The 20th Century as Seen by Albert Robida in 1882: a Re-reading of his Vingtième Siècle Occasioned by its Translation into English (Futures of yesteryear)

Albert Robida’s 1882 novel Le Vingtième Siècle, roman d’une Parisienne d’après-demain is well known in French-speaking countries but has only just been translated into English for the first time – The Twentieth Century, translated with commentary by Philip Willems (Early Classics of Science Fiction, series editor Arthur B. Evans), Middletown (Connecticut): Wesleyan University Press, 2004, 397 pp. Bernard Cazes gives a brief outline of this utopian novel, stressing in particular the two main forces that Robida thought would drive change in the 20th century: changing moral standards (especially with regard to the position of women) and technical progress. Lastly Cazes reads between the lines to decipher what Robida foresaw for international relations in his novel.