The Question Mark
By (Author) Muriel Jaeger
British Library Publishing
British Library Publishing
16th October 2019
18th July 2019
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Classic science fiction
Classic fiction: general and literary
823.912
Paperback
288
Width 130mm, Height 190mm
In 1926 Muriel Jaeger, dissatisfied with the Utopian visions of H G Wells and Edward Bellamy, set out to explore `The Question Mark of what a future society might look like if human nature were properly represented. So, disgruntled London office worker Guy Martin is pitched 200 years into the future, where he encounters a seemingly ideal society in which each citizen has the luxury of every kind of freedom. But as Guy adjusts to the new world, the fractures of this supposed Utopia begin to show through, and it seems as if the inhabitants of this society might be just as susceptible to the promises of false messiahs as those of the twentieth century. Preceding the publication of Huxleys Brave New World by 5 years, The Question Mark is a significant cornerstone in the foundation of the Dystopia genre, and an impressive and unjustly neglected work of literary science fiction. This edition brings the novel back into print for the first time since its original publication.
Muriel Jaeger (18921969) was a prolific writer of history books, essays and science fiction, and was amongst the first women to receive degrees at Somerville College, Oxford. She later became associated with Leonard and Virginia Woolf, who published her pioneering science fiction novels The Question Mark (1926) and The Man with Six Senses (1927).