Translated by Cloudesley Brereton. With a pref. by H.G. Wells.
Westport, Conn.,
Hyperion Press
[1974]
vii, 198 pages
23 cm.
Classics of science fiction
Reprint of the 1905 ed. published by Duckworth, London.
Translation of Fragment d'histoire future.
Mankind is driven underground by the extinction of the sun; attitudes change dramatically as the migrants drill deeper and deeper. The book is divided into three sections. In the first, de Tarde ironically outlines man's struggle to build a Utopia; in the second, the sun turns red, the sea becomes ice, the air begins to fall in flakes of nitrogen and oxygen. Persuaded that power and heat can be obtained from the center of the earth, the survivors start digging enormous crypts. Here, under the earth, they build a genial and artistic community, with marvelous labor-saving machines that enable them to concentrate on creating works of art.