The iron heel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Iron Heel, first edition

The Iron Heel (OT: The Iron Heel ) is a dystopian novel by Jack London . It was published by MacMillan in New York in 1907 and by Everett in London in 1908. He was u. a. translated by Erwin Magnus . The science fiction novel set in the near future describes the future political and social changes more than the technological progress. London wrote the novel after his experiences in the Socialist Party of America and the failure of the Russian Revolution of 1905 , for which he had great expectations. When describing the eponymous oligarchy , London clairvoyantly anticipated later structures of totalitarianism , but settled these primarily in the USA. The iron heel was on Wolfgang Herrmann's black list of prohibited books in May 1933 .

action

In the 27th century, a manuscript by Avis Everhard, wife of the socialist leader Ernest Everhard, is found in a hollow oak. In it she writes about her relationship with Everhard and the failed proletarian revolution between 1912 and 1932.

The manuscript

Avis meets Ernest during a discussion at the home of her father, John Cunningham, a well-known scientist. At first repelled by his rough manner, she falls in love with him over time. Through him she, the daughter from a well-to-do family, gains insights into a world that is alien to her and the needs of the workers in San Francisco. In talks and lectures, Everhard talks about the irreconcilable contrasts between work and capital. He considers the class struggle against the iron heel , the trusts and financial oligarchs who oppress the workers and rule the United States, and their downfall to be inevitable. As the author of a critical book, Cunningham has to leave university and is socially ostracized. During this time Avis and Everhard get married. An impending war between the USA and the German Reich is prevented by a general strike in both countries, the German Kaiser is subsequently deposed and Germany becomes a socialist state. After the experience of the general strike, the oligarchy creates labor aristocracies in order to split the unions. Everhard is elected to Congress for the Socialist Party of America, but arrested with the other Socialist MPs after a bomb attack by an Agent Provocateur in the Capitol and sentenced to a long prison term. During his time in prison, the repression continues to increase, members of the middle class are driven into bankruptcy, isolated strikes are ended quickly and bloody by scabs and militia troops, and farmers are expropriated. Two years after his arrest, Everhard and 350 other socialists are freed from prisons in a nationwide campaign. A nationwide underground revolt is planned for the spring of 1918, but the oligarchy anticipates this by provoking riots in Chicago and making a bloody example. Avis and Ernest Everhard are able to escape the embattled city at the last moment. After years underground, another revolution is planned for 1932.

The manuscript breaks off in the middle of a sentence.

Other events

Ernest Everhard is secretly executed, Avis flees to California, writes her manuscript, is able to hide it in the oak and is presumably also killed. The second revolution of 1932 failed despite support from the socialist states of France, Germany and Australia. As a result, oligarchic regimes prevail there again. In the USA, the wonder cities of Ardis and Asgard are built. It was not until the 23rd century that the rule of the Iron Heel could be ended after many attempts and the age of human brotherhood began.

Structure of the novel

The iron heel takes the form of a historical-critical edition of the Everhard manuscript with a foreword, which is missing in some German editions, and 120 notes. Parts of the plot and the fates of individual people are only shown in the notes. With the trick of the notes, which are written for the imaginary readers of the 27th century and which explain to them the self-evident facts of the early 20th century, London also conveys something of his conception of the age of human brotherhood to the actual reader of his time. B. the use of public transport is free, theft is only a sin of youth and acts of violence with bloodshed unknown.

The dystopian character of the novel is softened by the establishment of socialist society after 300 years of repression by the iron heel and steered towards positive utopia.

German-language editions

  • The iron heel. A social novel , translated by Fritz Born. See-Verlag, Konstanz 1922 (German first edition)
  • The iron heel , translated by Erwin Magnus, introduction by Anatole France , foreword by Anthony Meredith . Book guild Gutenberg, Berlin 1927 (named only authorized translation )
  • The iron heel. Roman , Publishing Cooperative of Foreign Workers in the USSR, Moscow 1935
  • The iron heel , translated by Eduard Thorsch. Gutenberg Book Guild, Zurich 1948
  • The iron heel , translated by Christine Hoeppener, with illustrations by Horst Bartsch, afterword by Horst Ihde . Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin (East) 1972 (edition in the GDR, reprinted in 1973 by Weismann Verlag, Munich; 1984 by Ullstein)
  • The scarlet plague. The iron heel. Two novels in one volume , translated by Erwin Magnus. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt / M., 1977. ISBN 3-7632-2114-X
  • The iron heel , with an introduction by Anatole France, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1978. ISBN 3-453-00922-3 (paperback edition)
  • The iron heel. Roman , translated by Christine Hoeppener. Ullstein Verlag Frankfurt / M., Berlin, Vienna 1984. ISBN 3-548-20454-6 (published in the context of the Oceanic Library in 1984 and with an afterword by Herbert W. Franke )

literature

  • Jörg Boost: The halting rise of the "Iron Heel": Fascism and its predictability in Jack London's 1907 novel . Marburg 1979, DNB 831058722 (Dissertation University of Marburg 1982, 160 pages).

Web links

Commons : The Iron Heel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: full text  - sources and full texts (English)

Individual evidence

Page numbers and numbers of the notes refer to: Jack London The iron heel (afterword by Herbert W. Franke ) Ullstein, Frankfurt / M .; Berlin; Vienna, 1984, ISBN 3-548-20454-6

  1. ^ A b Everett F. Bleiler : Science-fiction, the early years. The Kent Stat University Press, 1990, ISBN 0-87338-416-4
  2. ↑ Herbert W. Franke in the afterword to Die eiserne heel p. 238
  3. ^ Susanne Rohr Jack London. In: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Hrsg.): Kindlers Literature Lexicon. Volume 10: Leo - Mar. 3rd completely revised edition. Metzler, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , pp. 270f.
  4. ↑ Banished books: List of the writings banned by the National Socialists
  5. ↑ In some German translations also Ernst
  6. ↑ The Iron Heel, p. 230 (afterword)
  7. ↑ The Iron Heel p. 204, No. 17
  8. ^ The iron heel p. 206, no. 25
  9. ↑ The iron heel p. 220, no.90
  10. ↑ The Iron Heel, p. 230, (afterword)