Download or read book Scientific Romance in Britain 1890 1950 written by Brian M. Stableford and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 1985-01-01 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Science Fact and Science Fiction written by Brian M. Stableford and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2006 with total page 758 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher description

Download or read book The Purple Cloud written by Matthew Phipps Shiel and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "If now a swell from the Deep has swept over this planetary ship of earth, and I, who alone chanced to find myself in the furthest stern, as the sole survivor of her crew . . . What then, my God, shall I do?" The Purple Cloud is widely hailed as a masterpiece of science fiction and one of the best "last man" novels ever written. A deadly purple vapor passes over the world and annihilates all living creatures except one man, Adam Jeffson. He embarks on an epic journey across a silent and devastated planet, an apocalyptic Robinson Crusoe putting together the semblance of a normal life from the flotsam and jetsam of his former existence. As he descends into madness over the years, he becomes increasingly aware that his survival was no accident and that his destiny?and the fate of the human race?are part of a profound, cosmological plan.

Download or read book Modern Science Fiction A Critical Analysis written by James Gunn and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-05-25 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James Gunn--one of the founding figures of science fiction scholarship and teaching--wrote in 1951 what is likely the first master's thesis on modern science fiction. Portions were in the short-lived pulp magazine Dynamic but it has otherwise remained unavailable. Here in its first full publication, the thesis explores many of the classic Golden Age stories of the 1940s and the critical perspective that informed Gunn's essential genre history Alternate Worlds and his anthology series The Road to Science Fiction. The editor's introduction and commentary show the historical significance of Gunn's work and its relevance to today's science fiction studies.

Download or read book Science Fiction Before 1900 written by Paul K. Alkon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul Alkon analyzes several key works that mark the most significant phases in the early evolution of science fiction, including Frankenstein, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, A Connecticut Yankee in King arthur's Court and The Time Machine. He places the work in context and discusses the genre and its relation to other kinds of literature.

Download or read book Political Future Fiction Vol 1 written by Kate Macdonald and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-08-01 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Edwardian period was a time of great social and political change. The six texts in this edition are all notable for their imaginative portrayals of the future. This is the only critical edition of these works. Essays and introductory matter explore the themes in the novels, as well as the literary-historical context they appeared in.

Download or read book The Origins of Science Fiction written by Michael Newton and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-03-24 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'I seemed to gaze upon a vast space, the limits of which extended far beyond my vision...' This anthology gathers together seventeen gripping tales from the nineteenth and early twentieth century that make up the foundations of science fiction. It moves from Mary Shelley to H. G. Wells, from Edgar Allan Poe to W. E. B. Du Bois, and from George Eliot to Jack London. Before the term 'science fiction' was established, writers pursued a new and strange subject matter, to be written about in a startlingly new way. The selected stories in this collection reflect the many diverse paths that led towards science fiction, including scientific Gothic, dystopian fantasies, psychological hoaxes, feminist parables, fictions of time-travel, adventure stories, uncanny tales, and stories of alien encounters. The anthology unveils the power of the literature of the period and exposes our fascination with scientific discovery and the allure (and threat) of the imagined future. This edition includes an introduction by Michael Newton setting out the themes of the tales and exploring the development of science fiction. Newton explores how the stories engage with anxiety about the limits of the rational mind, the fact of Empire and the discoveries of anthropology, the uneasy figure of the scientist, the rapid development of technology, and the presence of the alien other. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Download or read book Invasion of the Sea written by Jules Verne and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2007-03-12 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First English edition of a classic Verne novel. Jules Verne, celebrated French author of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in 80 Days, wrote over 60 novels collected in the popular series "Voyages Extraordinaires." A handful of these have never been translated into English, including Invasion of the Sea, written in 1904 when large-scale canal digging was very much a part of the political, economic, and military strategy of the world's imperial powers. Instead of linking two seas, as existing canals (the Suez and the Panama) did, Verne proposed a canal that would create a sea in the heart of the Sahara Desert. The story raises a host of concerns — environmental, cultural, and political. The proposed sea threatens the nomadic way of life of those Islamic tribes living on the site, and they declare war. The ensuing struggle is finally resolved only by a cataclysmic natural event. This Wesleyan edition features notes, appendices and an introduction by Verne scholar Arthur B. Evans, as well as reproductions of the illustrations from the original French edition.

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction written by Gerry Canavan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-01-26 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction explores the relationship between the ideas and themes of American science fiction and their roots in the American cultural experience. Science fiction in America has long served to reflect the country's hopes, desires, ambitions, and fears. The ideas and conventions associated with science fiction are pervasive throughout American film and television, comics and visual arts, games and gaming, and fandom, as well as across the culture writ large. Through essays that address not only the history of science fiction in America but also the influence and significance of American science fiction throughout media and fan culture, this companion serves as a key resource for scholars, teachers, students, and fans of science fiction.

Download or read book The Fantasy Literature of England written by Colin N. Manlove and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-05-11 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this, the first book on English fantasy, Colin Manlove shows that for all its immense diversity, English fantasy can best be understood in terms of its strong national character, rather than as an international genre. Showing its development from Beowulf to Blake, the author describes English fantasy's modern growth through secondary world, metaphysical, emotive, comic, subversive, and children's fantasy. In them all England has led the world, with authors as different as Chaucer, Lewis Carroll, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Salman Rushdie.

