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The Heads of Cerberus
“The Heads of Cerberus” has been hailed as one of the first, if not THE first science-fiction novel to deal with alternate-worlds. Although Francis Stevens (a.k.a. Gertrude Barrows Bennett) wrote several novels, “The Heads of Cerberus” is undoubtedly her most influential work of science-fiction. In this alternate reality, people from 20th-century America stumble into a timeline in which America is controlled by a dictatorship. One of the first dystopian novels ever written, the story is also an early example of what became known in the 1950s as "social science-fiction."
183 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1919
37 people are currently reading
1115 people want to read
About the author
Francis Stevens
112 books58 followersGertrude Barrows Bennett (1883–1948) was the first major female writer of fantasy and science fiction in the United States, publishing her stories under the pseudonym Francis Stevens. Bennett wrote a number of highly acclaimed fantasies between 1917 and 1923 and has been called "the woman who invented dark fantasy." Among her most famous books are Claimed (which H. P. Lovecraft called "One of the strangest and most compelling science fantasy novels you will ever read")[4] and the lost world novel The Citadel of Fear. Bennett also wrote an early dystopian novel, The Heads of Cerberus (1919).
Gertrude Mabel Barrows was born in Minneapolis in 1883. She completed school through the eighth grade, then attended night school in hopes of becoming an illustrator (a goal she never achieved). Instead, she began working as a stenographer, a job she held on and off for the rest of her life. In 1909 Barrows married Stewart Bennett, a British journalist and explorer, and moved to Philadelphia. A year later her husband died while on an expedition. With a new-born daughter to raise, Bennett continued working as a stenographer. When her father died toward the end of World War I, Bennett assumed care for her invalid mother.
During this time period Bennett began to write a number of short stories and novels, only stopping when her mother died in 1920. In the mid 1920s, she moved to California. Because Bennett was estranged from her daughter, for a number of years researchers believed Bennett died in 1939 (the date of her final letter to her daughter). However, new research, including her death certificate, shows that she died in 1948.
Gertrude Mabel Barrows was born in Minneapolis in 1883. She completed school through the eighth grade, then attended night school in hopes of becoming an illustrator (a goal she never achieved). Instead, she began working as a stenographer, a job she held on and off for the rest of her life. In 1909 Barrows married Stewart Bennett, a British journalist and explorer, and moved to Philadelphia. A year later her husband died while on an expedition. With a new-born daughter to raise, Bennett continued working as a stenographer. When her father died toward the end of World War I, Bennett assumed care for her invalid mother.
During this time period Bennett began to write a number of short stories and novels, only stopping when her mother died in 1920. In the mid 1920s, she moved to California. Because Bennett was estranged from her daughter, for a number of years researchers believed Bennett died in 1939 (the date of her final letter to her daughter). However, new research, including her death certificate, shows that she died in 1948.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 86 reviews
May 25, 2021
3.5★
This was certainly different!
& I have sat in front of my laptop for quite a while now, trying to think of what else to write!
Yes, we may have seen this done better but this was a very early dystopian novel & Francis Stevens (real name Gertrude Barrows Bennett) was a fresh & vital voice, writing in a genre that in those days had very few women authors- in fact Stevens was one of the first.
Stevens bio on Goodreads gives the sparse details that are known of her life - I would certainly like to know why her writing career was so short, why she (effectively) abandoned her daughter (not too surprisingly they became estranged) &, above all what happened to Stevens later in life. She was originally believed to have died in 1939 (the last time her daughter had contact from her) but a death certificate was found - & that says 1948. More googling is required.
So I enjoyed Viola, Terry & Roberts travelling into the future. Stevens created a very vivid fantasy world in Ulithia & a 2118 Philadelphia. Stevens shone with dialogue - hot tempered Terry in particular just jumped off the page.
I would be happy to read more of Stevens work, but dystopia & longer science fiction aren't really my genre & I won't be in a rush.
A biography of the enigmatic Stevens - well that is another matter!
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
This was certainly different!
& I have sat in front of my laptop for quite a while now, trying to think of what else to write!
Yes, we may have seen this done better but this was a very early dystopian novel & Francis Stevens (real name Gertrude Barrows Bennett) was a fresh & vital voice, writing in a genre that in those days had very few women authors- in fact Stevens was one of the first.
Stevens bio on Goodreads gives the sparse details that are known of her life - I would certainly like to know why her writing career was so short, why she (effectively) abandoned her daughter (not too surprisingly they became estranged) &, above all what happened to Stevens later in life. She was originally believed to have died in 1939 (the last time her daughter had contact from her) but a death certificate was found - & that says 1948. More googling is required.
So I enjoyed Viola, Terry & Roberts travelling into the future. Stevens created a very vivid fantasy world in Ulithia & a 2118 Philadelphia. Stevens shone with dialogue - hot tempered Terry in particular just jumped off the page.
I would be happy to read more of Stevens work, but dystopia & longer science fiction aren't really my genre & I won't be in a rush.
A biography of the enigmatic Stevens - well that is another matter!
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
April 19, 2022
This is a proto-SF novel from 1919 (assuming that ‘real’ SF starts with Hugo Gernsback and his Astounding Stories as well as the term itself, for say H.G. Wells’s novels were scientific romance). I read it as a part of monthly reading for April 2022 at The Evolution of Science Fiction group.
The story starts with one of the characters, Robert Drayton, waking up with a bloody wound on his head next to an open safe. It turns out that he is in the apartment of his friend, burly Irishman Terry Trenmore. As we find out, Robert is a lawyer, whose career was destroyed by an evil corporation (yes, this trope of a lot of modern SF isn’t that new), while Terry is an accidental owner of a vial filled to the top with some substance of the color of gray emery, with Cerberus’ heads: 'Said to have been carved by Benvenuto Cellini for his patron, the Duke of Florence. Its contents have never been examined. The legend runs, however, that the gray dust within it was gathered from the rocks at the gates of Purgatory by the poet Dante, and that it was to contain this dust that the duke required the vial.’ As they (inevitably for such stories) come in contact with the contents, they, together with the third character, Viola Trenmore, Terry’s beautiful sister, are transferred initially to a dreamlike realm and then to the future, which, despite the year (2118, I guess the date hints on when the story was written +200 years) is quite like their present-day in terms of closes and machines, but turns quite different in some other qualities.
Partly an easy-going adventure story with valorous and brave heroes, partly a comment on possible political developments, this is a good yarn, but nothing that one may plan to re-read.
The story starts with one of the characters, Robert Drayton, waking up with a bloody wound on his head next to an open safe. It turns out that he is in the apartment of his friend, burly Irishman Terry Trenmore. As we find out, Robert is a lawyer, whose career was destroyed by an evil corporation (yes, this trope of a lot of modern SF isn’t that new), while Terry is an accidental owner of a vial filled to the top with some substance of the color of gray emery, with Cerberus’ heads: 'Said to have been carved by Benvenuto Cellini for his patron, the Duke of Florence. Its contents have never been examined. The legend runs, however, that the gray dust within it was gathered from the rocks at the gates of Purgatory by the poet Dante, and that it was to contain this dust that the duke required the vial.’ As they (inevitably for such stories) come in contact with the contents, they, together with the third character, Viola Trenmore, Terry’s beautiful sister, are transferred initially to a dreamlike realm and then to the future, which, despite the year (2118, I guess the date hints on when the story was written +200 years) is quite like their present-day in terms of closes and machines, but turns quite different in some other qualities.
