Status
Available
Call number
Library's review
USA, San Francisco, 2073
???
???
Publication
[Nysted] : Science Fiction Cirklen, 1985.
Description
Classic Literature. Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML: It is the year 2072, sixty years on from the scarlet plague that decimated the earth's population. As one of the few who knew life before the plague, James Howard Smith tries to impart what he knows to his grandsons while he still can. Jack London's visionary post-apocalyptic novel The Scarlet Plague was written in 1912..
Media reviews
London's style is typically lush but his viewpoint is skeptical and dystopian . . . [the] story reminds us of the dangers we still court with our careless ways.
User reviews
LibraryThing member gbill
This short story is dark but wonderful. Written in 1912, it has its place in early dystopian stories, and one with plausible science behind it. Jack London imagines a future in which an incredibly deadly plague hits mankind in 2013, and has the events told in retrospect sixty years later by one of
London’s predictions of world population growth before his plague hits are pretty accurate; he imagines 8 billion by 2010, and the reality ended up around 7 billion by then. He also eerily describes an outbreak of a disease that sounds like polio - in his book it arises in 1947 and is eradicated by 1958; in reality the first large epidemic was in 1916, and Salk’s vaccine was having a dramatic effect by 1955-7.
Most interesting to me, though, was that before the plague, London has the control of both the United States and the world in the hands of oligarchies of the ultra-wealthy, which in some countries is openly true today, and in others, dangerously close to being true. It’s fascinating that he has such pessimism of how democracy would play out, with Morgan the Fifth appointed President by the Board of Magnates, a group of a dozen men who rule the country. Society is heavily stratified, with the powerful owning the land, machines, and everything else, and those who produce food, the ‘food-getters’, their slaves. This comes back to haunt mankind during the onset of the plague: “In the midst of our civilization, down in our slums and labor-ghettos, we had bred a race of barbarians, of savages; and now, in the time of our calamity, they turned upon us like the wild beasts they were and destroyed us.”
Society is so completely devastated, with only about one in a million people surviving, and so knowledge is quickly lost. It’s chilling to me that the grandchildren listening to the tales of the past are not only uneducated, but they scorn concepts like germs you can’t see, and man’s history. While life continues on and London foresees man eventually rebuilding his world, he also sees an inevitable cycle, which seems to me one of the darkest possible apocalyptic thoughts.
Just this quotes, along those same lines, from the introduction by Matthew Battles:
“London’s vision of these cycles evokes the philosophy of history of eighteenth-century thinker Giambattista Vico, whose time saw the ascendancy of science, the beginnings of ostensibly benevolent, bureaucratic monarchies, and the end of religious warfare in Europe. But to Vico, these hallmarks of progress were already harbingers of a fall; the glories of civilization were also the seeds of an overweening pride that would bring us to the brink of tragic choices. Vico saw history as a system powered by our paradoxical drives: to poetry and reflection on the one hand, and ‘ferocity, avarice, and ambition’ on the other. These opposed regimes act through society to produce history that cycles from primitive savagery to barbarian society to the majesty of civilization – and back, again and again.”
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the few survivors in the San Francisco Bay Area to his grandkids. Aside from how early it was written, what makes the story special is how realistic it seems. One example of this during the plague is people’s behavior, e.g. the lawlessness, violence, and occasional acts of sacrifice; another is in how much the modern world would depend on infrastructure and the rapid communication of news, which when lost would quickly isolate people. London’s predictions of world population growth before his plague hits are pretty accurate; he imagines 8 billion by 2010, and the reality ended up around 7 billion by then. He also eerily describes an outbreak of a disease that sounds like polio - in his book it arises in 1947 and is eradicated by 1958; in reality the first large epidemic was in 1916, and Salk’s vaccine was having a dramatic effect by 1955-7.
Most interesting to me, though, was that before the plague, London has the control of both the United States and the world in the hands of oligarchies of the ultra-wealthy, which in some countries is openly true today, and in others, dangerously close to being true. It’s fascinating that he has such pessimism of how democracy would play out, with Morgan the Fifth appointed President by the Board of Magnates, a group of a dozen men who rule the country. Society is heavily stratified, with the powerful owning the land, machines, and everything else, and those who produce food, the ‘food-getters’, their slaves. This comes back to haunt mankind during the onset of the plague: “In the midst of our civilization, down in our slums and labor-ghettos, we had bred a race of barbarians, of savages; and now, in the time of our calamity, they turned upon us like the wild beasts they were and destroyed us.”
Society is so completely devastated, with only about one in a million people surviving, and so knowledge is quickly lost. It’s chilling to me that the grandchildren listening to the tales of the past are not only uneducated, but they scorn concepts like germs you can’t see, and man’s history. While life continues on and London foresees man eventually rebuilding his world, he also sees an inevitable cycle, which seems to me one of the darkest possible apocalyptic thoughts.