Download or read book Science Fiction and the Dismal Science written by Gary Westfahl and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-12-10 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the growing importance of economics in our lives, literary scholars have long been reluctant to consider economic issues as they examine key texts. This volume seeks to fill one of these conspicuous gaps in the critical literature by focusing on various connections between science fiction and economics, with some attention to related fields such as politics and government. Its seventeen contributors include five award-winning scholars, five science fiction writers, and a widely published economist. Three topics are covered: what noted science fiction writers like Robert A. Heinlein, Frank Herbert, and Kim Stanley Robinson have had to say about our economic and political future; how the competitive and ever-changing publishing marketplace has affected the growth and development of science fiction from the nineteenth century to today; and how the scholars who examine science fiction have themselves been influenced by the economics of academia. Although the essays focus primarily on American science fiction, the traditions of Russian and Chinese science fiction are also examined. A comprehensive bibliography of works related to science fiction and economics will assist other readers and critics who are interested in this subject.

Download or read book Shaw and Science Fiction written by Milton T. Wolf and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shaw's speculations about human destiny align him with many other writers of the time, and later, who forged a new genre of literature that ultimately took the name in 1928 of "science fiction." Ray Bradbury affirms Greg Bear's statement about the little-known, but significant, relationship that Bernard Shaw has with science fiction. Bradbury, who frequently emphasizes Shaw's influence on his own work, asks, "Isn't it obvious at last: Those that do not live in the future will be trapped and die in the past?" Susan Stone-Blackburn, comparing Shaw's Back to Methuselah with Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men, discusses why science-fiction scholars have been reluctant to acknowledge Shaw's role in the genre. Tom Shippey examines aspects of Shaw's theory of Creative Evolution to show why many have dismissed Shaw's science fiction as insufficiently scientific. Surveying the science-fiction milieu, Ben P. Indick shows that while Shaw was not interested in writing science fiction per se, he knew the genre and how to use it. Jeffrey M. Wallmann chronicles the science-fiction techniques that Shaw foreshadowed. Rodelle Weintraub analyzes dream-related elements of the fantastic that Shaw frequently employed in his drama. John Barnes focuses on Shaw's "radical superman," a stock-in-trade of science fiction. Like H. G. Wells, Shaw understood that human intervention was becoming the dominant mechanism of evolution and that new approaches to theatrical drama would be required to convey the social and political impact of the scientific revolution. Elwira M. Grossman compares similar dilemmas facing Shaw and the Polish dramatist Witkacy. J. L. Wisenthal examines the utopian tradition that underlay the English literary experience, and Julie A. Sparks contrasts Karel Capek's anti-utopian concepts with Shaw's utopian vision. Also included is an 1887 lecture by Shaw entitled "Utopias," published here for the first time. Several of the contributors emphasize the significant influence that Shaw had on major science-fiction writers. Elizabeth Anne Hull explores Shaw's affinities with Arthur C. Clarke, John R. Pfeiffer discusses the many connections between Shaw and Ray Bradbury, and George Slusser explores Shaw and Robert A. Heinlein's "recurrent fascination with the possibilities of life extension." Like his friend Einstein, Shaw knew that imagination is more important than knowledge. Peter Gahan's article demonstrates that Shaw's ambition was to engage the reader's imagination, the only "sufficient backdrop for his vision." Also included are reviews of recent additions to Shavian scholarship, including the Shaw/Wells correspondence, and John R. Pfeiffer's "Continuing Checklist of Shaviana."

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction written by Edward James and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-11-20 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Table of contents

Download or read book Algebraic Fantasies and Realistic Romances written by Brian M. Stableford and published by Wildside Press LLC. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seven lucid and entertaining essays on masters of science fiction and fantasy literature, including Bob Shaw, M.P. Shiel, Douglas Adams, Stephen R. Donaldson, and more.

Download or read book Space Time and Infinity written by Brian M. Stableford and published by Wildside Press LLC. This book was released on 2006-11-01 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new collection of critical essays on science fiction and fantasy literature features the following pieces: "Setting Ideas in Space, Time, and Infinity," "The Necessity of Science Fiction," "The British and American Traditions of Speculative Fiction," "The Biology and Sociology of Alien Worlds," "Cosmic Perspectives in Nineteenth-Century Literature," "An Introduction to Alternate Worlds," "Adolf Hilter: His Part in Our Struggle: (A Brief Economic History of British SF Magazines)," "The Battle of Dorking and Its Aftermath," "The Science in Science Fiction," "The Siren Song of Sexuality: The Mythology of Femmes Fatales," "What We Know About Vampires," "A Brief History of Vampires," and "A Brief History of Werewolves." Brian Stableford is the bestselling writer of 50 books and hundreds of essays, including science fiction, fantasy, literary criticism, and popular nonfiction. He lives and works in Reading, England.

Download or read book Fairy Tales of London written by Hadas Elber-Aviram and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-28 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the 2022 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth and Fantasy Studies From the time of Charles Dickens, the imaginative power of the city of London has frequently inspired writers to their most creative flights of fantasy. Charting a new history of London fantasy writing from the Victorian era to the 21st century, Fairy Tales of London explores a powerful tradition of urban fantasy distinct from the rural tales of writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien. Hadas Elber-Aviram traces this urban tradition from Dickens, through the scientific romances of H.G. Wells, the anti-fantasies of George Orwell and Mervyn Peake to contemporary science fiction and fantasy writers such as Michael Moorcock, Neil Gaiman and China Miéville.

Download or read book Utopian Literature and Science written by Patrick Parrinder and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-08-11 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientific progress is usually seen as a precondition of modern utopias, but science and utopia are frequently at odds. Ranging from Galileo's observations with the telescope to current ideas of the post-human and the human-animal boundary, this study brings a fresh perspective to the paradoxes of utopian thinking since Plato.