Product Description

Published in 1890, Caesar's Column is an account of a trip to New York City in 1988 by a visitor from the Swiss colony of Uganda. The great metropolis dazzles with its futuristic technology, but its ostentatious wealth and luxury mask the brutal repression of the laboring classes by their rich bosses. The workers, aided by international terrorists, stage a violent revolt and the narrator flees the devastated city by airship to found an agrarian utopia in Africa.

Fueled by outrage at social conditions, Caesar's Column was the first major dystopian novel in the English language. Its author, Ignatius Donnelly, was the most famous--and controversial--American populist politician of the day, and his book became a huge bestseller and was often compared to such utopian works as Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward (1888) and William Morris's News from Nowhere (1890). This Wesleyan edition includes an insightful introduction and notes by Nicholas Ruddick.

Product Details

• Published on: 2003-12-04
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .77" h x 5.52" w x 8.44" l, .94 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 340 pages

Review
"This new edition moves this novel from the periphery towards the center of the discourse concerning the evolution of science fiction literature in the 19th century. Professor Ruddick's scholarly apparatus is thorough, admirable, and revelatory." (David Hartwell, Senior Editor, Tor Books )

About the Author
IGNATIUS DONNELLY (1831-1901) was the author of Atlantis (1882), Dr. Huguet (1891) and The Great Cryptogram (1888), which attempts to prove that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare's plays. NICHOLAS RUDDICK is Professor of English at the University of Regina and the author of Ultimate Island: On the Nature of British Science Fiction (1993).