A Crystal Age
Encyclopedia
A Crystal Age is a utopian novel
written by W. H. Hudson
, first published in 1887
. The book has been called a "significant S-F
milestone" and has been noted for its anticipation of the "modern ecological mysticism" that would evolve a century later.
The book was first issued anonymously in 1887. The second edition of 1906 identified the author by name, and included a preface by Hudson. The third edition of 1916 added a foreword by Clifford Smith.
's Looking Backward
(1888) to King Gillette's The Human Drift
(1894) to Alexander Craig's Ionia
(1898) to H. G. Wells
's A Modern Utopia
(1905). Conversely, though, a minority of utopian writers reacted with a skepticism toward, or even a rejection of, technological progress, and favored a return to an agrarian simplicity; these "pastoral utopias" included William Morris
's News from Nowhere
(1891) and the "Altrurian trilogy" of William Dean Howells
, his A Traveler from Altruria
(1894) and its sequels
.
Hudson's A Crystal Age belongs securely in the latter category of pastoral
utopia. The people of his imagined future possess only one piece of technology, a system of "brass globes" that produces a form of ambient music
. Otherwise they have no machines and only simple devices; they plow their fields with horses and use axes to chop down trees.
A "small remnant" of humanity rebuilds on a more "humble" basis. Hudson sets his story more than a "hundred centuries" into a new, saner, and more balanced human culture.
Toward the end of the book, the narrator applies a dusk metaphor to his declining mood: "All my thoughts, like evening clouds that appear luminous and rich in color until the sun has set, began to darken with a mysterious gloom." From there he proceeds to an evocative description of the late-autumn world around him:
Much of the prose throughout the book is equally lush.
Obsessed with the girl (her name is Yoletta), the narrator agrees to work for a year as a probationer in this community. He is constantly stumbling into misunderstandings with his new companions, for the world seems to have changed in extreme and incomprehensible ways. The most basic concepts of his society are unknown to these people. When he inquires about the nearest city, the old man who is "the Father of the House" thinks he is talking about a beehive. When the narrator notes that they share the English language, he is again not understood; the people of the house think they speak "the language of human beings – that is all." (Though their spoken language has changed little, the writing system is altered so much that the narrator cannot read the "Hebrew-like characters" in which their books are written.) It seems that the entire human race is now organized into communal houses like this one, with no other form of social structure.
The narrator struggles to adapt to this new society, as he pursues Yoletta. He is shocked to learn that all the people are much older than they appear; Yoletta is 31 years old, and the Father of the House is nearly 200. They are vegetarians, and have a strong rapport with the animals in their environment. The narrator is struck by their "rare physical beauty," their "crystal purity of heart," "ever contented and calmly glad". Yet he wonders why they have no romantic interests, and why there are no children in the community. He sometimes falls afoul of the strict rules, in which lying is a serious offense, punishable by solitary confinement. Yoletta comes to love him, but like a brother, without the heat of passion he feels for her.
In time he meets the mysterious Mother of the House, and begins to comprehend the full strangeness and differentness of their way of life. The humans of this distant future have achieved their utopian state by abandoning sexuality and romantic love. Only the Father and Mother of the House reproduce. The narrator verges on despair as he realizes that his passion for Yoletta can never be consummated or fully satisfied; he wonders whether he can adapt to this elevated but limited mode of living. The Narrator does not realize that the Mother has been grooming himself and Yoletta to become the new Father and Mother of the House.
He discovers an elaborately-carved bottle on a shelf; its inscription states that its contents provide a cure for the oppressions of "time and disease" and the thoughts or passions that "lead to madness." He takes a dose of the liquid, thinking it will cure his passion for Yoletta, which he doesn't realize she has begun to reciprocate. It is only when his body grows stiff and cold that he realize that the potion is a poison, and that the relief it provides is death.
