Looking Backward: 2000-1887

By: Edward Bellamy

Narrated by: Caroline Collins

"Looking Backward" is a futuristic novel by Edward Bellamy. It tells the story of Julian West, a young American, who, towards the end of the 19th century, falls into a deep, hypnosis-induced sleep and wakes up one hundred and thirteen years later. He finds himself in the same location (Boston, Massachusetts), but in a totally changed world: it is the year 2000 and, while he was sleeping, the United States have been transformed into a socialist utopia.

The remainder of the story lines out Bellamy's thoughts about improving the future. The major themes include problems associated with capitalism, a proposed socialist solution of a nationalization of all industry, the use of an "industrial army" to organize production and distribution, as well as how to ensure free cultural production under such conditions.

Edward Bellamy (1850-1898) was an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, "Looking Backward".©2017 Audioliterature (P)2017 Audioliterature

Decent book, not a fan of narrator

I don't really have any complaints about the novel itself, however the narrator is choppy and breathes a lot, there seems to be no good flow of her reading. I had to speed up the rate of her reading to make it sound more fluid.

Maybe with a different reader

I had a difficult time getting into this book mostly because of the mechanical cadence of the reader. it was also unnerving to have a female reader when the story is told mostly in the first person, which is a male character.
As for the story, it is a fairly typical socialist utopian story depending on a dehumization of society to make it sound rational.

hard to understand the reader

unfortunately I found the reader to be hard to understand. I had to relisten to much of it