A Modern Utopia (1905) is a work of fiction by H. G. Wells.
- H. G. Wells's proposal for social reform was the formation of a world state, a concept that increasingly occupied him throughout the remainder of his life. One of his earliest and most ambitious attempts at portraying a world state was A Modern Utopia (1905) (McLean).
- Like most utopians, he indicated a series of modifications which in his opinion would increase the aggregate of human happiness. Basically, Wells' idea of a perfect world would be if everyone were able to live a happy life.
- This book is written with an intimate knowledge of former ideal commonwealths and is a conscious attempt to describe a utopia that is not utopian.
- June Deery refers to A Modern Utopia as a work in progress for two obvious reasons:
- It is about social and technological advance, and
- Wells stresses that he is describing a dynamic utopia. This means that this modern society requires and allows further improvement.
Read more about A Modern Utopia: Origins, Notable Aspects
Famous quotes containing the words modern and/or utopia:
“So all that is said of the wise man by Stoic or Oriental or modern essayist, describes to each reader his own idea, describes his unattained but attainable self.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I shall speak of ... how melancholy and utopia preclude one another. How they fertilize one another.... Of the revulsion that follows one insight and precedes the next.... Of superabundance and surfeit. Of stasis in progress. And of myself, for whom melancholy and utopia are heads and tails of the same coin.”
—Günther Grass (b. 1927)