This story, of a traveler who falls in love with a mysterious, beautiful young girl with an elderly protector, anticipates the plot of Hudson's later and more famous novel, Green Mansions
.
in Sub-Coelum
(1893) and Alexander Craig in Ionia
(1898), Hudson projects sexual repression into his imagined world. His narrator reacts against the world he encounters with an urge to "repeople the peaceful world with struggling, starving millions, as in the past," as though the only alternative to Malthusian
over-population is sexual denial.
Like Hudson's A Crystal Age, Elizabeth Corbett's 1889 novel New Amazonia
shows a 19th-century man's difficulties in adapting to a future society in which the gender equation has changed radically.
Utopian and dystopian fiction
The utopia and its offshoot, the dystopia, are genres of literature that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal world, or utopia, as the setting for a novel. Dystopian fiction is the opposite: creation of a nightmare world, or dystopia...
written by W. H. Hudson
William Henry Hudson
William Henry Hudson was an author, naturalist, and ornithologist.- Life and work :Hudson was born in the Quilmes, a borough of the greater Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, son of settlers of U.S. origin...
, first published in 1887
1887 in literature
The year 1887 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:*Futabatei Shimei writes The Drifting Cloud, the first modern novel in Japan.-New books:*Mary Elizabeth Braddon - Cut by the County*Hall Caine - The Deemster...
. The book has been called a "significant S-F
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
milestone" and has been noted for its anticipation of the "modern ecological mysticism" that would evolve a century later.
The book was first issued anonymously in 1887. The second edition of 1906 identified the author by name, and included a preface by Hudson. The third edition of 1916 added a foreword by Clifford Smith.
Genre
Hudson's second novel was one element in the major wave of utopian and dystopian literature that characterized the final decades of the 19th century and the start of the 20th, in Great Britain and the United States.Pastoral
Whether they wrote fiction or non-fiction, most utopian writers of Hudson's generation placed a strong emphasis on technological progress as a way to a better future; examples range from Edward BellamyEdward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy was an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward, set in the year 2000. He was a very influential writer during the Gilded Age of United States history.-Early life:...
's Looking Backward
Looking Backward
Looking Backward: 2000-1887 is a utopian science fiction novel by Edward Bellamy, a lawyer and writer from western Massachusetts; it was first published in 1887...
(1888) to King Gillette's The Human Drift
The Human Drift
The Human Drift is a work of Utopian social planning, written by King Camp Gillette and first published in 1894. The book details Gillette's plans for social and technological advancements that would replace the chaos of contemporary existence, which he termed the "human drift," with steady and...
(1894) to Alexander Craig's Ionia
Ionia (novel)
Ionia: Land of Wise Men and Fair Women is an 1898 utopian novel written by Alexander Craig. It is one work in the major wave of utopian and dystopian fiction that characterized the final decades of the nineteenth century and the start of the twentieth....
(1898) to H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
's A Modern Utopia
A Modern Utopia
A Modern Utopia is a work of fiction by H. G. Wells.* H. G. Wells's proposal for social reform was the formation of a world state, a concept that increasingly occupied him throughout the remainder of his life...
(1905). Conversely, though, a minority of utopian writers reacted with a skepticism toward, or even a rejection of, technological progress, and favored a return to an agrarian simplicity; these "pastoral utopias" included William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
's News from Nowhere
News from Nowhere
News from Nowhere is a classic work combining utopian socialism and soft science fiction written by the artist, designer and socialist pioneer William Morris...
(1891) and the "Altrurian trilogy" of William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells was an American realist author and literary critic. Nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters", he was particularly known for his tenure as editor of the Atlantic Monthly as well as his own writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day" and the novel The Rise of...
, his A Traveler from Altruria
A Traveler from Altruria
A Traveler from Altruria is a Utopian novel by William Dean Howells. It was first published in installments in The Cosmopolitan between November 1892 and October 1893, and eventually in book form by Harper & Brothers in 1894...
