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List of utopian literature

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This is a list of utopian literature. A utopia is a community or society possessing highly desirable or perfect qualities. It is a common literary theme, especially in speculative fiction and science fiction.

The word "utopia" was coined in Greek language by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, but the genre has roots dating back to antiquity. One reference has it that 1500 works of fiction that can be characterized as utopian were published between 1516 and 1975.[1]

Early "utopian" works

16th century (eight in number)

17th century

18th century

Summarize
Perspective

About 30 utopian novels were published in English in the 18th century.[23] ==

19th century

  • Theory of the Four Movements (1808) by Charles Fourier[4]
  • The Empire of the Nairs (1811) by James Henry Lawrence[4] (one of earliest novels to endorse free love)[30]
  • The Voyage to Icaria (1842) by Étienne Cabet – Inspired the Icarian movement[31][32]
  • Sibling Life or Brothers and Sisters (Swedish: Syskonlif; 1848) by Fredrika Bremer[33]
  • Hunt, John Hale (1862). The Honest Man's Book of Finance and Politics: Showing the Cause and Cure of Artificial Poverty, Dearth of Employment, and Dullness of Trade. New York City: John Windt.Open access icon[34]
  • Man’s Rights; or, How Would You Like It? (1870) by Annie Denton Cridge A socialist, agriculturally-based future where women had equal rights. one of the first utopian science fiction tales written by a women and one of first written by an American.[35]
  • Vril, the Power of the Coming Race (1871) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton is an utopian novel with a superior subterranean cooperative society.[4]
  • Erewhon (1872) by Samuel Butler – Satirical utopian novel with dystopian elements set in the Southern Alps, New Zealand.[citation needed]
  • Mizora, (1880–81) by Mary E. Bradley Lane[citation needed]
Thumb
A Crystal Age, by W.H. Hudson (1906 edition cover)