Partly an easy-going adventure story with valorous and brave heroes, partly a comment on possible political developments, this is a good yarn, but nothing that one may plan to re-read.
April 23, 2022
The Heads of Cerberus is a 1919 scientific fiction novel where after inhaling a grey dust, people are transported from Philadelphia hundreds of years into the future to a dystopian society that exists in the same location. This book is notable because it was a pioneer for time travel/ parallel worlds.
It didn’t deliver the sci-fi, time travel adventure that I was expecting. It lacked the science-based element, therefore, it felt more like fantasy to me. And that would have been alright had it not been for the underdeveloped characters (Terry, Bobby, Viola) and stilted, dated, or melodramatic dialogue. This book is just under two hundred pages, yet I struggled to finish half of it, skimming at times. I kept trying until my library loan expired, and I decided to move on. In the half of the book that I read; I didn’t learn but a scant more than I knew from the book’s description.
I would think that some world building would take place by the halfway point. There were no techy gadgets mentioned. Everything seemed the same except for a new political system and a violent concern about the visiting trio not wearing their “buttons.” However, Viola is adored by all the males, which is creepy since she is 17 and they are older adults. ‘... so tiny, azure eyes…. curling lashes…modish hat….;” she was like a blue bird, fluttering in from the sunshine.”
Since the first hundred pages of this book didn’t bring me any reading joy, I couldn't justify renewing my loan to finish it. I think it is safe to say that this is not the classic sci-fi I am seeking. Although, I can acknowledge its contribution to the parallel world concept.
It didn’t deliver the sci-fi, time travel adventure that I was expecting. It lacked the science-based element, therefore, it felt more like fantasy to me. And that would have been alright had it not been for the underdeveloped characters (Terry, Bobby, Viola) and stilted, dated, or melodramatic dialogue. This book is just under two hundred pages, yet I struggled to finish half of it, skimming at times. I kept trying until my library loan expired, and I decided to move on. In the half of the book that I read; I didn’t learn but a scant more than I knew from the book’s description.
I would think that some world building would take place by the halfway point. There were no techy gadgets mentioned. Everything seemed the same except for a new political system and a violent concern about the visiting trio not wearing their “buttons.” However, Viola is adored by all the males, which is creepy since she is 17 and they are older adults. ‘... so tiny, azure eyes…. curling lashes…modish hat….;” she was like a blue bird, fluttering in from the sunshine.”
Since the first hundred pages of this book didn’t bring me any reading joy, I couldn't justify renewing my loan to finish it. I think it is safe to say that this is not the classic sci-fi I am seeking. Although, I can acknowledge its contribution to the parallel world concept.
September 24, 2015
Though little read and seldom discussed today, in the late teens and early 1920s, Minneapolis-born Francis Stevens was something of a cause célèbre among discriminating readers. "Francis Stevens" was the pen name of Gertrude Barrows Bennett, who published her first story in 1917 at the age of 33. Her career as a writer only lasted six years, during which time she produced six novels and three short stories, and she only took to writing in the first place after becoming a widow, as a means of supporting her young daughter and invalid mother. Her work initially appeared in pulp periodicals such as "All-Story Weekly" and "The Argosy," readers of which believed the name "Francis Stevens" to be a pseudonym for the great Abraham Merritt, who indeed was a fan of hers. And Merritt wasn't the only famous writer to sing her praises; no less a figure than H.P. Lovecraft, in a letter to "The Argosy" regarding Stevens' first novel, 1918's "The Citadel of Fear," remarked, "Stevens, to my mind, is the highest grade of your writers," and sci-fi critic Sam Moskowitz has since referred to her as "the most gifted woman writer of science fiction and science-fantasy between Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and C.L. Moore." My first exposure to Stevens was via "The Citadel of Fear," after coming across a very laudatory review of it in Cawthorn & Moorcock's "Fantasy: The 100 Best Books." As I later wrote of that dark fantasy, it had dealt with the discovery of the lost city of Tlapallan and "a whole slew of nightmare creatures, battling Aztec gods, indoor swamps, and on and on." And as it turns out, Stevens' next novel, 1919's "The Heads of Cerberus," which first appeared in the August to October issues of "The Thrill Book," netting Stevens around $750, is yet another winning creation from this wonderful author.
As in "The Citadel of Fear," our heroes here are an American and an Irishman. After lawyer Bob Drayton is framed and disbarred, he falls on very hard times, and in desperation and half starvation, decides to burgle a house in Philadelphia. By a million to one chance, the house he happens to break into belongs to his old crony, a huge Irish adventurer named Terry Trenmore. The Irishman, it seems, has also come into some trouble lately. After winning a curio at auction--a glass vial with a Cerberus head, supposedly containing dust from the gates of Purgatory that had been collected by the poet Dante himself--several threats and violent attacks on his person had resulted. The two decide to unstopper the vial and examine the dust, and--along with Trenmore's beautiful, 17-year-old sister, Viola--are instantaneously transported to an otherworldly realm called Ulithia. And then things become even more problematic for our trio. After walking through the so-called Gate of the Moon, they appear back in Philadelphia...but in the year 2118! The city is now a totalitarian state, and the three are promptly arrested for not wearing their number badges on their lapels! (No names for the citizens here; only numbers. Anyone remember the classic BBC program "The Prisoner"?)
Yes, "The Heads of Cerberus" IS most assuredly an early dystopian novel, as well as having been called, by sci-fi author and critic P. Schuyler Miller, "perhaps the first work of fantasy to envisage the parallel-time-track concept." But despite the fact that the bulk of the novel transpires in the year 2118--200 years after the time of its creation--it is never better than in that Ulithia segment, which takes up only 20 pages. Here, Stevens manages to conjure up a decidedly outré atmosphere, and the ruinous castle, living (but untenanted!) suits of armor, faceless dancers, living cobwebs, whispering and red-eyed shadows, and the ghostly, singing White Weaver that our trio encounters therein are all wonderfully described. In perhaps the book's finest single moment, Drayton, newly arrived and alone in Ulithia, flings "out his arms in a gesture of despair," and the reader senses his awe at the cosmic mystery into which he has been thrust. Stevens uses the futuristic-Philadelphia section to examine a form of leadership that Terry later describes as "a new low in autocratic government." Thus, high positions in the city council--the so-called Penn Service--are won by entering a peculiar series of games; rigged games, of course. The common citizens--the Numbers--are allowed to enter, but losers in these contests are summarily thrown into a spear-lined pit in the City Hall, a natural discouragement to participation! Our trio decides to enter this contest, each of them running for a different office. It is a truly nightmarish scenario, and the Numbers whom we encounter do seem to be a thoroughly demoralized and downtrodden bunch.
Stevens, to her credit, manages to keep her story taut and suspenseful, at the same time that she injects pleasing snippets of humor here and there, mainly thanks to the character of Arnold Bertram, a portly thief who had tried to rifle Trenmore's safe back home and had also been thrown into the year 2118 as a result. The author presciently posits the coming of a second World War, and yet her Philadelphia of two centuries hence still somehow contains "clanging street cars," shooting galleries, and "movie" theaters. (I love the fact that Stevens puts the word "movie" in quotes; first used around 1911, it must have still seemed a newish, slangy word by 1918!) A pseudo-scientific explanation, at the novel's end, for all the mishegas that had come before goes far in claiming for the book its place of pride in the early sci-fi field. If Stevens' work here can be charged with a fault, however, it is its use of not just coincidence, but double coincidence: Besides the staggering one that opens the book (Drayton just happening to choose to rob a house that, unbeknownst to him, belongs to an old friend), we also have Bertram choosing--of all the hotel rooms in 22nd century Philly--our trio's hotel room to rob after he arrives! Once the reader manages to overlook these minor matters, however, a most entertaining and atmospheric read will be in store.
