The year 2440: a dream of all dreams
The year 2440: a dream of all dreams ( French L'An 2440, rêve s'il en fut jamais ) is a novel by Louis-Sébastien Mercier , published in 1771 .
L'An 2440 is a socially and culturally oriented utopian novel in which the reality of French absolutism is juxtaposed with the ideal of a free society based on reasonable agreements. The criticism of the existing conditions and the ruling class, which does not care about the fate of the "masses", takes a large part.
content
The first-person narrator of the novel falls asleep in Paris in 1769 and wakes up an old man in 2440. A Paris awaits him at his door in which, after a successful and peaceful revolution, common sense and common spirit prevail. The aristocracy no longer exists and all the citizens of the city are intellectuals, the transport system is carefully regulated, the disabled get help with their everyday tasks; Furthermore, religiosity takes a different position: it no longer represents an immortality of the soul, but a personal testament, which all citizens draw up, takes on this role. It is astonishing for contemporary readers to see how many of the - for Mercier still utopian - ideas have prevailed over time and which of the improvements he proposed have not (including the abolition of taxes and tobacco, for example ). The price of this society, described as being morally and domestically poor, is external and internal censorship with a system of penalties for the written expression of certain content (such as pornography) to which the Parisians voluntarily submit in the novel.
reception
The novel is considered to be the interface between utopian literature and that of the 18th and 19th centuries. Century slowly evolving science fiction genre; Since Mercier set his story, unlike the authors of older utopian novels, in the future of his own city and country instead of in a distant, so to speak alternative place, the suggestions he made had a more direct effect, which also moved the novel into the political arena .
L'An 2440 was a very successful novel in its time, which also received attention in other European countries; In Germany in particular, numerous writers were enthusiastic about Mercier's social utopia.
expenditure
- The year two thousand four hundred and forty. A dream of all dreams (German by Christian Felix Weisse ). London 1772 (digitized version)
- The year 2440. A dream of all dreams . German by Christian Felix Weisse . Ed., With explanations and an afterword by Herbert Jaumann , Frankfurt am Main 1982 (Fantastic Library, Vol. 50), ISBN 3518371762
- L'an deux mille quatre cent quarante. Rêve s'il en fut jamais [1771], Londres [recte: Neuchâtel?] M.DCC.LXXVI. (= 1776).
- The year 2440 (by Mercier). London (Schwickert in Leipzig); 2nd ed. 1782. Catalog of the writings that have been published under a false company since the 17th century up to the most recent times . EO Weller, Leipzig 1849. p. 9 (1st edition 1776)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Reinhart Koselleck : Conceptual stories. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2006, pp. 256-259. ISBN 3-518-58463-4 .