(1894) and its sequels
Through the Eye of the Needle
Through the Eye of the Needle: A Romance is a 1907 Utopian novel written by William Dean Howells. It is the final volume in Howells's "Altrurian trilogy," following A Traveler from Altruria and Letters of an Altrurian Traveler ....
.
Hudson's A Crystal Age belongs securely in the latter category of pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
utopia. The people of his imagined future possess only one piece of technology, a system of "brass globes" that produces a form of ambient music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
. Otherwise they have no machines and only simple devices; they plow their fields with horses and use axes to chop down trees.
Apocalypse
Another sub-genre of the utopian literature has been termed the "apocalyptic utopia." These books anticipate a disastrous future, usually as a precursor of a later, superior phase of human development. Hudson's book follows this approach; he envisions the modern society he knew as eventually collapsing into chaos through its hubris – "For in their madness they hoped by knowledge to gain absolute dominion over nature". Modern "pride and folly" lead to "corruption and decay;" a global disaster follows,- "... a sort of mighty Savonarola bonfire, in which most of the things once valued have been consumed to ashes – politics, religions, systems of philosophy, isms and ologies of all descriptions; schools, churches, prisons, poorhouses; stimulants and tobacco, kings and parliaments; cannon with its hostile roar, and pianos that thundered peacefully; history, the press, vice, political economy, money, and a million things more – all consumed like so much worthless hay and stubble."
A "small remnant" of humanity rebuilds on a more "humble" basis. Hudson sets his story more than a "hundred centuries" into a new, saner, and more balanced human culture.
Style
As with his other books, Hudson wrote A Crystal Age in a rich and highly descriptive style. He paints lustrous word-pictures. In the palatial residence of the people of the new age, "a room of vast extent" has- "... something ethereal in its aspect, as of a nave in a cloud-cathedral, its far-stretching shining floors and walls and columns, pure white and pearl-gray, faintly touched with colors of exquisite delicacy. And over it all was the roof of white or pale gray glass tinged with golden-rod – the roof which I had seen from the outside when it seemed to me like a cloud resting on the stony summit of a hill."
Toward the end of the book, the narrator applies a dusk metaphor to his declining mood: "All my thoughts, like evening clouds that appear luminous and rich in color until the sun has set, began to darken with a mysterious gloom." From there he proceeds to an evocative description of the late-autumn world around him:
- "For a long time the sky had been overcast with multitudes and endless hurrying processions of wild-looking clouds – torn, wind-chased fugitives, of every mournful shade of color, from palest gray to slatey-black; and storms of rain had been frequent, impetuous, and suddenly intermitted, or passing away phantom-like towards the misty hills, there to lose themselves among other phantoms, ever wandering sorrowfully in that vast, shadowy borderland where earth and heaven mingled; and gusts of wind which, as they roared by over a thousand straining trees and passed off with hoarse, volleying sounds, seemed to mimic the echoing thunder."
Much of the prose throughout the book is equally lush.
Synopsis
The unnamed narrator tells his story in the first person. A traveler and amateur naturalist, he regains consciousness "under a heap of earth and stones" and believes that he had been knocked unconscious in a fall – though his thoughts and recollections are confused. He is astounded to discover that he is entwined in the roots of plants, as though they have been growing around him. Extricating himself and surveying the scene, he sees a great house in the distance, and walks toward it to seek help and information. On his way, he encounters a funeral: a group of strangely yet strikingly dressed people, led by a majestic white-bearded old man, are interring a corpse in a grave. The narrator is especially struck by a beautiful girl who is overcome by grief. She appears to be about 14 years old; he quickly falls in love with her. The funeral party see him, and express surprise at his presence and his odd uncouth clothes and boots; but they allow him to accompany them to the enormous mansion where they live.Obsessed with the girl (her name is Yoletta), the narrator agrees to work for a year as a probationer in this community. He is constantly stumbling into misunderstandings with his new companions, for the world seems to have changed in extreme and incomprehensible ways. The most basic concepts of his society are unknown to these people. When he inquires about the nearest city, the old man who is "the Father of the House" thinks he is talking about a beehive. When the narrator notes that they share the English language, he is again not understood; the people of the house think they speak "the language of human beings – that is all." (Though their spoken language has changed little, the writing system is altered so much that the narrator cannot read the "Hebrew-like characters" in which their books are written.) It seems that the entire human race is now organized into communal houses like this one, with no other form of social structure.
