Future World Novel (1 results)

First edition of a scarce futuristic novel. "Uncanny in its choice of dates and in its prediction of the emergence of Russia and the United States as world powers, it describes a war between Britain and Russia (1900-01) which escalates into a world war between the British Empire and a coalition of Russia and France (1917-20) who between them have occupied much of Europe" (Howgego). The anonymous novel has sometimes been attributed to the Irish writer Samuel Madden, though only because that shares its futuristic concept with Madden's earlier work, Memoirs of the Twentieth Century (1733), and, as Howgego remarks, other than these two and Mercier's L'An 2440 (1771), "futuristic works of this character were virtually unknown to 18th-century readers". Although reasonably well-held institutionally, no copy of this title appears in auction records going back at least to 1975. Howgego, Imaginary Voyages and Invented Worlds, M4; not in Halkett. Duodecimo, pp. xxi, [1], 192; sig. A12 folded back to form initial blank. Contemporary mottled calf. Spine chipped at head and tail, joints cracked but held by cords, title leaf repaired at head with loss of first word "The", a few minor marks, a good copy.