F. Anton Reeds 12 min read

The lights of Europe still burned. Under strings of glowing lanterns, young men and women dance to strange new music from the Americas at Professor Ploving's manor, on the eve of something.

F. Anton Reeds's 1942 story frames a poignant time-travel tale against a Europe about to plunge into war. Elegiac, atmospheric golden-age SF. Read it for a beautiful, bittersweet story where a glimpse across time gives an unbearable weight to one bright evening.

In its time

Published in 1942, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

12 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).

Illustrated by

Paul Orban