While tracing the development of fiction in the writing of modern utopias, the author seeks to demonstrate in specific ways how those utopias have become increasingly literary. After an introductory discussion of how we understand - and how we should understand - modern utopian fictions, the book provides several examples of the ways in which those understandings affect our appreciation of utopian fiction. There are chapters on H. G. Wells’
Time Machine ; Bernard Shaw’s
Major Barbara ; Aldous Huxley’s
Brave New World ; George Orwell’s
Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four ; William Golding’s
Lord of the Flies ; and, Iris Murdoch’s
The Bell . ‘This book will inspire readers to devote more time to this literature, and it will be invaluable to those designing courses on utopian fiction. Highly recommended’ -
Choice .