Science fiction : a historical anthology

by Eric S. Rabkin

Paper Book, 1983

Status

Available

Call number

808.83/876

Publication

Oxford [Oxfordshire] ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1983.

Description

An invaluable contribution to the serious study of science fiction as well as a highly entertaining collection, Science Fiction contains 27 chronologically-arranged stories and excerpts, ranging from such early classic works as Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Shelley's Frankenstein to recentstories such as Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" and Ursula K. Le Guin's "Vaster Than Empires and More Slow." Including brief general essays and a separate introduction to each individual story or excerpt, Rabkin's anthology greatly illuminates the evolution of the genre.

User reviews

LibraryThing member hazzabamboo
Highlights: Voltaire, Hawthorne, Bellamy, London, Stapledon, Asimov, Bradbury, Keyes, Zelazny

Avoid: Gernsback, Finney, Pohl, Ellison, Sheckley

Some disappointing stuff in here (not one of Arthur C Clarke's strongest ideas), but then any kind of historical anthology is bound to demonstrating
Show More
evolution and the thematic concerns of the genre as well as to quality. Very interesting to see how the earliest writers use other worlds to examine our own, a technique which is still going strong, but technology, its possibilities and threats, becomes so dominant.
Show Less

Language

Physical description

x, 529 p.; 22 cm

ISBN

9780195032727
Page: 0.1538 seconds