Beyond the Gaslight: Science in Popular Fiction, 1985-1905

by Hilary Evans

Little wear to boards. Content clean and bright. Good DJ.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[David Layton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nicely designed collection of science fiction from British popular magazines of the late Victorian era. It has reproductions of illustrations from the magazines, and occasional commentary from the editors. All the stories are by British writers apart from "The Shadow and the Flash" by American Jack London, who is also probably the best-known writer in the collection. The collection does not include the obvious choices for best SF stories of the Victorian magazines, which would be by H.G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, Conan Doyle, and other such top level writers. The editors have selected from probably what is the best of what's left. A couple of the stories, such as the aforementioned one by London and "The Thames Valley Catastrophe" by Grant Allen, "London's Danger" by Cutcliffe Hyne, and "The Purple Terror" by Fred M. White, are reasonably well-known among SF historians, at least by name if not by content. The stories overall are very much of their time: naïve, sentimental, a bit sexist, and a bit shallow. However, they do give a reader a very good sense of what science fiction was like at the very beginning of its popular surge, before it was even known as science fiction. The stories are arranged into groups by these themes: disaster stories, flying machine stories, superhuman abilities stories, lost world stories, and interplanetary travel stories. Many common ideas and tropes of later SF get presented in these stories. The commentary from the editors is the least appealing aspect of the book. It's trite and cursory, offering little insight into the stories, publications, writers, and circumstances of the time that a moderately literate person did not already know. The book is probably best as a resource for those interested in the history and development of SF.