The Drowned World - Softcover

J. G. Ballard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140022295 ISBN 13: 9780140022292

Publisher: Penguin, 1974

Synopsis

A debut novel, set in London in the near future. The capital city has been flooded and transformed into a tropical location where social aberrations only serve as an indicator of the level of corruption of the modern mentality.

About this title

Review:

This torrid, powerful 1962 novel--the 17th of Millennium's very strong SF Masterworks classic reprints--was a major turning point in J.G. Ballard's career. In this future our old world has been gradually drowned as global warming melts the ice-caps and primordial jungles and swamps have returned to tropical London, recreating the ancient ecology of the Triassic age. According to the logic of Ballardian "inner space", these Turkish-bath surroundings evoke the psychological suction of the deep past, calling the human "hindbrain" back to the enfolding warmth of the womb. The text is rich with dreamy phrases like "the fata morgana of the terminal lagoon" and "the brighter day of the interior, archaeopsychic sun". As various members of an expedition to London busy themselves with more or less futile schemes like draining Leicester Square in hope of loot, the passive central character Kerans moves in his own "neuronic odyssey" to a strange acceptance of and assimilation by this lushly transformed world, vanishing into a final epiphany of heat and light. There is little narrative drive or sense of story (fans of rip-roaring, action-adventure SF tend not to get on with Ballard). The Drowned World is a potent, sensual mood-piece--static, jewelled and unforgettable. --David Langford

Review:

‘The most important British writer of the latter half of the 20th century’ Will Self

‘Powerful and beautifully clear ... Ballard’s potent symbols of beauty and dismay inundate the reader’s mind’ Brian Aldiss

‘One of the brightest stars in post-war fiction. This tale of strange and terrible adventure in a world of steaming jungles has an oppressive power reminiscent of Conrad’ Kingsley Amis

‘Extraordinarily prescient ... Ballard is a prophet’ Philip Pullman, Guardian

‘The terrifying thing about Ballard is his logic; is this science fiction or history written ahead of its time?’ Len Deighton

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1974
• ISBN 10: 0140022295
• ISBN 13: 9780140022292
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176