Richard Jefferies, After London; or Wild England

After London (1885) is a pioneering work of Victorian science fiction that imagines a mysterious natural catastrophe that plunges its people into a barbaric future. This new critical edition provides one of the earliest examples of a global catastrophe novel that is part of a flowering of nineteenth-century science fiction and situates the text in relation to a range of literary, cultural, and biographical contexts, including Jefferies' life, ideas, and works. It includes a chronology of Jefferies' life, a list of his key works, a detailed scholarly introduction, and appendices including the text of The Great Snow, a catastrophe short story set in London, and Alone in London, both of which reveal his attitude to London, urban life, and the future of humanity.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2018
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

A scholarly edition of Richard Jefferies' After London, a late Victorian science fiction novel, is both uncanny and intriguing, combining elements of adventure, quest romance, dystopia, and Darwinian novel. Set in a mysterious natural catastrophe that plunges its people into a barbaric future, the novel drowns and destroys London and depicts a challenging Wild England dominated by nature and filled with evolved animals and devolved humans. While it is of its time, After London can also be regarded as one of the first novels of the Anthropocene, expressing Victorian and post-Victorian anxieties about industrial development, urbanisation, natural resources, and climate. This new critical edition provides one of the earliest examples of a global catastrophe novel that is part of a flowering of nineteenth-century science fiction. It situates After London in a tradition of mid-late Victorian texts that respond to the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace and responds to a host of other key social, political, and cultural issues of the period. Key Features: - Opens up readings that situate the text in relation to a range of literary, cultural, and biographical contexts, including Jefferies' life, ideas, and works. - Includes a chronology of Jefferies' life, a list of his key works, a detailed scholarly introduction, and appendices including the text of The Great Snow, a catastrophe short story set in London; and Alone in London; both of which reveal his attitude to London, urban life, and the future of humanity.

Weight: 408g
Dimension: 156 x 235 x 14 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781474441315