Subjects
Modern British Utopias, 1700–1850
Editor: Gregory Claeys
978 1 85196 319 5: 234x156mm: £550.00/$975.00
This collection of British utopias spans the period from the age of Swift and Defoe to nineteenth-century socialist and constitutionalist texts. These include several unique items as well as many of the best known utopian tracts of the period, most of which are edited with textual notes for the first time in this collection. They are drawn from a large number of libraries, no one library containing a similar collection of original sources.
It includes both Defoe's supplements to Robinson Crusoe, which cast considerable light on the original; seminal works cast in utopian form by major political writers of the period (Edmund Burke, Samuel Johnson, Benjamin Disraeli); prominent socialist works (John Francis Bray, A Voyage from Utopia), as well as satires on socialism (The Island of Liberty and Equality); and the most important early feminist novel of the period (James Lawrence, The Empire of the Nairs).
The collection demonstrates both the central satirical thrust of the utopian tradition, as well as its evocation of serious yearnings for superior societies and polities in the age of enlightenment, revolution and romanticism. The selected texts demonstrate that the utopian form was amongst the most important sub-divisions of contemporary political literature, and offer many rich insights into the quest for moral, social and political reform.
In this period, the history of utopian thought cast considerable light on ideas of property-holding, community, and social and political reform movements, including those for the extension of rights to slaves, women and animals. Much of the later programme of communitarian communism later associated with early socialism was outlined first in utopian form, and utopian works clearly help us plot the development of republican ideas of an agrarian law towards nineteenth-century socialism. At the same time, satires of primitivist critiques of luxury and the extension of commercial society make up one part of the 'anti-utopian' branch of the tradition.
Contents
Volume 1
Annus Sophiae Jubilaeus, The Sophick Constitution: or, The Evil Customs of the Worlds Reformed (1700); [Ambrose Evans], The Adventures and Surprizing Deliverances of James Dubourdieu (1719); [Ambrose Evans] The Adventures of Alexander Vendchurch (1719); Daniel Defoe, Serious Reflections During the Life and Serious Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1720); Simon Berrington, The Adventures of Sig. Gaudentio di Lucca (1737)
Volume 2
Pythagorlunister, A Journey to the Moon (1740); [John Kirkby], The Capacity and Extent of Human Understanding (1745); [Robert Paltock], The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins (1751)
Volume 3
[Edmund Burke], A Vindication of Natural Society (1757); The Voyages,Travels & Wonderful Discoveries of Capt. John Holmesby (1757); Samuel Johnson, Rasselas (1760); [Sarah Scott], Millenium Hall (1778); S.T. [Horace Walpole], An Account of the Giants Lately Discovered (1766); Private Letters from an American in England to his Friends in America (1769)
Volume 4
[John Elliott], The Travels of Hildebrand Bowman (1778); [Thomas Spence], A Supplement to the History of Robinson Crusoe (1782); [William Thomson],The Man in the Moon, or, Travels into the Lunar Regions (2 vols, 1783); A Journey Lately Performed Through the Air (1784); The Modern Atalantis; Or, the Devil in an Air Balloon (1784); Aratus, A Voyage to the Moon Strongly Recommended to All Lovers of Real Freedom (1793); Modern Gulliver's Travels (1796); A.E. Libellus: or, a Brief Sketch of the History of Gotham (1798)
Volume 5
James Henry Lawrence, The Empire of the Nairs; or the Rights of Women, A Utopian Romance (4 vols, 1811); The Last Man, Omegarus (2 Vols, 1806)
Volume 6
[Thomas Erskine], Armata, A Fragment (2 vols, 1817); [G A Ellis], New Britain (1820); [John Minter Morgan], The Revolt of the Bees (1839)
Volume 7
[Benjamin Disraeli], The Voyage of Captain Popanilla (1828); The History of Bullanabee and Clinkataboo (1828); [John Trotter], Travels to Phrenologasto (1829); Lemuel Gulliver, Sequel to Gulliver's Travels (1830); Great Britain in 1841 (1831); Lady Mary Fox, ed, Account of an Expedition to the Interior of New Holland (1837); John Francis Bray, A Voyage from Utopia (1842)
Volume 8
Douglas Jerrold, The Chronicles of Clovernook (1846); The Island of Liberty and Equality (1848); Charles Rowcroft, The Triumph of Women, A Christmas Story (1848); Henry Forrest, A Dream of Reform (1848)
Reviews
‘… Modern British Utopias is deeply researched and a supremely valuable achievement...it will provoke debate, argument and further research into one of the most interesting periods of English utopianism.’
– Nicole Pohl, Utopian Studies
'This anthology can be recommended as a valuable archive for any library.’
– Barbara Goodwin, History of Political Thought