Looking Backward
Published in 1888, Looking Backward is Edward Bellamy's utopian novel about Julian West, a wealthy Bostonian who falls into a hypnotic sleep in 1887 and wakes in the year 2000. The America he discovers has been reorganized around a peaceful, gradual transition to a cooperative economic system in which a single national trust owns the means of production and distributes goods equitably. Through long conversations with his host, Dr. Leete, West learns how labor, education, criminal justice, and family life have changed. The novel was a runaway bestseller in the late nineteenth century, inspiring Bellamy Clubs across the United States and influencing reformers, socialists, and later science fiction writers. While much of the social vision feels of its time, the book set the template for the modern utopian novel and helped shape American debates about industrial capitalism and inequality for decades.
What you might want to know about Looking Backward
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A Bostonian falls asleep in 1887 and wakes in the year 2000 to find a peaceful socialist America.
Both; the plot is thin and the bulk of the book consists of dialogues explaining the new society.
Yes, hundreds of Bellamy Clubs and a Nationalist movement formed in the United States after publication.
Looking Backward was written by Edward Bellamy, published in 1888 by Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press.
Looking Backward is 214 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Looking Backward takes most readers 3 to 5 hours to finish.
Looking Backward is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.