Just this quotes, along those same lines, from the introduction by Matthew Battles:
“London’s vision of these cycles evokes the philosophy of history of eighteenth-century thinker Giambattista Vico, whose time saw the ascendancy of science, the beginnings of ostensibly benevolent, bureaucratic monarchies, and the end of religious warfare in Europe. But to Vico, these hallmarks of progress were already harbingers of a fall; the glories of civilization were also the seeds of an overweening pride that would bring us to the brink of tragic choices. Vico saw history as a system powered by our paradoxical drives: to poetry and reflection on the one hand, and ‘ferocity, avarice, and ambition’ on the other. These opposed regimes act through society to produce history that cycles from primitive savagery to barbarian society to the majesty of civilization – and back, again and again.”
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LibraryThing member sparkleandchico
Every once in a while I dip into something outside of my normal genre and in the public domain. This short book caught my eye due to the other books by the author.
It is some time in the future. A primitive grandfather and his two wild grandchildren are forraging for food or more accurately eating
Grandpa returns to the past when the Scarlet Plague swept the planet destroying billions of people and bringing modern civilisation to its knees. He recounts the gruesome deterioration of the many as the few with some kind of immunity struggled to survive. The decisions that had to be made as each person realised they had succumbed and perhaps only had minutes left to live.
Although this account is short and simple, the author does a good job in drawing the reader in. I found it difficult to put down and read it through in an hour.
The whole premise of the story reminds us that as a race we are completely out of control. We have no power to determine events and we don't know at all what will happen in the future. We could easily be wiped out in a nuclear holocaust or killed off more slowly as antibiotics become reistant or even (as this book suggests) be afflicted with a deadly plague that kills within minutes. What a scary thought: we think of ourselves as being so enlightened, progressive and powerful but the reality is that we are totally powerless and at the mercy of the elements....
It was interesting for me that even writing from a non-religious standpoint, the author highlights that in times like this when people are dropping like flies, it is each man for himself:
I did not go to the groceryman's assistance. The time for such acts had already passed. Civilization was crumbling, and it was each for himself.
We can try to deny it, but we are all inherently selfish due to indwelling sin in our hearts.
There are some people scratching their heads at this point in my review. Of course, all of the above would be true, if God was not orchestrating events. It is a great relief to me, as a Christian, that He is in total control and that none of the things suggested even in sci-fi can happen without His approval and direction. We are really fragile, small, weak and helpless in all manner of things, but God is not and He knows exactly what will happen and when. How the atheist copes with the uncertainties of life (and death) I have no idea. I'm just very thankful that I'm not in that camp.
Worth reading if you are secure in the knowledge that it won't happen unless God wills it. There is no bad language, some violence which isn't especially graphic and no sexual content.
It is some time in the future. A primitive grandfather and his two wild grandchildren are forraging for food or more accurately eating
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crabs as this is the only food available to them. A grizzly bear wanders around. The picture is of remote wasteland, hopelessness and destitution. The grandchildren aren't really interested in the tales of their elderly relation, they are more akin to savages, but as he insists on telling them, they half-heartedly listen to the story....Grandpa returns to the past when the Scarlet Plague swept the planet destroying billions of people and bringing modern civilisation to its knees. He recounts the gruesome deterioration of the many as the few with some kind of immunity struggled to survive. The decisions that had to be made as each person realised they had succumbed and perhaps only had minutes left to live.
Although this account is short and simple, the author does a good job in drawing the reader in. I found it difficult to put down and read it through in an hour.
The whole premise of the story reminds us that as a race we are completely out of control. We have no power to determine events and we don't know at all what will happen in the future. We could easily be wiped out in a nuclear holocaust or killed off more slowly as antibiotics become reistant or even (as this book suggests) be afflicted with a deadly plague that kills within minutes. What a scary thought: we think of ourselves as being so enlightened, progressive and powerful but the reality is that we are totally powerless and at the mercy of the elements....
It was interesting for me that even writing from a non-religious standpoint, the author highlights that in times like this when people are dropping like flies, it is each man for himself:
I did not go to the groceryman's assistance. The time for such acts had already passed. Civilization was crumbling, and it was each for himself.
We can try to deny it, but we are all inherently selfish due to indwelling sin in our hearts.
There are some people scratching their heads at this point in my review. Of course, all of the above would be true, if God was not orchestrating events. It is a great relief to me, as a Christian, that He is in total control and that none of the things suggested even in sci-fi can happen without His approval and direction. We are really fragile, small, weak and helpless in all manner of things, but God is not and He knows exactly what will happen and when. How the atheist copes with the uncertainties of life (and death) I have no idea. I'm just very thankful that I'm not in that camp.
