Future Perfect: American Science Fiction of the 19th Century

Future perfect by bruce franklin

Future Perfect: American Science Fiction of the 19th Century

This selection of unusual storeis by important American writers-Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, Bellamy and Twain-and by less well-known tellers such as Ambrose Bierce, S. Weir Mitchell and Fitz-James O’Brien, challenges the commonly held belief that science fiction is a twenthiethcentury phenomenon, or that it began with Jule Verne and H,. G. Wells. Here are tales of marvelous inventions, automanta, biolgocial and psychological experiments, utopias, extra-sensory perception and time and space travel. Many of them have been out of print since before World War I, but they remain high in intrinsic interest of the general reader and for the specialist.

The accompanying critical essays explore the relationships between science fiction and other financial modes, and illuminate the nataure of the bonds betwen science and society and fantasies and social aspirations. Professor Franklin also offers an original, theoretical definition of science ficiton. This book comes as a revelatin. One of the best-edited anthologies I have ever encountered…Mr. Franklin’s critical introductions, containing much valuable information about many works not included in this book, are as interesting as the stories he prints.

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  • Los Angeles Times

    “The essays are brilliant and challenging; the fiction, delightful and entertaining. A reader could not ask for much more.”

  • Groff Conklin

    “The book is an authentic find, a worthwhile addition to the libraries of all science fiction aficionados, as well as to those of readers interested in the history of America’s literature of the imagination.”

  • Walter James Miller, Engineer

    “Engineers tend to be avid readers of science fiction, and in trying to imagine the impact this book will have on them, I can only recall that Joseph Conrad kept A. R. Wallace’s book, Malay Archipelago, on his night table for eight years. . . . Franklin’s own critical essays, which make up a quarter of the book, will provide countless hours of cogitation and rumination for anyone interested in the history, nature, and value of science fiction, or, putting it more specifically, for anyone who has a fancy to indulge in artistic speculation about automata, marvelous inventions, medicine men, the psyche, and space and time travel.”

  • Robert Baehr, American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education

    “By meticulously detailing the definitions necessary to form the boundaries of science fiction, Franklin makes possible a more complete awareness and analysis of the extant writing and sets a standard for putative science fiction authors to follow. . . . The book is a treasure.”

  • Kliatt

    “Future Perfect . . . will interest all, young and old, who want to read the best 19th-century samples of a genre dominant in today’s literature and who, furthermore, welcome an intelligent critic’s aid in placing the genre itself within the widest context of American literary history of both the 19th and the 20th centuries.”

  • San Francisco Examiner

    “Franklin’s study is a kind of tour de force.”

  • Mark Hillegas, Saturday Review

    “Invaluable as a contribution to . . . American Studies. Franklin surpasses his predecessors.”

  • The Irish Times (Dublin)

    “In the age of the unperson and the mini-thought, in which a kind of anti-literature has achieved a vogue, this suggests some dizzying possibilities.”

  • Daily Sentinel

    “This is a probing, important work.”

  • Sunday Times (London)

    “How soon will it be, one wonders, before some enterprising American university has a Chair in Science Fiction? Professor Franklin is such an obvious choice to fill it.”

  • The Pilot

    “FUTURE PERFECT is a marvelous book, and a necessary one for both the s-f fan without strong literary interests and for the student of literature.”

  • Isaac Asimov

    ” . . . this book comes as a revelation.”

  • P. Schuyler Miller

    “Professor Franklin’s book stands in a class by itself.”

  • Anthony Boucher, New York Times

    ” . . . a lovely big book. . . . [that] delightfully demonstrates that `to move into past visions of the future or past is to shift our own consciousness in time in extraordinary ways.’”

  • Judith Merril

    “This combined anthology and critical essay of/on 19th Century American science fiction is witty, informative, literate, imaginative, well- selected, and–fresh.”

  • L. Sprague de Camp

    “The serious reader, the collector, and the student of literature will find it a worthy addition to his library.”

  • Poul Anderson

    “H. Bruce Franklin has done a major service. . . . I hope a lot of contemporary science fiction specialists read his book; it will do them a world of good. And I hope it will help break down the wall which the critics of general literature have erected against their work. . . . Professor Franklin has struck a powerful blow for the cause of regaining our lost unity.”

  • Anonymous

    New York Times Selection of Books for Summer Reading, 1966.

  • Anonymous

    New York Times Christmas Guide for Readers, 1966.

  • Anonymous

    Quality Paperback Book Club Selection, 1978