The narrator struggles to adapt to this new society, as he pursues Yoletta. He is shocked to learn that all the people are much older than they appear; Yoletta is 31 years old, and the Father of the House is nearly 200. They are vegetarians, and have a strong rapport with the animals in their environment. The narrator is struck by their "rare physical beauty," their "crystal purity of heart," "ever contented and calmly glad". Yet he wonders why they have no romantic interests, and why there are no children in the community. He sometimes falls afoul of the strict rules, in which lying is a serious offense, punishable by solitary confinement. Yoletta comes to love him, but like a brother, without the heat of passion he feels for her.
In time he meets the mysterious Mother of the House, and begins to comprehend the full strangeness and differentness of their way of life. The humans of this distant future have achieved their utopian state by abandoning sexuality and romantic love. Only the Father and Mother of the House reproduce. The narrator verges on despair as he realizes that his passion for Yoletta can never be consummated or fully satisfied; he wonders whether he can adapt to this elevated but limited mode of living. The Narrator does not realize that the Mother has been grooming himself and Yoletta to become the new Father and Mother of the House.
He discovers an elaborately-carved bottle on a shelf; its inscription states that its contents provide a cure for the oppressions of "time and disease" and the thoughts or passions that "lead to madness." He takes a dose of the liquid, thinking it will cure his passion for Yoletta, which he doesn't realize she has begun to reciprocate. It is only when his body grows stiff and cold that he realize that the potion is a poison, and that the relief it provides is death.
This story, of a traveler who falls in love with a mysterious, beautiful young girl with an elderly protector, anticipates the plot of Hudson's later and more famous novel, Green Mansions
Green Mansions
Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest is an exotic romance by William Henry Hudson about a traveller to the Guyana jungle of southeastern Venezuela and his encounter with a forest dwelling girl named Rima.-Plot summary:...
.
Utopian context
The utopian literature of Hudson's generation was strongly preoccupied with the prospect of altered gender roles and related issues; A Crystal Age conforms to this general tendency. Like Addison Peale RussellAddison Peale Russell
Addison Peale Russell was an American author of the later nineteenth century. He is remembered mainly for his Sub-Coelum — "his best book...a Utopian protest against materialistic socialism."...
in Sub-Coelum
Sub-Coelum
Sub-Coelum: A Sky-Built Human World is an 1893 utopian fiction written by Addison Peale Russell. The book is one volume in the large body of utopian, dystopian, and speculative literature that characterized the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.-Genre:Scholar of the genre Jean Pfaelzer...
(1893) and Alexander Craig in Ionia
Ionia (novel)
Ionia: Land of Wise Men and Fair Women is an 1898 utopian novel written by Alexander Craig. It is one work in the major wave of utopian and dystopian fiction that characterized the final decades of the nineteenth century and the start of the twentieth....
(1898), Hudson projects sexual repression into his imagined world. His narrator reacts against the world he encounters with an urge to "repeople the peaceful world with struggling, starving millions, as in the past," as though the only alternative to Malthusian
Malthusian catastrophe
A Malthusian catastrophe was originally foreseen to be a forced return to subsistence-level conditions once population growth had outpaced agricultural production...
over-population is sexual denial.
Like Hudson's A Crystal Age, Elizabeth Corbett's 1889 novel New Amazonia
New Amazonia
New Amazonia: A Foretaste of the Future is a feminist utopian novel, written by Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett and first published in 1889. It was one element in the wave of utopian and dystopian literature that marked the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.-The plot:In her novel, Corbett...
shows a 19th-century man's difficulties in adapting to a future society in which the gender equation has changed radically.