Interesting!

This short yet somewhat long-winded novel, written in 1888, is awkwardly titled since it deals with the future and not the past. In fact, its main protagonist, Julian West, falls asleep one night in 1887 and wakes up only in 2000, physically unaltered. This, actually, is a quite transparent device for the author to voice his views on the ideal social and economic system. Clearly, he is not very much concerned with technical progress nor with the psychology of his characters. Both are alluded to but not developed.

It is interesting to observe that he anticipates many elements that now exist, including:

• a system analogous to Amazon’s that delivers a wide variety of goods to individual homes in record time (though it functions without the Internet … and is state-owned);
• live radio (through the telephone);
• the use of electricity rather than of coal, gas or wood for heating and lighting;
• universal health insurance;
• generalized education (compulsory in fact till 21 years of age);
• the World Trade Organization;
• a primitive notion of credit cards and of a cashless economy;
• a non-democratic meritocracy comparable to what allegedly exists today in Mainland China.

Though the social views presented were tremendously progressive for their days, countries such as India are described in 2000 to still be “backwards” and in need of patronage from North America and Europe. While educated, women are largely kept to a very Victorian role of being supportive and pleasant. They are assigned to “lighter work” and secondary decision-making positions. Nothing is said of African Americans.

In the audio version, the narrator does an adequate job, though in no way superlative.

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