20th century

  • NEQUA or The Problem of the Ages by Jack Adams – A feminist utopian science fiction novel printed in Topeka, Kansas in 1900.
  • Sultana's Dream (1905) by Begum Rokeya – A Bengali feminist Utopian story about Lady-Land.
  • A Modern Utopia (1905) by H. G. Wells – An imaginary, progressive utopia on a planetary scale in which the social and technological environment are in continuous improvement, a world state owns all land and power sources, positive compulsion and physical labor have been all but eliminated, general freedom is assured, and an open, voluntary order of "samurai" rules.[40]
  • Beatrice the Sixteenth by Irene Clyde – A time traveller discovers a lost world, which is an egalitarian utopian postgender society.[41]
  • The Millennium: A Comedy of the Year 2000 (1907) by Upton Sinclair. A novel in which capitalism finds its zenith with the construction of The Pleasure Palace. During the grand opening of this, an explosion kills everybody in the world except eleven of the people at the Pleasure Palace. The survivors struggle to rebuild their lives by creating a capitalistic society. After that fails, they attempt to create a successful utopian society "The Cooperative Commonwealth."[42]
  • Red Star (novel) (1908) Red Star (Russian: Красная звезда) is Alexander Bogdanov's 1908 science fiction novel about a communist society on Mars. The first edition was published in St. Petersburg in 1908, before eventually being republished in Moscow and Petrograd in 1918, and then again in Moscow in 1922.
  • Herland (1915) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman – An isolated society of women who reproduce asexually has established an ideal state that reveres education and is free of war and domination.
  • The New Moon: A Romance of Reconstruction (1918) by Oliver Onions[43]
  • The Islands of Wisdom (1922) by Alexander Moszkowski – In the novel various utopian and dystopian islands that embody social-political ideas of European philosophy are explored. The philosophies are taken to their extremes for their absurdities when they are put into practice. It also features an "island of technology" which anticipates mobile telephones, nuclear energy, a concentrated brief-language that saves discussion time and a thorough mechanization of life.
  • Men Like Gods (1923) by H. G. Wells – Men and women in an alternative universe without world government in a perfected state of anarchy ("Our education is our government," a Utopian named Lion says;[44]) sectarian religion, like politics, has died away, and advanced scientific research flourishes; life is governed by "the Five Principles of Liberty," which are privacy, freedom of movement, unlimited knowledge, truthfulness, and freedom of discussion and criticism.[citation needed]
  • Lost Horizon (1933) by James Hilton - The mythical community of Shangri-La
  • The Green Child (1935) by Herbert Read - A novel based around two utopian societies: the fictional South American country of Roncador, which the protagonist gradually transforms into an idealized rural republic; and a fantastical underground realm venerating solitary philosophical meditation and the inanimate perfection of crystals.
  • For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs (1938, published in 2003) by Robert A. Heinlein – A futuristic utopian novel explaining practical views on love, freedom, drive, government and economics.[citation needed]
  • Islandia (1942) by Austin Tappan Wright – An imaginary island in the Southern Hemisphere, a utopia containing many Arcadian elements, including a policy of isolation from the outside world and a rejection of industrialism.[citation needed]
  • Walden Two (1948) by B. F. Skinner – A community in which every aspect of living is put to rigorous scientific testing. A professor and his colleagues question the effectiveness of the community started by an eccentric man named T.E. Frazier.[citation needed]
  • The Noon Universe (1961-1985). The Strugatsky Brothers have been argued to have created their own utopian ideology based on the primacy of science.[45] The series starts as a "socialist utopia" in which the humanity has survived its crises but still has problems to solve, and in which the conflict is between "the good and the better."[46] In the later books this utopia gets gradually deconstructed.[47]
  • Island (1962) by Aldous Huxley – Follows the story of Will Farnaby, a cynical journalist, who shipwrecks on the fictional island of Pala and experiences their unique culture and traditions which create a utopian society.[citation needed]
  • Eutopia (1967) by Poul Anderson
  • The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia (1974) by Ursula K. Le Guin - Is set between a pair of planets: one that like Earth today is dominated by private property, nation states, gender hierarchy, and war, and the other an anarchist society without private property.
  • Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston (1975) by Ernest Callenbach – Ecological utopia in which the Pacific Northwest has seceded from the union to set up a new society.[48]

20th century

  • Aria (2001–2008) by Kozue Amano – A manga and anime series set on terraformed version of the planet Mars in the 24th century. The main character, Akari, is a trainee gondolier working in the city of Neo-Venezia, based on modern-day Venice.[citation needed]
  • Manna (2003) by Marshall Brain – Essay that explores several issues in modern information technology and user interfaces, including some around transhumanism. Some of its predictions, like the proliferation of automation and AI in the fast food industry, are becoming true. Second half of the book describes perfect Utopian society.[53]
  • Uniorder: Build Yourself Paradise (2014), by Joe Oliver. Essay on how to build the Utopia of Thomas More by using computers.[54]
  • The Culture series by Iain M. Banks – A science fiction book series released from 1987 through 2012. The stories centre on The Culture, a utopian, post-scarcity space society of humanoid aliens, and advanced super-intelligent artificial intelligences living in artificial habitats. The main theme is of the dilemmas that an idealistic, more-advanced civilization faces in dealing with smaller, less-advanced civilizations that do not share its ideals, and some of whose behaviour it finds barbaric. In some of the stories, action takes place mainly in non-Culture environments, and the leading characters are often on the fringes of (or non-members of) the Culture.
  • Terra Ignota by Ada Palmer – A science fiction book series released from 2016 to 2021 drawing from renaissance humanism, the enlightenment, and the rationalist movement. Takes place in the year 2454, when the nation-state system has given way to a system of globe-spanning voluntary cultural collectives known as hives, each with their own set of laws and values.
  • 'The Promise of Peace' (2020) by Esther Smith. A dystopian book. Describes a corrupt Utopian government in the future. Several characters escape a compound with the help of an experienced guide. Smith plans to write a series of books under title The Order of Utopia.

See also

References

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