution, degeneration, species extinction, geologic time, and biology―in writing The Time Machine. This Norton Critical Edition is based on the first London edition of the novel. It is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations and 'A Note on the Text.' 'Backgrounds and Contexts' is organized thematically into four sections: 'The Evolution of The Time Machine' presents alternative versions and installments and excerpts of the author’s time-travel story; 'Wells’s Scientific Journalism (1891–94)' focuses on the scientific topics central to the novel; 'Wells on The Time Machine' reprints the prefaces to the 1924, 1931, and 1934 editions; and 'Scientific and Social Contexts' collects five widely read texts by the Victorian scientists and social critics Edwin Ray Lankester, Thomas Henry Huxley, Benjamin Kidd, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), and Balfour Stewart and Peter Guthrie Tait. 'Criticism' includes three important early reviews of The Time Machine from the Spectator, the Daily Chronicle, and Pall Mall Magazine as well as eight critical essays that reflect our changing emphases in reading and appreciating this futuristic novel. Contributors include Yevgeny Zamyatin, Bernard Bergonzi, Kathryn Hume, Elaine Showalter, John Huntington, Paul A. Cantor and Peter Hufnagel, Colin Manlove, and Roger Luckhurst. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included." - from the publisher

"The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by Pearson's Magazine in the UK and by Cosmopolitan magazine in the US. The novel's first appearance in hardcover was in 1898 from publisher William Heinemann of London. Written between 1895 and 1897,[2] it is one of the earliest stories to detail a conflict between mankind and an extra-terrestrial race.[3] The novel is the first-person narrative of both an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and of his younger brother in London as southern England is invaded by Martians. The novel is one of the most commented-on works in the science fiction canon." - from Wikipedia

"Written in 1896, The Island of Dr. Moreau is one of the earliest scientific romances. An instant sensation, it was meant as a commentary on Darwin's theory of evolution, which H.G. Wells stoutly believed. The story centers on the depraved Dr. Moreau, who conducts unspeakable animal experiments on a remote tropical island, with hideous, humanlike results. Edward Prendick, an English-man whose misfortunes bring him to the island, is witness to the Beast Folk's strange civilization and their eventual terrifying regression." - from the publisher

"One the eve of WWI, three American male explorers stumble onto an all-female society somewhere in the distant reaches of the earth. Unable to believe their eyes, they promptly set out to find some men, convinced that since this is a civilized country--there must be men. So begins this sparkling utopian novel, a romp through a whole world 'masculine' and 'feminine', as on target today as when it was written 65 years ago."

"Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (Russian: Константи́н Эдуа́рдович Циолко́вский; 17 September [O.S. 5 September] 1857 – 19 September 1935) was a Russian and Soviet rocket scientist who pioneered astronautic theory. Along with the Frenchman Robert Esnault-Pelterie, the Germans Hermann Oberth and Fritz von Opel, and the American Robert H. Goddard, he is one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry and astronautics.[2][3] His works later inspired leading Soviet rocket-engineers Sergei Korolev and Valentin Glushko, who contributed to the success of the Soviet space program.

Tsiolkovsky spent most of his life in a log house on the outskirts of Kaluga, about 200 km (120 mi) southwest of Moscow. A recluse by nature, his unusual habits made him seem bizarre to his fellow townsfolk." - from Wikipedia

"Ex-Confederate Army captain John Carter finds himself suddenly and unwittingly transported to Mars while fleeing Apache Indians. This new world is populated by a race of monstrous Martians whose culture is based on the ability to fight for their race. Captured by the savage green men of Thark, John discovers that the gravitational difference between Mars and Earth has endowed him with the strength that he will need for survival on this hostile planet. He battles ferocious Martian creatures and gains the respect and friendship of the Barsoomians. Along the way he encounters the beautiful Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, and earns her everlasting devotion." - from the publisher

" The shimmering, cloud-covered planet of Venus conceals a wondrous secret: the strikingly beautiful yet deadly world of Amtor. In Amtor, cities of immortal beings flourish in giant trees reaching thousands of feet into the sky; ferocious beasts stalk the wilderness below; rare flashes of sunlight precipitate devastating storms; and the inhabitants believe their world is saucer-shaped with a fiery center and an icy rim. Stranded on Amtor after his spaceship crashes, astronaut Carson Napier is swept into a world where revolution is ripe, the love of a princess carries a dear price, and death can come as easily from the blade of a sword as from the ray of a futuristic gun. Pirates of Venus is the exciting inaugural volume in the last series imagined and penned by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This commemorative edition features new illustrations by Thomas Floyd, the original frontispiece by J. Allen St. John, an afterword by Phillip Burger, a glossary of Amtor terms by Scott Tracy Griffin, a map of Amtor drawn by Edgar Rice Burroughs that appeared in the first edition, and an introduction by acclaimed science fiction and horror novelist F. Paul Wilson." - from the publisher

"The Moon Pool is a fantasy novel by American writer Abraham Merritt. It originally appeared as two short stories in All-Story Weekly: 'The Moon Pool' (1918) and its sequel, 'Conquest of the Moon Pool' (1919). These were then reworked into a novel released in 1919. The protagonist, Dr. Goodwin, would later appear in Merritt's second novel The Metal Monster (1920). Although Merritt did not invent the 'lost world' novel—he followed in the footsteps of Bulwer-Lytton, Burroughs, Conan Doyle, and others—this work extended the tradition. [...] In its review of The Moon Pool, the New York Times called the novel 'a shimmering, glittering web of imagination' and that 'the author's energy and fertility of imaginative resources never seem to lessen.'" - from Wikipedia