Izidor Janžekovič
review of Futuristic Fiction, Utopia, and Satire in the Age of Enlightenment: Samuel Madden’s Memoirs of the Twentieth Century (1733). By Giulia Iannuzzi. Brepols, 2024. 460 pp. €125.
History: The Journal fo the Historical Association
March 2025
https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.70008
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-229X.70008
“In her meticulously researched new book, Giulia Ianuzzi does not just provide a new critical edition of Samuel Madden’s Memoirs of the Twentieth Century – an often-overlooked Enlightenment utopia – but also an insightful analysis of chronological aspects within the literature of the early modern era.”
“Memoirs of the Twentieth Century was one of the earliest examples of what could be considered an uchronia, as the narrative does not simply project a utopian vision into a geographically distant place, usually on an island, as is common in traditional utopian literature, but rather creates an alternative version of future.”
“Iannuzzi’s thorough research and nuanced analysis bring out the richness of Madden’s text in ways that reveal its profound contributions to the development of speculative fiction. By carefully examining the historical, intellectual and literary contexts that shaped Madden’s writing, Iannuzzi makes a compelling case for why Memoirs deserves more attention from both scholars of the Enlightenment and those interested in the origins of futuristic and utopian fiction.”