Richard Michaelis 1 hr 47 min read

A pointed rebuttal to Bellamy's utopia, arguing that beneath the fine coloring of 'Looking Backward' lies nothing but communism, doomed to fail without a religious foundation.

Richard Michaelis's 1890 novel was written as a direct answer to Bellamy's phenomenon, recasting his utopia as a coming tyranny. Polemical, fascinating period SF. Read it for a key entry in the great utopia-versus-dystopia debate that 'Looking Backward' ignited.

In its time

Published in 1890, during the 1890s, wells arrives.

Reading it

1 hr 47 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).