Further good news regarding "The Heads of Cerberus" is that the novel is available today via Dover Books, reasonably priced, and with a very informative introduction by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach and charming illustrations by Ric Binkley. It is a reprint of the 1952 Polaris Press edition, in which "The Heads of Cerberus" first (and probably last, prior to this) appeared in book form. Francis Stevens, I am happy to say, is now a very solid 2 for 2 with me. And I have a feeling that once I finish her 1920 novel "Claimed"--which supposedly deals with an Atlantean relic belched out of the sea after a volcanic eruption--she will be an even more solid 3 for 3....
(This review, by the way, originally appeared on the FanLit website --www.fantasyliterature.com -- a most excellent destination for all fans of Francis Stevens....)
As in "The Citadel of Fear," our heroes here are an American and an Irishman. After lawyer Bob Drayton is framed and disbarred, he falls on very hard times, and in desperation and half starvation, decides to burgle a house in Philadelphia. By a million to one chance, the house he happens to break into belongs to his old crony, a huge Irish adventurer named Terry Trenmore. The Irishman, it seems, has also come into some trouble lately. After winning a curio at auction--a glass vial with a Cerberus head, supposedly containing dust from the gates of Purgatory that had been collected by the poet Dante himself--several threats and violent attacks on his person had resulted. The two decide to unstopper the vial and examine the dust, and--along with Trenmore's beautiful, 17-year-old sister, Viola--are instantaneously transported to an otherworldly realm called Ulithia. And then things become even more problematic for our trio. After walking through the so-called Gate of the Moon, they appear back in Philadelphia...but in the year 2118! The city is now a totalitarian state, and the three are promptly arrested for not wearing their number badges on their lapels! (No names for the citizens here; only numbers. Anyone remember the classic BBC program "The Prisoner"?)
Yes, "The Heads of Cerberus" IS most assuredly an early dystopian novel, as well as having been called, by sci-fi author and critic P. Schuyler Miller, "perhaps the first work of fantasy to envisage the parallel-time-track concept." But despite the fact that the bulk of the novel transpires in the year 2118--200 years after the time of its creation--it is never better than in that Ulithia segment, which takes up only 20 pages. Here, Stevens manages to conjure up a decidedly outré atmosphere, and the ruinous castle, living (but untenanted!) suits of armor, faceless dancers, living cobwebs, whispering and red-eyed shadows, and the ghostly, singing White Weaver that our trio encounters therein are all wonderfully described. In perhaps the book's finest single moment, Drayton, newly arrived and alone in Ulithia, flings "out his arms in a gesture of despair," and the reader senses his awe at the cosmic mystery into which he has been thrust. Stevens uses the futuristic-Philadelphia section to examine a form of leadership that Terry later describes as "a new low in autocratic government." Thus, high positions in the city council--the so-called Penn Service--are won by entering a peculiar series of games; rigged games, of course. The common citizens--the Numbers--are allowed to enter, but losers in these contests are summarily thrown into a spear-lined pit in the City Hall, a natural discouragement to participation! Our trio decides to enter this contest, each of them running for a different office. It is a truly nightmarish scenario, and the Numbers whom we encounter do seem to be a thoroughly demoralized and downtrodden bunch.
Stevens, to her credit, manages to keep her story taut and suspenseful, at the same time that she injects pleasing snippets of humor here and there, mainly thanks to the character of Arnold Bertram, a portly thief who had tried to rifle Trenmore's safe back home and had also been thrown into the year 2118 as a result. The author presciently posits the coming of a second World War, and yet her Philadelphia of two centuries hence still somehow contains "clanging street cars," shooting galleries, and "movie" theaters. (I love the fact that Stevens puts the word "movie" in quotes; first used around 1911, it must have still seemed a newish, slangy word by 1918!) A pseudo-scientific explanation, at the novel's end, for all the mishegas that had come before goes far in claiming for the book its place of pride in the early sci-fi field. If Stevens' work here can be charged with a fault, however, it is its use of not just coincidence, but double coincidence: Besides the staggering one that opens the book (Drayton just happening to choose to rob a house that, unbeknownst to him, belongs to an old friend), we also have Bertram choosing--of all the hotel rooms in 22nd century Philly--our trio's hotel room to rob after he arrives! Once the reader manages to overlook these minor matters, however, a most entertaining and atmospheric read will be in store.
Further good news regarding "The Heads of Cerberus" is that the novel is available today via Dover Books, reasonably priced, and with a very informative introduction by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach and charming illustrations by Ric Binkley. It is a reprint of the 1952 Polaris Press edition, in which "The Heads of Cerberus" first (and probably last, prior to this) appeared in book form. Francis Stevens, I am happy to say, is now a very solid 2 for 2 with me. And I have a feeling that once I finish her 1920 novel "Claimed"--which supposedly deals with an Atlantean relic belched out of the sea after a volcanic eruption--she will be an even more solid 3 for 3....
(This review, by the way, originally appeared on the FanLit website --www.fantasyliterature.com -- a most excellent destination for all fans of Francis Stevens....)
November 6, 2021
Τέταρτο συνεχόμενο βιβλίο δια χειρός γυναίκας που διαβάζω μέσα στον μήνα, ήταν και αυτό πολύ καλό, ενδιαφέρον και ιδιαίτερο. Το "Φράνσις Στίβενς" είναι το ψευδώνυμο της Γκέρτρουντ Μπάροουζ Μπένετ, που ήταν από τις πρώτες σημαντικές συγγραφείς του Φανταστικού στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, της οποίας όμως η συγγραφική παρουσία κράτησε ελάχιστα χρόνια, ουσιαστικά από το 1917 έως και το 1920, ενώ μετά απλώς εξαφανίστηκε! Αργώ να μπω στο ψητό, αλλά η περίπτωση της συγκεκριμένης γυναίκας μου φαίνεται πολύ ενδιαφέρουσα, και πραγματικά απορώ πώς έτυχε να μεταφραστεί φέτος ένα όχι και τόσο πολυδιαβασμένο μυθιστόρημα, όπως το συγκεκριμένο. Πάντως, χαίρομαι που ήρθε και στην Ελλάδα, μιας και μου άρεσε πολύ. Βέβαια, σαν γραφή και σαν ιστορία ίσως να μην είναι για όλα τα γούστα, γιατί γέρνει αρκετά προς το παλπ (και μάλιστα το παλιομοδίτικο παλπ), προσωπικά όμως το ευχαριστήθηκα σε μεγάλο βαθμό, κατάφερε να διατηρήσει το ενδιαφέρον μου από την πρώτη μέχρι την τελευταία σελίδα, και ουσιαστικά το τελείωσα σε δυο μεγάλες καθισιές. Η γραφή μου φάνηκε πολύ καλή (και κάπως ευχάριστα παλιομοδίτικη), χωρίς φιοριτούρες και πολυλογίες, οι χαρακτήρες χωρίς ιδιαίτερο βάθος αλλά οπωσδήποτε λειτουργικοί, και η ατμόσφαιρα σαφώς εξαιρετική. Φυσικά, κάποια "γιατί" και "πώς" στην πλοκή και την όλη κοσμοπλασία μάλλον δεν βρίσκουν απάντηση, ενώ η συγγραφέας δεν πείθει απόλυτα σε όλα τα σημεία για τα διάφορα που συμβαίνουν, όμως τέτοια βιβλία για να τα απολαύσεις και να μην τα πάρεις στραβά, πρέπει απλά να είσαι χαλαρός και όχι... στριμμένος. Εγώ το ευχαριστήθηκα! Και μακάρι να μεταφραζόταν κάποια στιγμή και το "The Citadel of Fear", για το οποίο έγραψε ενθαρρυντικά λόγια και ο πολύς Χ. Φ. Λάβκραφτ.