Worth reading if you are secure in the knowledge that it won't happen unless God wills it. There is no bad language, some violence which isn't especially graphic and no sexual content.
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LibraryThing member jimsnopes
Did Cormac McCarthy read this and go on to write The Road? Set in 2073, an old man, "Granser" and his grandson, twelve years old Edwin are making their way through San Francisco sixty years after the Scarlet Plague had wiped out most of the world's population. They meet two other boys and Granser
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tells the story of how the world came to such devastation as they are surrounded by. He tells how he is glad there are no books any more, in time the whole cycle of history will be repeated and civilization will discover all it previously knew. Through the forest they reach the sea... Show Less
LibraryThing member Polaris-
A remarkably prescient tale for our times told briskly by one of the great masters of the short story.
LibraryThing member john257hopper
A gripping and quite horrifying little story about a post-apocalyptic world in 2073 where almost the entire population has been wiped out by the eponymous plague. The narrator is an old man, the only survivor of the world before, recounting to a group of cynical and disbelieving boys the disaster
This e-edition came up with a mini-biography of the author's interesting life (worth reading) and material for students in the form of a plot summary and character analyses - to be avoided if the story is new for you.
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that happened 60 years earlier. The only slight jarring issue, as with all such "future historicals" and obviously unavoidable, is that the world of the plague year is like 1913, roughly when it was written, rather than 2013 when it is supposed to be set. The characters in that world are rather cliched beautiful women and heroic or beastly cruel men.This e-edition came up with a mini-biography of the author's interesting life (worth reading) and material for students in the form of a plot summary and character analyses - to be avoided if the story is new for you.
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LibraryThing member RBeffa
This short novel (or novella), originally published 100 years ago, is set in San Francisco 60 years after the Scarlet Death came in 2013. It opens with a very old man and his grandson, a young boy, walking along an old monorail track, now an animal trail, near the sand dunes and Cliff House on the
The old man tells his grandchildren the story of how the Scarlet Death came and how rapidly civilization collapsed. The story was interesting, although quite dated in some ways. There was an extra appeal to me as the story covers many places and towns in the Bay Area where I was born and live. As London depicts the days before and during the plague it sounds like 1912 rather than 2012, although in other ways his observations of the world and it's problems are rather timeless. This is not a book to get excited about, but holds a place as one of the earliest pieces of post-apocalyptic fiction.
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beach. I suspect I may have read this when I was a young teen, because there was a vague familiarity to the story and illustrations.The old man tells his grandchildren the story of how the Scarlet Death came and how rapidly civilization collapsed. The story was interesting, although quite dated in some ways. There was an extra appeal to me as the story covers many places and towns in the Bay Area where I was born and live. As London depicts the days before and during the plague it sounds like 1912 rather than 2012, although in other ways his observations of the world and it's problems are rather timeless. This is not a book to get excited about, but holds a place as one of the earliest pieces of post-apocalyptic fiction.
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LibraryThing member karl.steel
can't decide if it wants to be socialist or deeply reactionary. would like to have had London do a working-men's version. standard account of reversion to base,which, in this case, means 'prehistoric' inferior to Purple Cloud in its account of the final horror of civilization's end
hilarious to me
hilarious to me
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that narrator a Berkeley English prof, from family of same, and somehow paid handsomely in 2012 under industrial oligarchy. oh, science fiction!! Show Less
LibraryThing member benjamin.duffy
So short as to barely even qualify as a novella, The Scarlet Plague still manages to be slow-moving. There's almost no action, as 90% of the book is the aged protagonist rambling on to his four grandsons (all of whom are filthy, illiterate post-apocalyptic savages) about how the world was before
If this book came out today, I'd probably give it two stars, but in 1912 the idea of ragged survivors struggling in the aftermath of a global plague must have been shocking, mind-blowing stuff. As I read this, I tried to pretend I had never read The Stand, or Refuge, or seen Children of Men or I Am Legend. (Actually, I always kind of like to pretend I didn't see that last one.) And in light of that, remembering that there was no I'm-the-last-man-on-Earth genre until Jack London came along and created it with this book, I had to give it three stars.
Plus, I grabbed it for free (public domain) and read it in like 45 minutes. Did I mention it's short?
