Product Description
Long before 1984, Star Wars, or The Hunger Games, Victorian authors imagined a future where new science and technologies reshaped the world and universe they knew. The great themes of modern science fiction showed up surprisingly early: space and time travel, dystopian societies, even dangerously independent machines, all inspiring the speculative fiction of the Victorian era.
In Frankenstein Dreams, Michael Sims has gathered many of the very finest stories, some by classic writers such as Jules Verne, Mary Shelley, and H.G. Wells, but many that will surprise general readers. Dark visions of the human psyche emerge in Thomas Wentworth Higginson's "The Monarch of Dreams," while Mary E. Wilkins Freeman provides a glimpse of “the fifth dimension” in her provocative tale "The Hall Bedroom.'
With contributions by Edgar Allan Poe, Alice Fuller, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, Arthur Conan Doyle, and many others, each introduced by Michael Sims, whose elegant introduction provides valuable literary and historical context, Frankenstein Dreams is a treasure trove of stories known and rediscovered.
In Frankenstein Dreams, Michael Sims has gathered many of the very finest stories, some by classic writers such as Jules Verne, Mary Shelley, and H.G. Wells, but many that will surprise general readers. Dark visions of the human psyche emerge in Thomas Wentworth Higginson's "The Monarch of Dreams," while Mary E. Wilkins Freeman provides a glimpse of “the fifth dimension” in her provocative tale "The Hall Bedroom.'
With contributions by Edgar Allan Poe, Alice Fuller, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, Arthur Conan Doyle, and many others, each introduced by Michael Sims, whose elegant introduction provides valuable literary and historical context, Frankenstein Dreams is a treasure trove of stories known and rediscovered.
Reviews/Praise
"Even the most devoted science fiction reader will find unfamiliar treats in this assemblage of foundational fiction."--- Publishers Weekly
"A highly entertaining fusion of visionary speculation and primordial terror, the stories included [in Frankenstein Dreams] merged cutting-edge science with fiction and essentially created a new category that explored what it means to be human in a world irrevocably changed by technological innovations and conceptual advancements . . . A thought-provoking and undeniably entertaining read."--- Kirkus Reviews
"In this magnificent collection, Sims has chosen authors that range from the mighty Poe to the infamous Kipling to the beloved H.G. Wells . . . Every story is a perfect choice for the topic."---Suspense Magazine
"The 20 works collected by [Michael Sims] highlights the importance of Victorian sf literature, both in its rich contributions to the genre and its exploration of the deeper themes that are still relevant today."---Library Journal
“Frankenstein Dreams, an anthology of mostly-Victorian science fiction edited by Michael Sims . . . is more interested in how that novel fits the wider scope of Shelley's century, and shaped the genre after it." --- NPR.org