Classic Review - Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy

If you get a chance to read Looking Backward and like classic novels in the utopian/dystopian genre then you will enjoy this book by Edward Bellamy.

Before I give my review, the following links will help you get a copy of the text if you have not read the book:

Project Gutenberg text file
HTML of entire book

Do not read the rest of this post if you are interested in reading Looking Backward.

**** SPOILER ****
Looking Backward takes a very unique approach to explain how a man was able to "travel" through time to a century not his own. In Looking Backward the main character has a separated underground sound-proof room that he uses in order to fall asleep when he is unable to sleep in normal conditions (because of noise outside of his house in the late 1880's). His usual Doctor is out of town, so a traveling Doctor hypnotizes him in his sound-proof room. During the night the house burns down and nobody knows that he is in the room. Since he is hypnotized, his body shuts down to near death almost like hibernation. This is how he is able to sleep from 1887 to the year 2000.

Waking up in Boston in the year 2000, the main character speaks to a Dr. Leete and his daughter Edith in order to find out what has changed since his time.

I was shocked and surprised to read that Edward Bellamy had the idea of "credit cards" as of 1887 when this was written. Simply stating that cards could be given to individuals and could be re-loaded with 'credits' that could be used to purchase goods, be transferred to other individuals, and could be empied out and then re-filled is absolutely amazing to me. It is quite possible that this book helped further that idea into the credit card era that we have today.

What I liked and found plausible about this book:

• Credit cards as previously mentioned.


• I could see how having warehouses in each district could technically be possible. It reminds me of Sam's Club or Costco.
  
• Ability to have music in your room and to turn it off and on at will
  
• That however unlikely it is in reality, that everyone had a purpose and was able to get along in society contributing equally to each other's happiness.
  

What I disliked and had a hard time believing about this book:

• No more money. Replaced by credits. That is hard for me to believe.
  
• That people would retire at 45, although I do understand that a person's life span was dramatically reduced. It just seems unlikely to me.
  
• The odds of Edith Leete being the great-grandaughter of his fiance Edith, and Edith Leete falling for the main character, AND her dad watching their relationship and approving it, AND everything working out for them to marry etc seemed a bit out of line for only knowing each other for only a week. Again though - I understand that times were completely different and that people did get married in much faster circumstances at times.
  
• The way that they book ended by having the nightmare chapter followed by the dream chapter simulating a double dream that countered each other. I wasn't really a fan of that.
  

With all of that said, I did immensly enjoy this classic book. It was a very quick read. It was very interesting to see how a writer writing in the year 1887 actually thought what Boston would turn into in the year 2000. He was completely and totally off in regards to what Boston ended up being in the year 2000, but it was very entertaining and included a romantic element to a story that otherwise might be considered a dry socialist outcome for society.

**** End of SPOILER ****

Some more in-depth links:
Wikipedia Entry
SparkNotes Summary
SparkNotes Analysis

I would highly recommend reading this book!

If you have read it, what do you think of it? I'm interested to hear your opinions!