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and immediately after the titular plague. London commits one of the cardinal sins of speculative fiction - making his characters speak in weird pseudo-futuristic jargon, which always always always just ends up sounding dated and silly, yet he avoids one of the other cardinal sins in that he does not try to make too many specific predictions about future technology. Because of that restraint, the book doesn't feel as quaint or archaic as say, H.G. Wells or Jules Verne or even early Asimov.If this book came out today, I'd probably give it two stars, but in 1912 the idea of ragged survivors struggling in the aftermath of a global plague must have been shocking, mind-blowing stuff. As I read this, I tried to pretend I had never read The Stand, or Refuge, or seen Children of Men or I Am Legend. (Actually, I always kind of like to pretend I didn't see that last one.) And in light of that, remembering that there was no I'm-the-last-man-on-Earth genre until Jack London came along and created it with this book, I had to give it three stars.
Plus, I grabbed it for free (public domain) and read it in like 45 minutes. Did I mention it's short?
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LibraryThing member la2bkk
I was pleasantly surprised by this short work. Unlike most, I have never been impressed by London's works, finding them to lack any sophistication- in my view, even his seminal effort Sea Wolf reads more like young adult fiction. Nonetheless, Scarlet Plague is a departure in its stark, dismal
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portrayal of post-apocalyptic human nature. An easy reading, fast moving work. Show Less
LibraryThing member SylviaC
Not really special, except from a historical perspective. Written in 1912, set in 2073, looking back to 2013. The last remaining survivor of a virulent worldwide plague tells his savage grandsons the story of the plague and the loss of his civilization. It's always interesting to see how authors of
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the past imagined the future. Show Less
LibraryThing member sturlington
In an post-apocalyptic San Francisco, an old man describes to his grandsons how a plague destroyed civilization.
This short story feels like an ur-story for George Stewart's Earth Abides (also set in San Francisco). It doesn't really have a plot; rather, it's just a description of civilization's
This short story feels like an ur-story for George Stewart's Earth Abides (also set in San Francisco). It doesn't really have a plot; rather, it's just a description of civilization's
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quick fall from disease and a meditation on how easily humanity could return to savagery. Frequent readers of apocalyptic fiction will recognize a lot of ideas that were later fleshed out by other writers, but London should get credit for being one of the first. This might also be considered an early steampunk story, as well. London's vision of the future--the plague hits in 2013--includes dirigibles and steam power, as well as some radically altered version of U.S. government. However, it's also terribly classist and sexist. But it's short enough to read in one sitting and would be of interest to anyone studying this genre of fiction. Show Less
LibraryThing member bibleblaster
An "after-the-end" story on the order of The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Some of London's prejudices show through, though I thought some might be character-driven. I'll be reading London's "The Iron Heel" next to explore some of his other fears and visions for the future.
LibraryThing member isabelx
Civilization was passing in a sheet of flame and a breath of death.
In this 1910 novella, an old man tells his three grandsons the story of the scarlet plague, which ravaged the whole world 60 years before, leaving very few survivors. The boys are not really interested as they live a tribal
An enjoyable novella, which I listened to on the sffaudio podcast.
In this 1910 novella, an old man tells his three grandsons the story of the scarlet plague, which ravaged the whole world 60 years before, leaving very few survivors. The boys are not really interested as they live a tribal
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existence in a depopulated California, spending their time herding goats and catching crabs down at the shore, and don’t understand that long-dead world of English professors and motor cars.An enjoyable novella, which I listened to on the sffaudio podcast.
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LibraryThing member LibraryCin
It’s 2070-something. “Granser” is telling his three grandsons about the “Scarlet Plague” that happened in 2012 or 2013. It was a disease that killed (ridiculously fast once it hit – within minutes or hours – no time to get help) a very large proportion of the 8 billion people on Earth
It’s a short story, so doesn’t take long to read. I was impressed with the guesstimate of 8 billion people on Earth in 2012 – not too far off. I never did figure out why the man cried so easily, though, at taunting from the boys. Overall, it’s an ok story.
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at the time. Granser was one of the few who lived through it. Civilization is trying to rebuild itself, but the focus of the story is on the plague and aftermath as Granser saw it.It’s a short story, so doesn’t take long to read. I was impressed with the guesstimate of 8 billion people on Earth in 2012 – not too far off. I never did figure out why the man cried so easily, though, at taunting from the boys. Overall, it’s an ok story.
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Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1912
Physical description
48 p.; 20.8 cm
ISBN
8787662302 / 9788787662307
Local notes
Omslag: Balder og Brage
Omslaget viser nogle kolber og glas, der står på et bord
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Oversat fra amerikansk "The scarlet plague" af Jens Stürup
Gutenberg, bind 21970
Cirkelserien, nr 7
Omslaget viser nogle kolber og glas, der står på et bord
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Oversat fra amerikansk "The scarlet plague" af Jens Stürup
Gutenberg, bind 21970
Cirkelserien, nr 7
Similar in this library
Pages
48
DDC/MDS
| 813.52 |