June 3, 2019
First tale of alternate universes? A logical progression of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells? A tale of strange time distortion, at any rate.
An enjoyable, solid, fun read of twisted, dark events. A stranger with mysterious demands. A vial of gray powder. A friendship lasting beyond space and time. FREAKING DYSTOPIAN FASCISTS. I was played like a harp.
An excellent read. Recommend if you like early SF/science fantasy, or if you liked Time and Again.
An enjoyable, solid, fun read of twisted, dark events. A stranger with mysterious demands. A vial of gray powder. A friendship lasting beyond space and time. FREAKING DYSTOPIAN FASCISTS. I was played like a harp.
An excellent read. Recommend if you like early SF/science fantasy, or if you liked Time and Again.
May 22, 2022
Magic dust leads to a dystopia in this early science fiction work by stenographer and part time writer Gertrude Barrows Bennett.
It starts with intrigue and unknown plots to acquire the Heads of Cerberus, a pocket size artifact that contains some magic dust, though the story takes a few chapters to get to this point. After that the story is equal parts weird worlds and social commentary, with more science fiction that other contemporary stories.
Like "The Time Machine", there is a bit of lecturing, especially at the end. Overall, a solid story, and the dystopia feels contemporary. A quote from the book, describing said world:
"They curtailed the education of the people as needless and too expensive. When the people complained, they placated them by abolishing all grades above the primary and turning the schools into dance halls and free moving-picture theaters."
It starts with intrigue and unknown plots to acquire the Heads of Cerberus, a pocket size artifact that contains some magic dust, though the story takes a few chapters to get to this point. After that the story is equal parts weird worlds and social commentary, with more science fiction that other contemporary stories.
Like "The Time Machine", there is a bit of lecturing, especially at the end. Overall, a solid story, and the dystopia feels contemporary. A quote from the book, describing said world:
"They curtailed the education of the people as needless and too expensive. When the people complained, they placated them by abolishing all grades above the primary and turning the schools into dance halls and free moving-picture theaters."
November 3, 2021
Θαυμάζω και υποκλίνομαι στη δύναμη της φαντασίας και της ικανότητας δημιουργίας ουτοπικών κόσμων που πολλοί συγγραφείς έχουν.
Η Francis Stevens εμπνεύστηκε ένα δυστοπικό μυθιστόρημα προπομπό του dark fantasy. Γραμμένο το 1919, έχει χαρακτηριστεί πλέον κλασικό, ενορατικό, σιβυλλικό, για ένα μέλλον δυσοίωνο.
Ένα ταξίδι στο μέλλον. Από τη Φιλαδέλφεια του 1918, τρεις φίλοι μεταφέρονται, 200 χρόνια μετά, σε μια κοινωνία απολυταρχικής διακυβέρνησης.
Η Βαϊόλα, ο αδερφός της Τέρι και ο φίλος του Ρόμπερτ, έρχονται αντιμέτωποι με ανθρώπους απονομωμένους και αποκομμένους από τον υπόλοιπο κόσμο.
Πολίτες που πλέον δεν έχουν όνομα μα έναν αριθμό, είναι οι Αριθμοί. Τα χρήματα έχουν καταργηθεί, η Υπηρεσία Πεν αξιολογεί την εργασία των πολιτών και οι εργατοώρες είναι το νέο νόμισμα.
Όπως σε κάθε απολυταρχικό καθεστώς, την εξουσία έχει μια μικρή ομάδα ανθρώπων, την οποία εξασφάλισαν και εδραίωσαν δημιουργώντας πολίτες απαίδευτους, κατευθυνόμενους, δουλικούς και φοβισμένους, καθότι βάση αυτής της εξουσίας και μοχλός πίεσης είναι η πρόκληση τρόμου, ο συναισθηματικός εκφοβισμός και η επίκληση στο θρησκευτικό συναίσθημα επιβάλλοντας έναν κυβερνήτη-Θεό.
Μια σαθρή, διεφθαρμένη εξουσία που λειτουργεί με στοιχεία νεποτισμού και διαπλοκής.
Η φαντασία, η μεταφυσική και η επιστήμη συνδυάζονται και ένα συναρπαστικό μυθιστόρημα δημιουργείται, καταγγελτικό για τις συνθήκες εργασίας, τη θέση της γυναίκας στην κοινωνία, το σαπρό πολιτικό και οικονομικό σύστημα, τη θρησκευτική πίστη.
Η Francis Stevens εμπνεύστηκε ένα δυστοπικό μυθιστόρημα προπομπό του dark fantasy. Γραμμένο το 1919, έχει χαρακτηριστεί πλέον κλασικό, ενορατικό, σιβυλλικό, για ένα μέλλον δυσοίωνο.
Ένα ταξίδι στο μέλλον. Από τη Φιλαδέλφεια του 1918, τρεις φίλοι μεταφέρονται, 200 χρόνια μετά, σε μια κοινωνία απολυταρχικής διακυβέρνησης.
Η Βαϊόλα, ο αδερφός της Τέρι και ο φίλος του Ρόμπερτ, έρχονται αντιμέτωποι με ανθρώπους απονομωμένους και αποκομμένους από τον υπόλοιπο κόσμο.
Πολίτες που πλέον δεν έχουν όνομα μα έναν αριθμό, είναι οι Αριθμοί. Τα χρήματα έχουν καταργηθεί, η Υπηρεσία Πεν αξιολογεί την εργασία των πολιτών και οι εργατοώρες είναι το νέο νόμισμα.
Όπως σε κάθε απολυταρχικό καθεστώς, την εξουσία έχει μια μικρή ομάδα ανθρώπων, την οποία εξασφάλισαν και εδραίωσαν δημιουργώντας πολίτες απαίδευτους, κατευθυνόμενους, δουλικούς και φοβισμένους, καθότι βάση αυτής της εξουσίας και μοχλός πίεσης είναι η πρόκληση τρόμου, ο συναισθηματικός εκφοβισμός και η επίκληση στο θρησκευτικό συναίσθημα επιβάλλοντας έναν κυβερνήτη-Θεό.
Μια σαθρή, διεφθαρμένη εξουσία που λειτουργεί με στοιχεία νεποτισμού και διαπλοκής.
Η φαντασία, η μεταφυσική και η επιστήμη συνδυάζονται και ένα συναρπαστικό μυθιστόρημα δημιουργείται, καταγγελτικό για τις συνθήκες εργασίας, τη θέση της γυναίκας στην κοινωνία, το σαπρό πολιτικό και οικονομικό σύστημα, τη θρησκευτική πίστη.
