 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | H. G. Wells |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Chapman and Hall |
Publication date | April 1905 (serialized in the Fortnightly Review, October 1904-April 1905) |
| Publication place | England |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 393 |
A Modern Utopia is a 1905 novel by H. G. Wells.
Because of the complexity and sophistication of its narrative structure, A Modern Utopia has been called "not so much a modern as a postmodern utopia."[1] The novel is best known for its notion that a voluntary order of nobility known as the Samurai could effectively rule a "kinetic and not static" world state[2] so as to solve "the problem of combining progress with political stability".[3]
- ^ Michael Sherborne, H.G. Wells: Another Kind of Life (Peter Owen, 2010), p. 165.
- ^ H.G. Wells, A Modern Utopia (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967), p. 75. Wells first introduces the term "World State" three pages earlier, in §1 of Ch. 3. The notion of a samurai order was suggested to him by Nitobe Inazo's Bushido (1900). Michael Sherborne, H.G. Wells: Another Sort of Life (Peter Owen, 2010), p. 165.
- ^ Introduction by Mark R. Hillegas to new ed. of H.G. Wells, A Modern Utopia (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967), p. 271 (Ch. 9, §3).