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Le Voyage en Icarie (Travels in Icaria) by Étienne Cabet (France, 1840)    
This influential novel depicts an ideal society in which an elected government controls all economic and social activity in a communitarian social movement which he gave the name “communisme”. However, his model did allow a role for the Christian religion and the family unit.

The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (England, 1870)    
This is an early example of the science fiction genre in which a wealthy independent traveller accidentally discovers an advanced, angel-like race called the Vril-ya living in subterranean caverns. The Vril-ya are able to control, by will-power or by means of a special staff, a latent (and potentially awesomely powerful) source of energy, known as ‘Vril’, to heal, change or destroy things at will. The Vril-ya are a peaceful, vegetarian, mystical society, without envy, poverty, conflict or hard work. The women are taller and grander than the men and control everything concerned with reproduction of the species. However, lurking in the darkness is a parallel, unevolved race of primitive savages, and it becomes clear that the Vril-ya may not always be able to continue their idyllic way of life.

Erewhon by Samuel Butler (England, 1872)    
Erewhon (an anagram of 'nowhere', the literal translation of 'utopia') is a remote kingdom, not on any map, which the narrator claims to have discovered in his travels. In many respects, life there is not dissimilar to contemporary Western civilization - there is a monarchy, lawyers, judges, prisons, money, rich and poor - and at first sight the inhabitants appear healthy and contented. However, it soon becomes apparent that duplicity is rife, and there are in actual fact two conflicting religions, two banking systems, etc. Illness is treated as a crime and criminal behaviour treated with sympathy. Their once sophisticated industrial know-how has been deliberately abandoned in favour of very basic machinery. As it becomes clear that their bizarre rule are just exaggerations of common Western practices, the book becomes a dystopia of biting satire against contemporary mores.

Mizora: World of Women by Mary E. Bradley Lane (USA, 1881)    
Subtitled “A Prophesy”, this is the first feminist utopian novel. Lost near the North Pole, a Russian noblewoman discovers an all-women utopia at the centre of the earth, a haven of music, peace, universal education and beneficial advanced technology.

After London by Richard Jefferies (England, 1885)    
In this early dystopia subtitled “Wild England”, Jefferies depicts a future England which has relapsed into barbarism with few outposts of civilization remaining. London lies deep under poisonous swamps and much of southern England under a large lake, and the few settlements around it are ruled by petty tyrants and their corrupt courts.

A Crystal Age by W. H. Hudson (England, 1887)    
A young man is transported to a future where men live in peace and harmony, both with themselves and with nature. Despite falling in love, the protagonist finds he cannot adapt to the matriarchal, pastoral and mystical society.

Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy (USA, 1888)    
A young aristocratic Bostonian falls asleep under hypnosis in 1887, and awakes in Boston of the year 2000, a city of beauty and grace and undreamed-of prosperity. In 2000, there are no rich and no poor, but a happy, healthy population of equals. A national government runs all industry much more efficiently than the old private enterprise system, and everyone is given an equal monthly allowance which they can spend on housing, food or travel as the individual decides. There are no armed forces, no police force, no lawyers, bankers, or salesmen.

News from Nowhere by William Morris (England, 1890)    
An Englishman of 1890 wakes to find himself in a post-revolutionary and post-industrial 21st Century England based on an ideal communism with no money, no private property and perfect equality. Labour is shared equally and is considered a pleasure rather than a necessary chore. Unlike in Looking Backward, modernity and science has been abandoned in favour of low-tech crafts.

Freiland (Freeland) by Theodor Hertzka (Austria, 1890)    
Known as the “Austrian Bellamy” for the similarity in his utopian views, the political economist Hertzka wrote about an imaginary communistic colony in Africa called Frieland (or Freeland) and then actually tried (unsuccessfully) to create a real Freeland in Africa.

Caesar’s Column by Ignatius Donnelly (USA, 1891)    
In a future USA of the year 1988, this prescient dystopia depicts a ruthless financial oligarchy and an abject and downtrodden working class. The ruling elite enjoy technological marvels, while the populace is ruthlessly kept down by a privatized army, and the judicial system is totally corrupt and in the pockets of the plutocrats.

A Traveler from Altruria by William Dean Howells (USA, 1894)    
A visitor from the isolated island of Altruria visits the USA and a comparison of the two countries ensues. Altruria is a Christian socialist country where money has been abolished and there is no distinction between rich and poor. Physical labour is shared among the population and so the working day is just three hours, and excellence is achieved by excellently serving others.

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (England, 1895)    
The protagonist of this short novel, known simply as “The Time Traveller”, voyages 800,000 years into the future and finds an apparently gentle, fruit-eating child-like species called the Eloi. In a world without struggle, hardship or war, the human race has become weak and unimaginative. However, it soon becomes apparent that a second branch of humanity has also survived, the bestial cannibal Morlocks, who live underground and run the machinery for the Eloi, on whom they feed. In Wells’ dystopia, it seems that both the downtrodden working classes and the leisured aristocracy have lost their edge and reverted to sub-human levels of intelligence - social Darwinism taken to its logical conclusion.

When the Sleeper Wakes by H. G. Wells (England, 1899)    
Later re-published as The Sleeper Awakes, this is a dystopian novel about a man who wakes after a 203-year sleep. As well as the prescient imagination of airplanes and air battles, televisions and moving walkways, Wells imagines a society two centuries after his own where the lower classes are de facto slaves and servants, most of the upper classes fritter life away in Pleasure Cities, and a tiny elite effectively rules the world, selfishly and ruthlessly.