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L'An deux mille quatre cent quarante. Rêve s'il en fût jamais: suivi de l'Homme de Fer, songe

1786 Subjects: Antislavery movements, Censorship, , Utopias Forms: Fiction Printing and Publishing Status: New edition Translation Status: Source-text French Amsterdam URL

Contributions

Anonymous (Louis-Sébastien Mercier)
author
Daniel Jean Changuion
publisher
Poinçot, Claude-François
bookseller

Related resources

has translation
Astræa's Return or, the Halcyon Days of France in the Year 2440: A Dream: Translated from the French, by Harriot Augusta Freeman translation has paratext
has translation
L'anno duemila quattrocento quaranta e l'uomo di ferro translation
has translation
L'uomo di ferro del cittadino L.S. Mercier translation
has translation
Anno 2440 translation
has translation
L'anno duemila quattrocento quaranta sogno se mai lo fosse seguito dall'uomo di ferro translation

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Notes

This is the second authorized, and (third) revised and enlarged edition of Mercier's 1771 novel, including the additional story of 'L'Homme de Fer, songe', along with new notes and new titlepage motto 'O utinam'.

Mercier's name appeared for the first time in the 1791 edition. Url is to the 1798-99 (An VII) edition published by Brossot and Carteret.

Many commentators consider this the first genuine Utopian work set in the future. The first edition appeared in Amsterdam, under a false imprint, in 1771, and it was not allowed to be published in Paris until after 1789. Mercier's protagonist awakens from sleep in the 25th century, and finds himself in, "that blissful period, when man shall have regained his courage, his liberty, his independence and his virtue." The new society is the consequence of a revolution overseen by a benevolent prince, and while it is primarily an agrarian society, considerable emphasis is placed on scientific knowledge.

Probably Mercier's most popular work, there were 18,000 copies in print in three languages (French, English and German) by the end of 1772 and 63,000 by the time his death in 1814.

See Everett C. Wilkie Jr., 'Mercier's '"L'An 2440": Its publishing history during the author's lifetime, Parts I & II', in Harvard Library Bulletin vol.XXXII (1) & (4), Fall & Winter 1984: 5-35 & 348-400).