Purchase
NYRB Classics
November 2008
On Sale: November 18, 2008
240 pages
ISBN: 1590172922
EAN: 9781590172926
Paperback
Add to Wish List
Science Fiction
The Chyrsalids is set in the future after a devastating
global nuclear war. David, the young hero of the novel,
lives in a tight-knit community of religious and genetic
fundamentalists, always on the alert for any deviation
from the norm of God’s creation. Abnormal plants are
publicly burned, with much singing of hymns. Abnormal
humans (who are not really human) are also condemned to
destruction—unless they succeed in fleeing to the Fringes,
that Wild Country where, as the authorities say, nothing
is reliable and the devil does his work. David grows up
ringed by admonitions: KEEP PURE THE STOCK OF THE LORD;
WATCH THOU FOR THE MUTANT. At first he does not question. Then, however, he realizes
that the he too is out of the ordinary, in possession of a
power that could doom him to death or introduce h im to a
new, hitherto unimagined world of freedom. The Chrysalids is a perfectly conceived and constructed
work form the classic era o science fiction, a Voltairean
philosophical tale that has as much resonance in our own
day, when religious and scientific dogmatism are both on
the march, as when it was written during the cold war.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy