Sjömansbiblioteket

Don’t let yourself be fooled by the title...

"A Modern Utopia" (1905) is a dystopian, prophetic, and horrific novel proving how Wells always was ahead of his time. Its hybrid character – blending fiction and non-fiction – gives it an almost postmodern quality, as it tells of a time-travel gone wrong that brings two travellers to a planet called Utopia, where their intellectual discussions and thoughts about what constitutes a perfect society are allowed to roam free.

The world Wells depicts can easily be recognised in later dystopian masterpieces such as Aldous Huxley’s "Brave New World" and George Orwell’s "1984".


H. G. Wells was an English writer, remembered mostly for his science fiction works. Often described as a futurist, H. G. Wells’s influence cannot be neglected for his works foresaw many technological innovations such as space travel, the atomic bomb, and the Internet. Four times Nobel Prize in Literature nominee, Wells explored a wide array of themes in his works, occupying one of the central seats in the canon of British literature. Some of his best works include the time-travel novel "The Time Machine", the sci-fi adventure novel "The Island of Dr. Moreau", the mankind-versus-aliens novel "The War of the Worlds" and more than seventy short stories.