Émile Souvestre ~5 hr read

A couple is carried forward by a spirit to the year 3000, where they tour a future world in which every modern trend has been carried to its grim, absurd extreme.

Émile Souvestre's 1846 'The World As It Shall Be' is a pioneering and darkly satirical dystopia, richly illustrated. Sharp, prophetic, remarkable. Read it for a landmark early dystopian vision, skewering the cult of progress with startling foresight, in French.

In its time

Published in 1846, during the 1840s, mystery, mesmerism, and the proto-scientific tale in the age of poe and gautier.

Reading it

~5 hr read (a novel-length work, settle in).