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5.0 out of 5 stars
A fitting end to a writing career, May 19 2004
Dunsany (pronounced "dune-SANE-y") started publishing just after the turn into the 20th century. He began with poetry, then moved to plays (stimulated by a challenge from WB Yeats), short stories, and-in 1922-his first novel. Don Rodriguez is a romance that takes place several hundred years ago. Futuroscope is a romance that takes place several hundred years from now. The manuscript for this book was discovered only a couple years ago, long after the author's death in 1957.The story is that our author-the narrator-has had loan of a marvelous device by a rather disinterested inventor. This device works much like a television set, the difference being that it sees into the future. And with two dials (completely analog, of course), you can adjust where the 'scope is looking and at what time in the future. The narrator warns that the pictures gets dim too much after the time of this story (about 2600 AD), so don't build your hopes too high. The narrator decides to concentrate on the area right around where he lives (in Kent, England), and casts about to see what time period looks interesting. He soon sees what appears to be a nuclear holocaust, and centuries of devastation. Gradually, life comes back, and-strangely enough-it is just like life probably was about 5,000 years ago. Fortunately for us (and the narrator), English is still spoken. Eventually, he finds a small family living within a mile of where he the narrator currently lives, and he follows their lives for a few weeks. This exercise completely captivates him, and his own life becomes simply an observation of some future events, events not exactly unromantic and unadventurous. Some things never change. Dunsany's point is a life-long point (he would die a couple years after writing this book)-the modern age (symbolized by metal in this book) has robbed man of his true happiness. Not exactly a rare point of view among Brits (and, especially, those with titles), but no less ardently felt for being shared.
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