In A Modern Utopia, two travelers fall into a space-warp and suddenly find themselves upon a Utopian Earth controlled by a single World Gove...
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Nov 24, 2011
Ilya
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I knew that H. G. Wells has written a number of utopian novels, and read George Orwell's criticism of some, but have never read one before. In this book, the writer and his botanist friend are taking a stroll in the Swiss Alps when they walk into a portal that transports them to another planet beyond Sirius, with the same topography as Earth and inhabited by humans. The planet is ruled by a world government (that people living in different corners of the globe might have different interests, and
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Oct 22, 2011
Andrew
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Got this book as a free kindle download from Project Gutenburg(other e-book formats on there too) as such it's difficult to grumble to much...no money was after all spent however I found the book lackluste and in regard to Utopian fiction was a pale body of work compared with Thomas More's Utopia.
H.G.Wells warns in the prologue that this doesn't really work as a form of narrative fiction(the usual form for his more known novels) and it does feel like a bunch of speculative essays held toge More...
H.G.Wells warns in the prologue that this doesn't really work as a form of narrative fiction(the usual form for his more known novels) and it does feel like a bunch of speculative essays held toge More...
Aug 11, 2011
Colleen
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As I began reading this piece, I found I was forcing myself to keep reading. Though, I thought, "I trust that H. G. Wells will come through in the end." I believe I was correct.
At about the halfway point, I started to be okay with the style of 'A Modern Utopia'. As others have written, including Mr. Wells in his introduction, the book begins in essay format, if you will, but then a story evolved. I felt almost repulsed by this idea of utopia.... the sterile structure, the lack More...
At about the halfway point, I started to be okay with the style of 'A Modern Utopia'. As others have written, including Mr. Wells in his introduction, the book begins in essay format, if you will, but then a story evolved. I felt almost repulsed by this idea of utopia.... the sterile structure, the lack More...
Dec 08, 2011
Nalin
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As much as I admire H.G. Wells, I still always find myself struggling to finish utopian novels. Despite his interesting ideas and the honorific of "classic" and "canonical", I'm afraid that I fell into the same complaints with A Modern Utopia as with many others: it is dry, overly-reliant on description instead of humanity, and prone to far more hastily-accepted assumptions than the bulk of the rest of the genre.
Wells does, to be fair, answer the question that is s More...
Wells does, to be fair, answer the question that is s More...
Apr 26, 2011
Shinn
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If this book consisted only of the last chapter and perhaps a few excerpts from the ninth, I might have enjoyed it. Unfortunately, it's an awkward, tedious mess of words and dry sociological debate with an adventure into a parallel universe thrown in accidentally amongst the discussions on eugenics and self-cleaning apartments.
Perhaps it was just my mood but right from the beginning, the book and its narrator irritated me. The protagonist is so pompous, you want to club him before yo More...
Perhaps it was just my mood but right from the beginning, the book and its narrator irritated me. The protagonist is so pompous, you want to club him before yo More...
Jan 03, 2011
Written in 1905, H.G. Wells' unusual fiction/non-fiction hybrid describes his ideal world state.
"Our business here is to be Utopian, to make vivid and credible, if we can, first this facet and then that, of an imaginary whole and happy world...It is no doubt an optimistic enterprise."
A Modern Utopia, has elements of a classic utopia (a stranger visits an ideally structured, considered society, explores, and returns home), but Wells undertakes his visit to Utopia wi More...
"Our business here is to be Utopian, to make vivid and credible, if we can, first this facet and then that, of an imaginary whole and happy world...It is no doubt an optimistic enterprise."
A Modern Utopia, has elements of a classic utopia (a stranger visits an ideally structured, considered society, explores, and returns home), but Wells undertakes his visit to Utopia wi More...
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Oct 18, 2010
Anna Kristina
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Unsuccessful as a philosophy/fiction hybrid - Wells wrote more essays on his ideas of a utopia, then attempted to write transitions between them as fiction. This would have been much more successful if he had focused on the storytelling and world building while carefully weaving the ideas into the story, instead of breaking to it in every chapter. (And I'm currently reading The Great Divorce, where C.S. Lewis successfully intertwines fiction and theology, which makes A Modern Utopia seem even mo
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Jul 23, 2011
John Mark
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After reading this, I am reminded of how boring utopian literature tends to be. There was some interesting insight here, but so much of what is detailed here pays no mind to human nature or is so utterly naive as to be ridiculous. Did he really think that the best way to organize a global society was to allow only the smart and productive people to have children? And tat a society would actually allow this to happen?
Jun 27, 2011
Tony
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I made it about halfway through this book. It took me some time to wrap my mind around the style, which I could not bring myself to enjoy. By the time I got to the part about the central government determining who is fit to marry and raise children I put it down. I may jump to the final chapters to see his conclusions but it will be a chore.
May 14, 2011
Murray
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I certainly enjoyed the prose and characters more than the essay-like portions, particularly the various expositions of the human condition provided by the environment the two characters find themselves in. That said, some of the more academic ideas presented are thought-provoking.
Jan 24, 2009
Carrie
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As fiction, this book is disappointing. But, of course, it isn't exactly fiction - it's political philosophy, like Thomas More's 'Utopia' before it. All the same, for a brave new world, this lacks excitement. And over-echoes Plato's 'Republic'. Derivative and dull.
May 04, 2011
Mike
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I'm going to be honest, I couldn't bring myself to finish it. I was over half way through, but I couldn't. I hated the narration, and the fact that it was a 300 page essay on why a collectivist world-government would be awesome under the guise of a novel.
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Jul 26, 2011
Sunny
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interesting ... not earth shatteringly gripping but the section on eugenics was thoroughly thought proviking! current chav population of england would have been a gonner in his Utopia for sure!!! lol
Mar 25, 2011
Ian
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A Modern Utopia is interesting, not because of its political stance or its motivations, but because it takes a different approach to the development and creation of a Utopia. Wells proposes that there is a world much like ours that has developed into a "Utopia" and he has two characters who are plunged into this world from our world. The main protagonist narrates much of the novel and it is very much a manifesto for a political utopia, one very much driven by socialist ideals. It is fo
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Jul 03, 2009
Jessica
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I'm writing a paper on Wells, so it seemed like a necessary read if I wanted to thoroughly understand his worldview. It was definitely valuable in that respect, but (like most utopian writing) it was a slog to get through and quite pedantic.
Jun 07, 2011
Julie
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I am officially putting this book down for a while. How long of a while, I do not know...
I started reading it because I was going to try joining this book club that focused on utopian fiction, but I didn't get through it it time, and I just don't feel like pushing myself to plow through it.
Maybe it is something I would like to read later, but I guess we'll see.
I started reading it because I was going to try joining this book club that focused on utopian fiction, but I didn't get through it it time, and I just don't feel like pushing myself to plow through it.
Maybe it is something I would like to read later, but I guess we'll see.
Dec 03, 2007
Kara
rated it:
Concept-wise, this is through the roof. Although Wells has a mind for design like Edward Scissorhands creator.
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