2894 (novel)

2894  
Author(s) Walter Browne
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Utopian fiction Speculative fiction
Publisher G. W. Dillingham
Publication date 1894
Media type Print
ISBN N/A

2894, or The Fossil Man (A Midwinter Night's Dream) is an 1894 utopian novel written by Walter Browne.[1] It is one entrant in the major wave of utopian and dystopian literature that characterized the final decades of the nineteenth century.[2][3]

The book deals with a reversal of the traditional gender roles, and describes a society of "dominant women and submissive men."[4] It is one of a group of speculative fiction works in its generation that took a position, pro or con, on feminism and gender roles.[5]

2894 is one of the rarest works in the English language.[6]

References

  1. ^ Published New York, G. W. Dillingham, 1894.
  2. ^ Kenneth Roemer, The Obsolete Necessity: America in Utopian Writings, 1888–1900, Kent, OH, Kent State University Press, 1976.
  3. ^ Allyn B. Forbes, "The Literary Quest for Utopia, 1880–1900," Social Forces, Vol. 6 No. 2 (December 1927), pp. 179-89.
  4. ^ Lyman Tower Sargent, "Themes in Utopian Fiction in English Before Wells," Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 3 No. 3 (November 1976), pp. 275-82; see p. 276.
  5. ^ Sargent, pp. 278-9.
  6. ^ Sargent, p. 281 n. 15.