April 6, 2022
Pure pulp entertainment. If you are looking for something deep, you won't find it here. But this is a fun adventure story. Three people find themselves thrust into a future dystopia, fix the problem (more-or-less), then go home. Not much unlike a Doctor Who episode. The way that they are sent to the future feels like fantasy, but in the end it is given a semi-scientific explanation that invokes a concept similar to many-worlds quantum mechanics, but without mentioning quantum mechanics at all. (It does talk about electrons, which were discovered less than 10 years earlier.)
I suppose the reason this was re-published in 2019 is because it is a supposedly rare example of a woman writing SF in 1919. But it isn't that rare, really. At a similar time these women were also publishing SF/F books: Rose Macaulay, Cicely Hamilton, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Like I said, it is pure pulp. But there is nothing wrong with that! I may try to read some of her other books.
I suppose the reason this was re-published in 2019 is because it is a supposedly rare example of a woman writing SF in 1919. But it isn't that rare, really. At a similar time these women were also publishing SF/F books: Rose Macaulay, Cicely Hamilton, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Like I said, it is pure pulp. But there is nothing wrong with that! I may try to read some of her other books.
August 15, 2016
Stevens had a surprisingly short career, nearly all his fantastical fiction appearing over a period of about five years in the 1910s-20s. More surprising still, he never existed!
Francis Stevens was the pen name of Gertrude Barrows Bennett, the first major American woman author of fantasy. (Her true name was not released until the late '40s.) Appealing to a largely male audience in magazines such as Argosy, she delivers the expected brawny masculine characters and plotting, plus the usual gorgeous young thing thrown in as love interest – though her few female characters are strong and determined, and her male-bonding is especially effective.
Bennett is sometimes touted as in the inventor of "dark fantasy," and Cerberus as the first dystopian novel; the work is actually a strange mixture of the two, with a bit of mad scientist thrown in. Perhaps there's too much going on with the changes in scene and atmosphere, and coincidence sometimes runs amuck, but the characters hold up and the writing is striking – especially in its arch skewering of pomp and ruling-class viciousness.
Giant Irishman Terry Trenmore, his sister Viola, and lawyer-temporarily-turned-petty-crook Bob Drayton are unwittingly transported by a powder in an ancient phial (ornamented with the three heads of Cerberus) to the unpeopled, decadent plains of an almost-Earth, where the crumbled stone walls of day regrow themselves into full castles by night. From there they are channelled to Philadelphia – from whence they started – but 200 years in the future.
Roughly half the book takes places in Philly's immense city hall, now transformed into the Temple of an all-controlling oligarchy that runs the city, which – like all others throughout the splintered U.S. – is isolated, by law, from the rest of the world. Change of any sort is forbidden.
This political and social stasis serves dual purposes: It reduces the underclass to a domestic-animal dependence, and it permanently freezes every aspect of costume, language and architecture, freeing the author from the need to invent futuristic trappings that almost never work.
Throughout, Bennett combines the fantastic with a keen sympathy for social suffering and disgust at political machinations. She also shows a solid knowledge of science (including the then-recent work of Einstein). Her concept of parallel universes comes close to theories not fully formulated for another half century.
And take it from this sometime Philadelphian: She nails the physical city beautifully.
Francis Stevens was the pen name of Gertrude Barrows Bennett, the first major American woman author of fantasy. (Her true name was not released until the late '40s.) Appealing to a largely male audience in magazines such as Argosy, she delivers the expected brawny masculine characters and plotting, plus the usual gorgeous young thing thrown in as love interest – though her few female characters are strong and determined, and her male-bonding is especially effective.
Bennett is sometimes touted as in the inventor of "dark fantasy," and Cerberus as the first dystopian novel; the work is actually a strange mixture of the two, with a bit of mad scientist thrown in. Perhaps there's too much going on with the changes in scene and atmosphere, and coincidence sometimes runs amuck, but the characters hold up and the writing is striking – especially in its arch skewering of pomp and ruling-class viciousness.
Giant Irishman Terry Trenmore, his sister Viola, and lawyer-temporarily-turned-petty-crook Bob Drayton are unwittingly transported by a powder in an ancient phial (ornamented with the three heads of Cerberus) to the unpeopled, decadent plains of an almost-Earth, where the crumbled stone walls of day regrow themselves into full castles by night. From there they are channelled to Philadelphia – from whence they started – but 200 years in the future.
Roughly half the book takes places in Philly's immense city hall, now transformed into the Temple of an all-controlling oligarchy that runs the city, which – like all others throughout the splintered U.S. – is isolated, by law, from the rest of the world. Change of any sort is forbidden.
This political and social stasis serves dual purposes: It reduces the underclass to a domestic-animal dependence, and it permanently freezes every aspect of costume, language and architecture, freeing the author from the need to invent futuristic trappings that almost never work.
Throughout, Bennett combines the fantastic with a keen sympathy for social suffering and disgust at political machinations. She also shows a solid knowledge of science (including the then-recent work of Einstein). Her concept of parallel universes comes close to theories not fully formulated for another half century.
And take it from this sometime Philadelphian: She nails the physical city beautifully.
August 31, 2022
I heard of this in Monster, She Wrote and was intrigued. It was only $1 on kindle so here we are.
I think the tagline comparing this to The Hunger Games and The Man in the High Castle does it a disservice. There’re only vague similarities between this and either of those two. There is an alternate dimension or time travel; there is a sort of competition that the upper classes run, but it’s only briefly shown and is nothing like THG.
This is a really interesting earlyish fantasy/scifi. It’s a bit dated in places, but the concept is really interesting. I wanted more of Ulithia than we got, but the structure of 2118’s Philadelphia was pretty well done.
(I don’t usually picture characters as anyone specific, but I pictured Trenmore as Cleary from The Knick.)
I’m glad I read this. It is definitely worth the dollar.
I think the tagline comparing this to The Hunger Games and The Man in the High Castle does it a disservice. There’re only vague similarities between this and either of those two. There is an alternate dimension or time travel; there is a sort of competition that the upper classes run, but it’s only briefly shown and is nothing like THG.
This is a really interesting earlyish fantasy/scifi. It’s a bit dated in places, but the concept is really interesting. I wanted more of Ulithia than we got, but the structure of 2118’s Philadelphia was pretty well done.
(I don’t usually picture characters as anyone specific, but I pictured Trenmore as Cleary from The Knick.)
I’m glad I read this. It is definitely worth the dollar.
June 15, 2018
I understand the significance of the novel and the ground it broke, but still found it light and no more than entertaining. The coincidences that propel the story are a little hard to swallow. Happy I picked it up, though.
Read
October 24, 2025Wouldn't say the ending of the book ruins the experience but I will say it doesn't live up to the potential of what it could've been. Still really loved a lot of this book.
I often find myself thinking of books through a cinematic lens. I hope thats not disrespectful to the source material but with this book specifically I'd love to turn it into a movie starring charles melton lmao
I often find myself thinking of books through a cinematic lens. I hope thats not disrespectful to the source material but with this book specifically I'd love to turn it into a movie starring charles melton lmao
June 27, 2024
Parallelwelten-Klassiker mit leichten Schwächen im Finish, deshalb nur drei Sterne. War aber auf jeden Fall ein Lesevergnügen.
November 2, 2025
"Ίσως, όποιος από μας ονειρεύεται αυτόν τον εφιάλτη, να ξυπνήσει λογικός αυριο και να ξεφύγουμε μ' αυτόν τον τρόπο!"
