Equality by Edward Bellamy (1897)

The novel is set in a future society where people live in a highly organized and efficient system. The protagonist, a man from the 19th century, travels to the year 2000 and discovers a world that has been transformed by a revolution. In this new society, all people are equal and there is no private property, poverty, or inequality. People work for the common good and are rewarded with a high standard of living. The novel explores the benefits and drawbacks of such a system, including the loss of individual freedom and creativity.

By Edward Bellamy · First published 1897 · Genre: Science Fiction, Utopian and Dystopian, Political · 38 chapters

Contents

• A SHARP CROSS-EXAMINER
• WHY THE REVOLUTION DID NOT COME EARLIER
• I ACQUIRE A STAKE IN THE COUNTRY
• A TWENTIETH-CENTURY BANK PARLOR
• I EXPERIENCE A NEW SENSATION
• HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE
• A STRING OF SURPRISES
• THE GREATEST WONDER YET - FASHION DETHRONED
• SOMETHING THAT HAD NOT CHANGED
• A MIDNIGHT PLUNGE
• LIFE THE BASIS OF THE RIGHT OF PROPERTY
• HOW INEQUALITY OF WEALTH DESTROYS LIBERTY
• PRIVATE CAPITAL STOLEN FROM THE SOCIAL FUND
• WE LOOK OVER MY COLLECTION OF HARNESSES
• WHAT WE WERE COMING TO BUT FOR THE REVOLUTION
• AN EXCUSE THAT CONDEMNED
• THE REVOLUTION SAVES PRIVATE PROPERTY FROM MONOPOLY
• AN ECHO OF THE PAST
• "CAN A MAID FORGET HER ORNAMENTS?"
• WHAT THE REVOLUTION DID FOR WOMEN
• AT THE GYMNASIUM
• ECONOMIC SUICIDE OF THE PROFIT SYSTEM
• "THE PARABLE OF THE WATER TANK."
• I AM SHOWN ALL THE KINGDOMS OF THE EARTH
• THE STRIKERS
• FOREIGN COMMERCE UNDER PROFITS; PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE, OR BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA
• HOSTILITY OF A SYSTEM OF VESTED INTERESTS TO IMPROVEMENT
• HOW THE PROFIT SYSTEM NULLIFIED THE BENEFIT OF INVENTIONS
• I RECEIVE AN OVATION
• WHAT UNIVERSAL CULTURE MEANS
• "NEITHER IN THIS MOUNTAIN NOR AT JERUSALEM."
• ERITIS SICUT DEUS
• SEVERAL IMPORTANT MATTERS OVERLOOKED
• WHAT STARTED THE REVOLUTION
• WHY THE REVOLUTION WENT SLOW AT FIRST BUT FAST AT LAST
• THEATER-GOING IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
• THE TRANSITION PERIOD
• THE BOOK OF THE BLIND

More by Edward Bellamy

• To Whom This May Come (1897)
• The Blindman's World (1897)
• With the Eyes Shut (1897)
• An Echo Of Antietam (1898)
• Hooking Watermelons (1898)
• A Summer Evening's Dream (1898)
• Two Days' Solitary Imprisonment (1898)
• Potts's Painless Cure (1898)
• All works by Edward Bellamy