Science Fiction Benson, Robert Hugh: Lord of the World, v.1, 29 Dec 2007.

[Patricia]

First published in 1907, this is a dystopia. Huxley’s Brave New World meets Rolfe’s Hadrian the Seventh, with an apocalyptic conclusion.

Robert Hugh Benson (1871-1914) was the youngest son of Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, and brother to the writer, E F Benson. After his father’s death he converted to Catholicism, was ordained as a priest, later becoming a monsignor.

From a review by Joseph Pearce:
‘[Lord of the World] is truly remarkable and deserves to stand beside Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as a classic of dystopian fiction. In fact, though Huxley's and Orwell's modern masterpieces may merit equal praise as works of literature, they are clearly inferior as works of prophecy. The political dictatorships that gave Orwell's novel-nightmare an ominous potency have had their day. Today, his cautionary fable serves merely as a timely reminder of what has been and what may be again if the warnings of history are not heeded. Benson's novel-nightmare, on the other hand, is coming true before our very eyes.
The world depicted in Lord of the World is one where creeping secularism and Godless humanism have triumphed over religion and traditional morality. It is a world where philosophical relativism has triumphed over objectivity; a world where, in the name of tolerance, religious doctrine is not tolerated. It is a world where euthanasia is practiced widely and religion hardly practiced at all. The lord of this nightmare world is a benign-looking politician intent on power in the name of "peace," and intent on the destruction of religion in the name of "truth." In such a world, only a small and shrinking Church stands resolutely against the demonic "Lord of the World."’

30 Dec 2007
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[RWood]

I remember reading references to this book; but I never found it when I looked for it many years ago. Thank you. It is one of those books that is on a list of books that you want to find and read someday. You have made that someday happen. Thank you.