Από το 1918 στο 2118, μια σκόνη..δρόμος.
Και το γεγονός ότι έχει γραφτεί έναν αιώνα πριν την ση��ερινή μας εποχή και περιγράφει έναν κόσμο δύο αιώνες μετά...
Υπέροχο, με όλα του τα μηνύματα.
Έξυπνο και καλογραμμένο, με δόσεις χιούμορ.
Πρωτοπόρο, γιατί φαντασία είναι μία, αλλά έχει άπειρες μορφές.
Σαν τις Κεφαλές του Κέρβερου.
Από το 1918 στο 2118, μια σκόνη..δρόμος.
Και το γεγονός ότι έχει γραφτεί έναν αιώνα πριν την ση��ερινή μας εποχή και περιγράφει έναν κόσμο δύο αιώνες μετά...
Υπέροχο, με όλα του τα μηνύματα.
Έξυπνο και καλογραμμένο, με δόσεις χιούμορ.
Πρωτοπόρο, γιατί φαντασία είναι μία, αλλά έχει άπειρες μορφές.
Σαν τις Κεφαλές του Κέρβερου.
June 3, 2019
Good pulpy sci-fi, like Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger stories, or Burroughs' Mars books.
October 2, 2022
Η Γετρούδη Μπάροους Μπένετ (Gertrude Barrows Bennett), είναι μια πρωτοπόρος Αμερικανίδα συγγραφέας φαντασίας και επιστημονικής φαντασίας, που έγραφε με ψευδώνυμο Φράνσις Στίβενς (Francis Stevens) και θεωρειται η δημιουργός της dark fantasy.
Γεννημένη το 1883, στη Μινεάπολη της Μινεσσότα, δεν κατάφερε να ολοκληρώσει το σχολείο, αλλα συνεχισε στο εσπερινό και εν συνεχεία εργαζόταν ως στενογράφος. Μετά τον γαμο της μετακόμισε στη Φιλαδέλφεια, οπου και συνέχισε να εργαζεται μετά το θάνατο του άντρα της, Stewart Bennett, καθώς μεγάλωνε μόνη της την κόρη τους.
Μετα το θανατο του πατερα της ανέλαβε την φροντίδα της μητερας της, και για να έχει εισόδημα έγραφε ιστορίες, για περίπου 3 χρόνια, από το 1917 κι ως το θανατο της μητέρας της το 1920.
Η πρώτη της ιστορία, η νουβέλα Nightmare!, δημοσιευτηκε στο All-Story Weekly το 1917.
Οι ΚΕΦΑΛΕΣ ΤΟΥ ΚΕΡΒΕΡΟΥ, ειναι μαλλον το πρώτο δυσοπικό μυθιστόρημα που γράφτηκε ποτε.
Με εντυπωσίασε δίχως να ξερω οτι πρόκειται για ένα τόσο πρωτοποριακό έργο.
Θα το χαρακτηριζα "ενα απίθανο βιβλιο" που μου αρεσε, με ψυχαγώγησε και με έβαλε σε σκέψεις.
Γεννημένη το 1883, στη Μινεάπολη της Μινεσσότα, δεν κατάφερε να ολοκληρώσει το σχολείο, αλλα συνεχισε στο εσπερινό και εν συνεχεία εργαζόταν ως στενογράφος. Μετά τον γαμο της μετακόμισε στη Φιλαδέλφεια, οπου και συνέχισε να εργαζεται μετά το θάνατο του άντρα της, Stewart Bennett, καθώς μεγάλωνε μόνη της την κόρη τους.
Μετα το θανατο του πατερα της ανέλαβε την φροντίδα της μητερας της, και για να έχει εισόδημα έγραφε ιστορίες, για περίπου 3 χρόνια, από το 1917 κι ως το θανατο της μητέρας της το 1920.
Η πρώτη της ιστορία, η νουβέλα Nightmare!, δημοσιευτηκε στο All-Story Weekly το 1917.
Οι ΚΕΦΑΛΕΣ ΤΟΥ ΚΕΡΒΕΡΟΥ, ειναι μαλλον το πρώτο δυσοπικό μυθιστόρημα που γράφτηκε ποτε.
Με εντυπωσίασε δίχως να ξερω οτι πρόκειται για ένα τόσο πρωτοποριακό έργο.
Θα το χαρακτηριζα "ενα απίθανο βιβλιο" που μου αρεσε, με ψυχαγώγησε και με έβαλε σε σκέψεις.
August 19, 2019
Not quite what I thought it would be judging from the synopsis. I thought this piece of time travel fiction from 1919 would paint a utopian future world of 2118 in which women brutally rule over men. Instead there is one female authority among tons of male rulers and her claim to power is based on her beauty. Nevertheless, this glimpse into the future was interesting and fun. Often it felt almost whimsical and with the in-between space of Ulithia it reminded me more of a fantasy than a scifi novel. I also enjoyed the 3 main characters and the friendship dynamic between them. I just wish the woman, Viola, had not been the object of attraction for basically every male character (also, she's 17, it was uncomfortable at times).
I like to remind myself that this piece of creative non-realistic fiction was written in the early 20th century by a woman and it makes me proud that Gertrude Barrows Bennett (she wrote under a pen name) had the imagination and courage to publish her work.
I like to remind myself that this piece of creative non-realistic fiction was written in the early 20th century by a woman and it makes me proud that Gertrude Barrows Bennett (she wrote under a pen name) had the imagination and courage to publish her work.
February 28, 2021
I always enjoy a novel written sometime in the past and set sometime in the future. The glimpses of what was imagined can be fascinating. Francis Stevens did a fine job in 1919 conjuring up the dreadful lengths people would go to control others and elevate themselves into positions of power in a false democracy.
In The Heads of Cerberus, shades of the Hunger Games and Trump’s America come together in a dark and compelling story. The science fiction isn’t necessarily finely detailed so the reader has to accept a bit of magical thinking but it’s a very good read nonetheless.
In The Heads of Cerberus, shades of the Hunger Games and Trump’s America come together in a dark and compelling story. The science fiction isn’t necessarily finely detailed so the reader has to accept a bit of magical thinking but it’s a very good read nonetheless.
September 23, 2022
Puanım 2/5 (%42/100)
En başta genel olarak eh işte diyebileceğim bir kitap olduğunu söyleyerek başlayayım. İşe giderken yolda yanımda kitap bulunduruyorum ve elimde bu olduğu için bitirmek zorunda kaldım yoksa yarısına falan geldiğimde okumayı bırakırdım. Francis Stevens adıyla 1900lerin başlarında belki de kimseler yazmazken bu türde yenilikçi bir kitap yazmış Gertrude Barrows Bennett. O yüzden aslında çok değerli bir kitap çünkü paralel evrenin ilk geçtiği kitaplardan olması, distopya ve kara fantazya denildiğinde ilk isimlerden olması gibi birçok özelliği var. Fakat kitabın birçok problemi de var benim gözümde.
Öncelikle bilim-kurgu olarak kabul etmek zor çünkü anlatılan şeyler çok ucundan bilimsel şekilde açıklanıyor o yüzden daha çok fantastik diyebilirim. Zaman yolculuğu vs. şeklinde reklamı yapılıyor ama onun bile büyü ile açıklanması daha kolay. Karakterler de fazla yüzeysel geldi bana o yüzden çok bağlanamadım. Genel olarak sıkıldım ve çok büyük umutlarla başlamış olsam da bir türlü sevemedim yani 100. sayfaya geldiğimde bile "e hadi artık bir şeyler olsun" derken buldum kendimi. Yani bilim-kurgu/fantastik edebiyat için önemli bir yazar ve eser olduğu için 1 kere okuyup kütüphanenizde saklayabilirsiniz ama çok umutlanmayın derim ben.
