The New Utopia by Jerome K. Jerome (Heathen Short)

The New Utopia

Heathen Short #9
Author
Jerome K. Jerome
Translator
First Edition
1891
Heathen Edition
2025
Refreshed
Pages
30
Heathen Genera
Arriving Soon-ish, Hi-Sci-Fi
ISBN
979-8-90075-009-5

MAN — ASLEEP

Period — 19th Century

This man was found asleep in a house in London, after the great social revolution of 1899. From the account given by the landlady of the house, it would appear that he had already, when discovered, been asleep for over ten years (she having forgotten to call him). It was decided, for scientific purposes, not to awake him, but to just see how long he would sleep on, and he was accordingly brought and deposited in the ‘Museum of Curiosities,’ on February 11th, 1900.

Visitors are requested not to squirt water through the air-holes.

Jerome Klapka Jerome (1859–1927) was an English author and humorist, best known for the 1889 comic travelogue Three Men in a Boat. In 1891, he published Diary of a Pilgrimage (and Six Essays), featuring “The New Utopia,” a satirical piece that diverges sharply from the light-hearted tone of his famous travelogue. In this fascinating short story, Jerome imagines a dreamlike journey into a dystopian future shaped by extreme egalitarian socialism, serving as a striking early precursor to the dystopian canon that would later include We, Brave New World, Anthem, and 1984. Though often overlooked, Jerome’s satirical vision eerily anticipates the totalitarian motifs that define those later works: enforced uniformity, suppression of individuality, and the mechanization of society in the name of progress. More than a parody of utopian literature — it’s a pointed commentary on the dangers of ideological extremism, offering a satirical blueprint for the dystopian literature that would flourish in the 20th century.

Test Your Might

Available on backorder

“If we don’t watch our step we’ll be in Jerome’s ‘Utopia.’”
The Emporia Weekly Gazette

You might dig these, too!

Worlds Beyond the Poles by F. Amadeo Giannini (Heathen Edition)

Worlds Beyond the Poles

F. Amadeo Giannini
The Iron Republic by Richard Jameson Morgan (Heathen Edition)

The Iron Republic

Richard Jameson Morgan
Hellflower by George O. Smith (Heathen Edition)

Hellflower

George O. Smith
Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott (Heathen Edition)

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Edwin Abbott Abbott