Scientific Romance An International Anthology of Pioneering Science Fiction

by Stableford, Brian

• ISBN13: 9780486808376
• ISBN10: 0486808378
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2017-01-18
• Publisher: Dover Publications

Summary

Before the term "science fiction" was adopted in the 1920s, there were "scientific romances," tales of amazing journeys beyond the limits of the known world. Jules Verne's imaginative novels of the mid-nineteenth century met with international success, whetting the public's appetite for fantastic fiction rooted in actual fact — a craving that H. G. Wells satisfied with his visionary stories.
This compilation presents more than two dozen early tales by Verne's and Wells's immediate predecessors, contemporaries, and descendants, focusing on the middle period, when the genre was at its most enterprising and exuberant. Originally published between 1835 and 1924, the stories offer early interpretations of the futuristic societies, rogue stars, rebellious machines, and other now-familiar themes of speculative fiction. Featured authors include Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ambrose Bierce, H. G. Wells, Jack London, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as lesser-known writers. Brian Stableford, a legendary science-fiction author and editor, selected the stories, for which he provides an informative Introduction and brief biographies for each author.

Author Biography

British science-fiction author Brian Stableford has published more than 70 novels. He graduated from the University of York with a degree in biology and received a PhD for his his doctoral thesis on the sociology of science fiction. A former lecturer in sociology at the University of Reading, he is a full-time writer and a part-time lecturer on creative writing at several universities.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Brian Stableford

Edgar Allan Poe

The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion (U.S., 1839)

S. Henry Berthoud

A Heavenward Voyage (France, 1841)

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Artist of the Beautiful (U.S., 1844)

Fitz-James O’Brien

What Was It? (U.S., 1859)

Eugène Mouton

The End of the World (France, 1872)

James Clerk Maxwell

A Paradoxical Ode (U.K., 1878)

Edward Page Mitchell

The Ablest Man in the World (U.S., 1879)

Ernest d’Hervilly

Josuah Electricmann (France, 1882)

Grant Allen

The Child of the Phalanstery (U.K., 1884)

John Davidson

The Salvation of Nature (U.K., 1887)

J. H. Rosny

Tornadres (France, 1887)

Charles Epheyre

Professor Bakermann’s Microbe (France, 1890)

Edgar Fawcett

In the Year Ten Thousand (U.S, 1890)

Émile Goudeau

The Revolt of the Machines (France, 1891)

Ambrose Bierce

For the Akhoond (U.S., 1892)

Frank R. Stockton

The Philosophy of Relative Existences (U.S., 1892)

Julian Hawthorne

June 1993 (U.S., 1893)

J. K. Jerome

The Dancing Partner (U.K., 1893)

Camille Debans

The Conqueror of Death (France, 1895)

H. G. Wells

The Star (U.K., 1897)

George Griffith

A Corner in Lightning (U.K., 1898)

Walter Besant

The Memory Cell (U.K., 1900)

Jack London

The Shadow and the Flash (U.S., 1903)

Edmond Haraucourt

The Gorilloid (France, 1904)

William Hope Hodgson

The Voice in the Night" (U.K., 1907)

Maurice Renard

The Strange Disappearance of Bouvancourt (France, 1909)

Arthur Conan Doyle

The Horror of the Heights (U.K., 1913)

Appendix: A Chronology of the Most Important Longer Works of Scientific Romance Published between 1830 and August 1914