En başta genel olarak eh işte diyebileceğim bir kitap olduğunu söyleyerek başlayayım. İşe giderken yolda yanımda kitap bulunduruyorum ve elimde bu olduğu için bitirmek zorunda kaldım yoksa yarısına falan geldiğimde okumayı bırakırdım. Francis Stevens adıyla 1900lerin başlarında belki de kimseler yazmazken bu türde yenilikçi bir kitap yazmış Gertrude Barrows Bennett. O yüzden aslında çok değerli bir kitap çünkü paralel evrenin ilk geçtiği kitaplardan olması, distopya ve kara fantazya denildiğinde ilk isimlerden olması gibi birçok özelliği var. Fakat kitabın birçok problemi de var benim gözümde.
Öncelikle bilim-kurgu olarak kabul etmek zor çünkü anlatılan şeyler çok ucundan bilimsel şekilde açıklanıyor o yüzden daha çok fantastik diyebilirim. Zaman yolculuğu vs. şeklinde reklamı yapılıyor ama onun bile büyü ile açıklanması daha kolay. Karakterler de fazla yüzeysel geldi bana o yüzden çok bağlanamadım. Genel olarak sıkıldım ve çok büyük umutlarla başlamış olsam da bir türlü sevemedim yani 100. sayfaya geldiğimde bile "e hadi artık bir şeyler olsun" derken buldum kendimi. Yani bilim-kurgu/fantastik edebiyat için önemli bir yazar ve eser olduğu için 1 kere okuyup kütüphanenizde saklayabilirsiniz ama çok umutlanmayın derim ben.
April 26, 2020
More like a 2.5, but I'll round it up and give it the benefit of the doubt since it's a pioneering work.
This is a tough book for a contemporary reader. Pushing through the dated language is one thing, but the god awful stock characters with their predictable tropes is tough.
The pace also plods, which isn't too uncommon for turn of the century literature; too many times the momentum of the story is stymied by unnecessary expository passages.
There is enough intrigue in the plot to carry the story through, though. There is a genuine sense of tension that remains consistent. I would love to see this translated to the screen.
When considering the time that this was written, the premise is ingenious and it's disappointing to know that this book and its author have gone overlooked for their work.
This is a tough book for a contemporary reader. Pushing through the dated language is one thing, but the god awful stock characters with their predictable tropes is tough.
The pace also plods, which isn't too uncommon for turn of the century literature; too many times the momentum of the story is stymied by unnecessary expository passages.
There is enough intrigue in the plot to carry the story through, though. There is a genuine sense of tension that remains consistent. I would love to see this translated to the screen.
When considering the time that this was written, the premise is ingenious and it's disappointing to know that this book and its author have gone overlooked for their work.
October 21, 2025
Well this book I wouldn’t have picked up if it weren’t for being a mandatory read for my English class. I think my professor has bad taste. I was shocked to find out a woman wrote this book, it has misogynistic man-child written all over it. Gave it a little boost from a complete 1 star cause there are satirically ridiculous elements of it that I somewhat enjoyed. Wouldn’t recommend unless you’re unfortunate like me and have to read it for English.
August 10, 2022
La fiole au Cerbère est une excellente découverte. Certes, si nous ne le remettons pas dans son époque de parution, c’est un roman qui peut paraître un peu daté sur certains aspects tout en offrant une lecture très plaisante, rythmée et envoûtante malgré ses défauts. Mais quand on garde en plus en tête qu’il est paru en 1919, on est impressionné par son côté novateur et l’univers dystopique imaginée par son autrice. Une découverte fort intéressante!
Critique complète sur yuyine.be!
Critique complète sur yuyine.be!
September 25, 2020
3.5/5 stars. Unsurprisingly this book is a product of its time (1919) and therefore cringy at times. That said, it was an entertaining read and it was pretty neat to see some of the roots of books like The Hunger Games and Divergent.
April 15, 2022
Snort some magic dust
visit the dumbest timeline
what a wasted trip.
visit the dumbest timeline
what a wasted trip.
Read
February 1, 2024A dystopian/sci-fi novel written by a woman in 1919 - very cool.
September 26, 2023
È stata una lettura particolare. Alla fin fine credo di poter dire che ha delle trovate davvero interessanti, ma che non riesce del tutto a decollare.
Nella Philadelphia distopica del futuro, il popolo non ha più diritto al nome, ma sono semplicemente numeri con appuntata una spilla gialla al petto, quasi del tutto privati dei loro diritti. Considerando che il romanzo è stato pubblicato nel 1919, la cosa mi ha lasciata un po’ scioccata. Inoltre l’autrice dice che la Philadelphia del futuro si è isolata alla fine dellE guerrE mondiali. Era appena finita la prima guerra mondiale e, anche qui, l’autrice fa un’infausta previsione che si avvererà vent’anni più tardi.
Un’altra cosa interessante è che la concezione del futuro è fluida, ovvero non esiste un solo possibile futuro, ma infiniti possibili, e tutte le realtà presenti e future coesistono nello spazio ma non si intersecano perché “a livello atomico” stanno su diverse frequenze. Questa coesistenza da la spiegazione ai possibili fenomeni paranormali nel mondo.
L’autrice viene spesso definita “autrice di dark fantasy” e certo alcune scene rimangono a tutti gli effetti fantasy, senza trovare davvero una spiegazione fantascientifica.
Ci sono alcune cose che però non funzionano. La prima è che i protagonisti non escono dai loro stereotipi: la ragazza bella e intelligente, l’avvocato intelligente e sfortunato, il grosso che ha molta forza ma pensa poco. Se fossimo in un gioco di ruolo sarebbero una maga, un arciere, un barbaro e poi arriva pure il ladro a completare il perfetto quartetto per un’avventura. I personaggi non mostrano mai di avere molto più spessore del minimo necessario per una caratterizzazione base e quindi non si riesce esattamente ad affezionarcisi.
Le scene sono mal calibrate e, come funziona quando in un film comico le battute non rispettano i tempi adeguati, alcuni momenti scorrono troppo lentamente, l'azione è sbilanciata e i dialoghi a volte un po' grotteschi da risultare comici portando ad una narrazione che non trova esattamente la sua strada. Un'altra cosa che non mi è piaciuta è che i personaggi si incontrano in condizioni troppo forzate, come se l'autrice non avesse voglia di trovare un espediente appena più decente per arrivare all'incontro.
Detto questo, ho trovato davvero intrippante la storia di Gertrude B. Bennett alias Francis Stevens. Nata nel 1883 e morta nel ‘48, ha scritto, com'era di consueto fino a pochissimo tempo fa, sotto pseudonimo maschile. Le sono morti due fratelli, il padre e il marito ed è rimasta sola ad accudire la madre invalida e la figlia appena nata. È scomparsa nel ‘39 e non si sa nulla di quel che fece fino al 2 febbraio 1948, data attestata dal suo certificato di morte. Ho trovato molto interessante l’articolo in calce, dove si parla anche di altri suoi lavori, tra i quali un libro in cui le donne sono al potere come sesso forte e, in questa società rovesciata viene raccontato “il racconto della Vecchia Marinaia” in una versione femminile dell’opera di Coleridge.
https://vitaminevaganti.com/2020/12/0...
