Despite the literary flaws, the strength of Bellamy's ideas attracted a worldwide audience. The book consists almost entirely of conversations between West and his hosts that reveal how the 'perfect' society works. There is the barest of plots, little character development, and virtually no action. The premise of the story is that Julian West, a privileged citizen of 1887 Boston, awakes from a 113-year trance-induced sleep to discover that the majority of the world enjoys peace, prosperity, and equality.īellamy, a sensitive man keenly aware of the injustices and inequities of nineteenth-century culture, uses Looking Backward to espouse his views on social and economic reform. The author, Edward Bellamy, although a prolific writer of short stories, essays, and novels, is remembered almost solely for this utopian novel.

Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.Looking Backward: 2000–1887, published in the United States in 1888, created an international sensation associated with very few other books in history. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines.

In her introduction, Cecelia Tichi discusses how the novel echoes the anguish and hopes of its own age while it embodies a sustaining myth of the American literary tradition-that man's perfectibility is attainable in the New World.įor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. But however rich in fantasy and romance, Looking Backward is a passionate attach on the social ills of nineteenth-century industrialism and a plea for social reform and moral renewal.

West's initial sense of wonder, his gradual acceptance of the new order and a new love, and Bellamy's wonderful prophetic inventions - electric lighting, shopping malls, credit cards, electronic broadcasting - ensured the mass popularity of this 1888 novel. This is the America to which Julian West, a young Bostonian, awakens after more than a century of sleep. It is the year 2000-and full employment, material abundance and social harmony can be found everywhere.

Looking backward 2000 1887