2894 (novel)

2894
Author	Walter Browne
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Utopian fiction Speculative fiction
Publisher	G. W. Dillingham
Publication date	1894
Media type	Print

2894, or The Fossil Man (A Midwinter Night's Dream) is an 1894 utopian novel written by Walter Browne.^[1] It is one entrant in the major wave of utopian and dystopian literature that characterized the final decades of the nineteenth century.^[2]^[3]

The book deals with a reversal of the traditional gender roles, and describes a society of "dominant women and submissive men."^[4] It is one of a group of speculative fiction works in its generation that took a position, pro or con, on feminism and gender roles.^[5]

2894 is one of the rarest works in the English language.^[6]

References[]

^ Published New York, G. W. Dillingham, 1894.
^ Kenneth Roemer, The Obsolete Necessity: America in Utopian Writings, 1888–1900, Kent, OH, Kent State University Press, 1976.
^ Allyn B. Forbes, "The Literary Quest for Utopia, 1880–1900," Social Forces, Vol. 6 No. 2 (December 1927), pp. 179-89.
^ Sargent, Lyman Tower (November 1976). "Themes in Utopian Fiction in English Before Wells". Science Fiction Studies. 3 (3): 275–82, see p. 276. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
^ Sargent, pp. 278-9.
^ Sargent, p. 281 n. 15.