Nella Philadelphia distopica del futuro, il popolo non ha più diritto al nome, ma sono semplicemente numeri con appuntata una spilla gialla al petto, quasi del tutto privati dei loro diritti. Considerando che il romanzo è stato pubblicato nel 1919, la cosa mi ha lasciata un po’ scioccata. Inoltre l’autrice dice che la Philadelphia del futuro si è isolata alla fine dellE guerrE mondiali. Era appena finita la prima guerra mondiale e, anche qui, l’autrice fa un’infausta previsione che si avvererà vent’anni più tardi.
Un’altra cosa interessante è che la concezione del futuro è fluida, ovvero non esiste un solo possibile futuro, ma infiniti possibili, e tutte le realtà presenti e future coesistono nello spazio ma non si intersecano perché “a livello atomico” stanno su diverse frequenze. Questa coesistenza da la spiegazione ai possibili fenomeni paranormali nel mondo.
L’autrice viene spesso definita “autrice di dark fantasy” e certo alcune scene rimangono a tutti gli effetti fantasy, senza trovare davvero una spiegazione fantascientifica.
Ci sono alcune cose che però non funzionano. La prima è che i protagonisti non escono dai loro stereotipi: la ragazza bella e intelligente, l’avvocato intelligente e sfortunato, il grosso che ha molta forza ma pensa poco. Se fossimo in un gioco di ruolo sarebbero una maga, un arciere, un barbaro e poi arriva pure il ladro a completare il perfetto quartetto per un’avventura. I personaggi non mostrano mai di avere molto più spessore del minimo necessario per una caratterizzazione base e quindi non si riesce esattamente ad affezionarcisi.
Le scene sono mal calibrate e, come funziona quando in un film comico le battute non rispettano i tempi adeguati, alcuni momenti scorrono troppo lentamente, l'azione è sbilanciata e i dialoghi a volte un po' grotteschi da risultare comici portando ad una narrazione che non trova esattamente la sua strada. Un'altra cosa che non mi è piaciuta è che i personaggi si incontrano in condizioni troppo forzate, come se l'autrice non avesse voglia di trovare un espediente appena più decente per arrivare all'incontro.
Detto questo, ho trovato davvero intrippante la storia di Gertrude B. Bennett alias Francis Stevens. Nata nel 1883 e morta nel ‘48, ha scritto, com'era di consueto fino a pochissimo tempo fa, sotto pseudonimo maschile. Le sono morti due fratelli, il padre e il marito ed è rimasta sola ad accudire la madre invalida e la figlia appena nata. È scomparsa nel ‘39 e non si sa nulla di quel che fece fino al 2 febbraio 1948, data attestata dal suo certificato di morte. Ho trovato molto interessante l’articolo in calce, dove si parla anche di altri suoi lavori, tra i quali un libro in cui le donne sono al potere come sesso forte e, in questa società rovesciata viene raccontato “il racconto della Vecchia Marinaia” in una versione femminile dell’opera di Coleridge.
https://vitaminevaganti.com/2020/12/0...
September 18, 2020
Actual rating: 2.5 stars.
Interesting. That is the best I can say of this story, a blend of fantasy and science fiction, touted as the first popular work of SF to introduce the concept of parallel worlds, though not one of the foundational works of SF I had ever heard of until a month ago. While I'm skeptical it was the first popular work to explore parallel worlds, it was certainly a pioneer, and thus worth reading to anyone who wants a good grounding in the genre.
I wrestled with the need for a Ulithia dream stage between alternate worlds, and hated the characters' casual blowing off of 2118 Philadelphia and the lives of its inhabitants once they were safely back in their own 1918 Philadelphia (wouldn't the people and lives they encountered there be as real as their own?). I was restive with my first look at 2118 Philadelphia, but the lack of change in technology was eventually explained in the narrative.
The flowery language spoken by the travelers from 1918, in particular that of the "wild Irishman" Terry, reminded me of the dialog in a Harry Stephen Keeler novel, and once that comparison lodged in my head I was unable to shake it. I'll just point out that the dialog in Bram Stoker's "Dracula," written in 1897, feels almost contemporary today. I'm not at all sure why Gertrude Barrows Bennett decided to insert such stilted, stagey, stereotyped language into her characters' mouths, and I'm relieved she didn't add a Black character, or indeed any commentary on race or ethnicity (beyond the Irish, that is).
One bit of prophecy sticks in my mind: a character in 2118 Philadelphia, explaining history to a character from 1918 Philly, mentions the "world wars" of the 20th century as the catalyst for freezing technological development and preserving Philadelphia in a stagnant state. Good job seeing the second one coming, Gertrude ... most of your contemporaries didn't.
An interesting and probably important read for students of science fiction, but honestly too dated to be much fun or to create any sense of wonder.
Interesting. That is the best I can say of this story, a blend of fantasy and science fiction, touted as the first popular work of SF to introduce the concept of parallel worlds, though not one of the foundational works of SF I had ever heard of until a month ago. While I'm skeptical it was the first popular work to explore parallel worlds, it was certainly a pioneer, and thus worth reading to anyone who wants a good grounding in the genre.
I wrestled with the need for a Ulithia dream stage between alternate worlds, and hated the characters' casual blowing off of 2118 Philadelphia and the lives of its inhabitants once they were safely back in their own 1918 Philadelphia (wouldn't the people and lives they encountered there be as real as their own?). I was restive with my first look at 2118 Philadelphia, but the lack of change in technology was eventually explained in the narrative.
The flowery language spoken by the travelers from 1918, in particular that of the "wild Irishman" Terry, reminded me of the dialog in a Harry Stephen Keeler novel, and once that comparison lodged in my head I was unable to shake it. I'll just point out that the dialog in Bram Stoker's "Dracula," written in 1897, feels almost contemporary today. I'm not at all sure why Gertrude Barrows Bennett decided to insert such stilted, stagey, stereotyped language into her characters' mouths, and I'm relieved she didn't add a Black character, or indeed any commentary on race or ethnicity (beyond the Irish, that is).
One bit of prophecy sticks in my mind: a character in 2118 Philadelphia, explaining history to a character from 1918 Philly, mentions the "world wars" of the 20th century as the catalyst for freezing technological development and preserving Philadelphia in a stagnant state. Good job seeing the second one coming, Gertrude ... most of your contemporaries didn't.
An interesting and probably important read for students of science fiction, but honestly too dated to be much fun or to create any sense of wonder.
October 3, 2011
This has to be explicably alternative history [with science fictions and speculative makings] a great character development for fiction in it’s time and drawing us in to see Philadelphia respectively like in 2118 alternatively Francis Stevens work was published between 1919-1920, cool as in cool genre eye opening brain candy from the days back when slang in English usages were norm and science fiction writers were likely new to getting attentive readers pleasing numerous audiences in the flavor of such mysterious alternative in literature.
December 9, 2019
This showed up in the new section at one of the local libraries, a bit ironic for a hundred year old book. The protagonists visit a fantastic future world via a magical dust, it's a bit purple and pulpy, same as other older stories of this genre. An interesting historic SF read.
For more obscure authors of this sub-genre of SF, you can dig up books by A. Merritt or Talbot Mundy.
For more obscure authors of this sub-genre of SF, you can dig up books by A. Merritt or Talbot Mundy.
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