LOOKING BACKWARD

FROM 2000 TO 1887

Special Edition

Includes The Sequel

EQUALITY

And

THE BLIND MANS WORLD

1. 
   

   LOOKING BACKWARD

   
   


2. 
   

   EQUALITY

   
   


3. 
   

   THE BLIND MANS WORLD
   
   By Edward Bellamy

   
   


4. 
   

   LOOKING BACKWARD
   
   Synopsis
   
   A huge bestseller in its day, Looking Backwards is a pure Utopian novel set in the USA in the year 2000. Bellamy predicts shopping malls, mass media and, most notably, credit cards. The whole of future society is explored, one component at a time. It was the third-largest bestseller of its time and in the United States alone, over 162 "Bellamy Clubs" sprang up to discuss and propagate the book's ideas.
   
   Excerpt:
   
   I first saw the light in the city of Boston in the year 1857. "What!" you say, "eighteen fifty-seven? That is an odd slip. He means nineteen fifty-seven, of course." I beg pardon, but there is no mistake. It was about four in the afternoon of December the 26th, one day after Christmas, in the year 1857, not 1957, that I first breathed the east wind of Boston, which, I assure the reader, was at that remote period marked by the same penetrating quality characterizing it in the present year of grace, 2000.
   
   Original publishing (1888)

   
   


5. 
   

   EQUALITY
   
   Synopsis
   
   "Looking Backward" was a small book, and I was not able to get into it all I wished to say on the subject. Since it was published what was left out of it has loomed up as so much more important than what it contained that I have been constrained to write another book. I have taken the date of "Looking Backward," the year 2000, as that of Equality, and have utilized the framework of the former story as a starting point for this which I now offer. In order that those who have not read "Looking Backward" may be at no disadvantage, an outline of the essential features of that story is subjoined.
   
   Original publishing (1897)

   
   


6. 
   

   THE BLIND MANS WORLD
   
   By Edward Bellamy
   
   Synopsis
   
   Acclaimed writer Edward Bellamy is best remembered for his utopian novel set in the year 2000, Looking Backward. His short story "The Blindman's World" spins an intriguing tale of an astronomer whose life changes forever when his powers of observation begin to fade.
   
   Originally published (1898)

   
   

File information:

File size (Digital) (840KB)

Books (2)

Short story (1)

Page count (8.5x11) (590)

Word count (240,618)

Working table of contents (Yes)

Font size (12pt)