Product Description

'The only English utopia since More's that deserves to be remembered as literature.' News from Nowhere (1890) is the best-known prose work of William Morris. The novel describes the encounter between a visitor from the nineteenth century, William Guest, and a decentralized and humane socialist future. Set over a century after a revolutionary upheaval in 1952, these 'Chapters from a Utopian Romance' recount his journey across London and up the Thames to Kelmscott Manor, Morris's own country house in Oxfordshire. Drawing on the work of John Ruskin and Karl Marx, Morris's book is not only an evocative statement of his egalitarian convictions but also a distinctive contribution to the utopian tradition. Morris's rejection of state socialism and his ambition to transform the relationship between humankind and the natural world, giveNews from Nowhere a particular resonance for modern readers. The text is based on that of 1891, incorporating the extensive revisions made by Morris to the first edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24511 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
As usual, Oxford publications are always of top quality. This edition is a thoroughly fine piece of scholarship, well-structured and presented.

Customer Reviews

David Leopold's 'News from Nowhere'
David Leopold has given us a splendid edition of Morris's text for general reading and teaching purposes. His lucid, thoughtful introduction is excellent on Morris's relationship both to Edward Bellamy's 'Looking Backward' and to the utopian tradition more generally. His footnotes are full and informative, with one or two intriguingly quirky moments too! Reasonably priced, this is definitely the edition to get in our students's hands.

One of the best utopian books
I've come across 'News from nowhere' in a phase during which I was reading plenty of utopian books (Gulliver's Travels, 1984, Brave New World, We, Darkness at Noon), and I found this to be one of the best.

During a boat trip on the Thames from Hammersmith to Oxford, Morris realises to be living in a utopic communist society, and he's led to investigate it and understand it. The book is certainly thought provoking.

A neglected gem
Having recently re-read Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World", I was interested to see that the ideas contained in the book had been influenced by the political ideas and philosophy contained in both "News from Nowhere" (William Morris) and "Looking Backward" (Edward Bellamy). I decided to buy both.

Currently (October 2009) I have not read Bellamy - but have read Morris with a dgree of pleasure and satisfaction I rarely gain from political tracts.

The writing and story is straightforward yet contains profound insights into the workings of a brutal capitalist economy and the ways in which a more gentle, human centred economic system could exist.

This new world contains wit, romance and friendship but is not sentimentalised; problems exist and the issues are how to solve them for the benefit of all.

It was a delightful and politically stirring book. Read it and have some faith restored! Overall - as important as Huxley's work