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A Modern Utopia
''A Modern Utopia'' is a 1905 novel by H. G. Wells.
Because of the complexity and sophistication of its narrative structure ''A Modern Utopia'' has been called "not so much a modern as a postmodern utopia."〔Michael Sherborne, ''H.G. Wells: Another Kind of Life'' (Peter Owen, 2010), p. 165.〕 The novel is best known for its notion that a voluntary order of nobility known as the Samurai could effectively rule a "kinetic and not static" world state〔H.G. Wells, ''A Modern Utopia'', ed. Mark R. Hillegas (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967), p. 75. Wells first introduces the term "World State" three pages earlier, in §1 of Ch. 3. The notion of a samurai order was suggested to him by Nitobe Inazo's ''Bushido'' (1900). Michael Sherborne, ''H.G. Wells: Another Sort of Life'' (Peter Owen, 2010), p. 165.〕 so as to solve "the problem of combining progress with political stability."〔H.G. Wells, ''A Modern Utopia'', ed. Mark R. Hillegas (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967), p. 271 (Ch. 9, §3).〕
==Conception of the work==
In his preface, Wells forecast (incorrectly) that ''A Modern Utopia'' would be the last of a series of volumes on social problems that began in 1901 with ''Anticipations'' and included ''Mankind in the Making'' (1903). But unlike those non-fictional works, ''A Modern Utopia'' is presented as a tale told by a sketchily described character known only as the Owner of the Voice. This character "is not to be taken as the Voice of the ostensible author who fathers these pages," Wells warns.〔H.G. Wells, ''A Modern Utopia'', ed. Mark R. Hillegas (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967), p. 1.〕 He is accompanied by another character known as "the botanist." Interspersed in the narrative are discursive remarks on various matters, creating what Wells called in his preface "a sort of shot-silk texture between philosophical discussion on the one hand and imaginative narrative on the other.".〔H.G. Wells, ''A Modern Utopia'', ed. Mark R. Hillegas (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967), p. xxxii.〕 In addition, there are frequent comparisons to and discussions of previous utopian literature.〔Wells read Plato's ''Republic'' in the early 1880s and was deeply marked, even radicalized, by that text. Michael Sherborne, ''H.G. Wells: Another Kind of Life'' (Peter Owen, 2010), pp. 50-51. Plato is often discussed in ''A Modern Utopia'', but so is almost every other major work of the Western utopian tradition.〕 In terms of Northrop Frye's classification of literary genres, ''A Modern Utopia'' is not a novel but an anatomy.〔
The premise of the novel is that there is a planet (for "No less than a planet will serve the purpose of a modern Utopia"〔H.G. Wells, ''A Modern Utopia'', ed. Mark R. Hillegas (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967), p. 11.〕) exactly like Earth, with the same geography and biology. Moreover, on that planet "all the men and women that you know and I" exist "in duplicate."〔H.G. Wells, ''A Modern Utopia'', ed. Mark R. Hillegas (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967), p. 25.〕 They have, however, "different habits, different traditions, different knowledge, different ideas, different clothing, and different appliances."〔H.G. Wells, ''A Modern Utopia'', ed. Mark R. Hillegas (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967), p. 23.〕 (Not however, a different language: "Indeed, should we be in Utopia at all, if we could not talk to everyone?"〔H.G. Wells, ''A Modern Utopia'', ed. Mark R. Hillegas (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967), p. 17.〕)
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