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Edward Bellamy (1850–1898)

Autor(a) de Looking Backward, 2000-1887

38+ Works 3,309 Membros 66 Reviews 2 Favorited

About the Author

It is as a romantric Utopian rather than a novelist or profound thinker that Edward Bellamy is remembered and read today. While working as a journalist in Springfield, Massachusetts, he began to write novels and later short stories but did not achieve much success until the publication of Looking mostrar mais Backward (1888). The hero of this fantasy falls asleep in 1887 and awakens in the year 2000 to find himself in a humane scientific and socialistic utopia. After selling fewer than 10,000 copies in its first year, Looking Backward became enormously popular. Clubs were formed to promote Bellamy's social ideas, and he became a leader of a nationalist movement, crusading for economic equality, brotherhood, and the progressive nationalization of industry. Americans as diverse as Thorstein Veblen and John Dewey have been influenced by Bellamy's suggestion that the products of industrial energy, intelligently organized, could be used to obtain a nobler future. His The Religion of Solidarity (1940), long out of print, is again available. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos
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Séries

Obras de Edward Bellamy

Looking Backward, 2000-1887 (1888) — Autor — 3,085 cópias
Equality (1897) 83 cópias
The Duke of Stockbridge (1962) 17 cópias
Miss Ludington's Sister (2012) 11 cópias
Dr. Heidenhoff's Process (2010) 11 cópias
Stories by American Authors, Volume 7 (1894) — Contribuinte — 9 cópias
The Blind Man's World (2011) 7 cópias
To Who This May Come (2012) 6 cópias
With The Eyes Shut (2012) 6 cópias
An Echo Of Antietam 1898 (2012) 4 cópias
Lost (2010) 4 cópias
Hooking Watermelons 1898 (2012) 4 cópias
El mercado (2011) 3 cópias
A Love Story Reversed (2012) 2 cópias
The Cold Snap 1898 (2012) 2 cópias
Cent ans après ou l'an 2000 (2008) 1 exemplar(es)
Looking Backward & Equality (2018) 1 exemplar(es)
Potts's Painless Cure 1898 (2012) 1 exemplar(es)
A Positive Romance 1898 (2012) 1 exemplar(es)

Associated Works

The Road to Science Fiction #1: From Gilgamesh to Wells (1977) — Contribuinte — 151 cópias
Life in the Iron Mills [Bedford Cultural Editions] (1997) — Contribuinte — 143 cópias
Dystopia Utopia: Short Stories (2016) — Contribuinte — 125 cópias
The Utopia Reader (1999) — Contribuinte — 111 cópias
Utopian literature; a selection, edited, with introductions (1968) — Contribuinte — 60 cópias
Time Travel Short Stories: Anthology of New & Classic Tales (2017) — Contribuinte — 56 cópias
The Best American Mystery Stories of the 19th Century (2014) — Contribuinte — 49 cópias

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome padrão
Bellamy, Edward
Nome de batismo
Bellamy, Edward
Outros nomes
Bellamy, Eduardo
Data de nascimento
1850-03-26
Data de falecimento
1898-05-22
Sexo
male
Nacionalidade
USA
Local de nascimento
Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, USA
Local de falecimento
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Locais de residência
Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts
Educação
Union College
Ocupação
journalist
Relacionamentos
Bellamy, Joseph (g-g-grandfather)
Bellamy, Francis (cousin)

Membros

Resenhas

A Book About the Gilded Age*

If a good book should engage a reader in a debate about its themes, Looking Backward is a good book. Edward Bellamy sends his protagonist, Julian West, forward in time to the year 2000 to witness the social transformation America has undergone in the 113 years since Julian's unusual hypnotic session propels him into the future. The novel is full of criticisms of Julian's original time, the Gilded Age, detailed through the contrasting organization of business and society in the future.

If a good book has a basis in the reality of human nature, Looking Backward fails to qualify. The America of the future is a utopia of social equality where there is no need for money, or armies. Where the citizens of the country have voluntarily migrated to this new arrangement in which the government owns all means of production and distribution, even decides what should be imported from foreign countries. Where all citizens, even children, receive an equal share of the national wealth annually to spend as they see fit (although they are so satisfied with their condition that they are incapable of spending it all). In other words, America has been overrun by non-humans who fervently believe the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one (regards, Mr. Spock) and act in accordance.

Looking Backward is an interesting read which I recommend with caveats. I laughed at Bellamy's thoughts on freedom and equality, because the patriarchy of his day is still in effect in the future. The equivalent of noblesse oblige has been transferred from the wealthy and their obligations to the less-fortunate to men and their treatment of women. If you take offense at patronizing attitudes about the delicacy of women you might skip this book. Even if you can accept travel across time, the novel also contains a fantastic coincidence, which I won't spoil, which overwhelms even the most ludicrous of Bellamy's visions of an enlightened future. If you read and enjoy 18th and 19th century fiction, this twist will be in keeping with those of greater works such as Les Miserables and Jane Eyre. If you need a plot grounded in the semblance of the possible, this book isn't for you. But overall it's an enjoyable book, if for no other reason than to see what Marx might have done as a novelist.

* - I've had to set my themed reading list aside for now, as I'm taking a couple literature classes this summer through a state program that provides free tuition for Texas residents over 55. This novel is assigned for my 19th Century American Literature class focused on the Gilded Age.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
skavlanj | outras 62 resenhas | Dec 18, 2023 |
Interesting early time travel story.
 
Marcado
kslade | outras 62 resenhas | Dec 8, 2022 |
A classic well worth the read, and maybe worth going back to some day.
 
Marcado
mykl-s | outras 62 resenhas | Nov 25, 2022 |
A classic and seminal text but, like all utopian novels, it presents a static world-view via a tiresome didactic narrative.
½
1 vote
Marcado
sfj2 | outras 62 resenhas | Mar 28, 2022 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
38
Also by
9
Membros
3,309
Popularidade
#7,735
Avaliação
½ 3.3
Resenhas
66
ISBNs
352
Idiomas
12
Favorito
2

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