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=                           A_Crystal_Age                            =
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                            Introduction
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'A Crystal Age' is a utopian novel/Dystopia written by W. H. Hudson,
first published in 1887. It concerns an inadvertent time traveler
facing the challenge of assimilating into and finding love in an
enigmatic future society. The book has been called a "significant S-F
milestone" and has been noted for its anticipation of the "modern
ecological mysticism" that would evolve a century later.

The book was first issued anonymously in 1887. The second edition of
1906 identified the author by name, and included a preface by Hudson.
The third edition of 1916 added a foreword by Clifford Smith.


                               Genre
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Hudson's second novel was one element in the major wave of utopian and
dystopian literature that characterized the final decades of the 19th
century and the start of the 20th, in Great Britain and the United
States.


Pastoral
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Whether they wrote fiction or non-fiction, most utopian writers of
Hudson's generation placed a strong emphasis on technological progress
as a way to a better future; examples range from Edward Bellamy's
'Looking Backward' (1888) to King Gillette's 'The Human Drift' (1894)
to Alexander Craig's 'Ionia' (1898) to H. G. Wells's 'A Modern Utopia'
(1905). Conversely, though, a minority of utopian writers reacted with
a skepticism toward, or even a rejection of, technological progress,
and favored a return to an agrarian simplicity; these "pastoral
utopias" included William Morris's 'News from Nowhere' (1891) and the
"Altrurian trilogy" of William Dean Howells, his 'A Traveler from
Altruria' (1894) and its sequels.

Hudson's 'A Crystal Age' belongs securely in the latter category of
pastoral utopia. The people of his imagined future possess only one
piece of technology, a system of "brass globes" that produces a form
of ambient music. Otherwise they have no machines and only simple
devices; they plow their fields with horses and use axes to chop down
trees.


Apocalypse
============
Another subgenre of the utopian literature has been termed the
"apocalyptic utopia." These books anticipate a disastrous future,
usually as a precursor of a later, superior phase of human
development. Hudson's book follows this approach; he envisions the
modern society he knew as eventually collapsing into chaos through its
hubris - "For in their madness they hoped by knowledge to gain
absolute dominion over nature". Modern "pride and folly" lead to
"corruption and decay;" a global disaster follows,

...a sort of mighty Savonarola bonfire, in which most of the things
once valued have been consumed to ashes - politics, religions, systems
of philosophy, isms and ologies of all descriptions; schools,
churches, prisons, poorhouses; stimulants and tobacco, kings and
parliaments; cannon with its hostile roar, and pianos that thundered
peacefully; history, the press, vice, political economy, money, and a
million things more - all consumed like so much worthless hay and
stubble.

A "small remnant" of humanity rebuilds on a more "humble" basis.
Hudson sets his story more than a "hundred centuries" into a new,
saner, and more balanced human culture.


                               Style
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As with his other books, Hudson wrote 'A Crystal Age' in a rich and
highly descriptive style. He paints lustrous word-pictures. In the
palatial residence of the people of the new age, "a room of vast
extent" has

...something ethereal in its aspect, as of a nave in a
cloud-cathedral, its far-stretching shining floors and walls and
columns, pure white and pearl-gray, faintly touched with colors of
exquisite delicacy. And over it all was the roof of white or pale gray
glass tinged with golden-rod - the roof which I had seen from the
outside when it seemed to me like a cloud resting on the stony summit
of a hill.

Toward the end of the book, the narrator applies a dusk metaphor to
his declining mood: "All my thoughts, like evening clouds that appear
luminous and rich in color until the sun has set, began to darken with
a mysterious gloom." From there he proceeds to an evocative
description of the late-autumn world around him:

For a long time the sky had been overcast with multitudes and endless
hurrying processions of wild-looking clouds - torn, wind-chased
fugitives, of every mournful shade of color, from palest gray to
slatey-black; and storms of rain had been frequent, impetuous, and
suddenly intermitted, or passing away phantom-like towards the misty
hills, there to lose themselves among other phantoms, ever wandering
sorrowfully in that vast, shadowy borderland where earth and heaven
mingled; and gusts of wind which, as they roared by over a thousand
straining trees and passed off with hoarse, volleying sounds, seemed
to mimic the echoing thunder.

Much of the prose throughout the book is equally lush.


                              Synopsis
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The narrator, "Smith", tells his story in the first person. A traveler
and amateur naturalist, he regains consciousness "under a heap of
earth and stones" and believes that he had been knocked unconscious in
a fall - though his thoughts and recollections are confused. He is
astounded to discover that he is entwined in the roots of plants, as
though they have been growing around him. Extricating himself and
surveying the scene, he sees a great house in the distance, and walks
toward it to seek help and information. On his way, he encounters a
funeral: a group of strangely yet strikingly dressed people, led by a
majestic white-bearded old man, are interring a corpse in a grave. The
narrator is especially struck by a beautiful girl who is overcome by
grief. She appears to be about 14 years old; though, he soon learns
that this world, and everyone in it are far older than they appear. He
becomes enchanted by her, and falls in love. The funeral party see
him, and express surprise at his presence and his odd uncouth clothes
and boots; but they allow him to accompany them to the enormous
mansion where they live.

Enthralled with the girl (her name is Yoletta), and anxious to show
his worth in their House, the narrator agrees to work for a year as a
probationer in this community. He is constantly stumbling into
misunderstandings with his new companions, for the world seems to have
changed in so many extreme and incomprehensible ways. The most basic
concepts of his society are unknown to these people. When he inquires
about the nearest city, the old man who is "the Father of the House"
thinks he is talking about a beehive. When the narrator notes that
they share the English language, he is again not understood; the
people of the house think they speak "the language of human beings -
that is all." (Though their spoken language has changed little, the
writing system is altered so much that the narrator cannot read the
"Hebrew-like characters" in which their books are written.) It seems
that the entire human race is now organized into communal houses like
this one, with no other form of social structure, that they know of.

The narrator struggles to adapt to this new society, as he pursues
Yoletta. He is shocked to learn that all the people are much older
than they appear; Yoletta is 31 years old, and the Father of the House
is nearly 200. They are vegetarians, and have a strong rapport with
the animals in their environment. The narrator is struck by their
"rare physical beauty," their "crystal purity of heart," "ever
contented and calmly glad". Yet he wonders why they have no romantic
interests, and why there are no children in the community. He
sometimes falls afoul of the strict rules, in which lying is a serious
offense, punishable by solitary confinement. Yoletta comes to love
him, but like a brother, without the heat of passion he feels for her.

In time he meets the mysterious Mother of the House, and begins to
comprehend the full strangeness and differentness of their way of
life. The humans of this distant future have achieved their utopian
state by abandoning sexuality and romantic love. Like a beehive, or a
wolf pack, only the Queen, or Alpha Male and Female, or Father and
Mother of the House, in this case, reproduce. The rest of the House
live communally, as siblings. The narrator despairs when he realizes
that his passion for Yoletta can never be consummated; and, wonders
whether he can adapt to this mode of living. He does not realize that
the Mother has begun the long process of grooming himself and Yoletta
to become the new Father and Mother of the House.

When he is in the library, he discovers an elaborately carved bottle
on a shelf; its inscription states that its contents provide a cure
for the oppressions of "time and disease" and the thoughts or passions
that "lead to madness." He takes a dose of the liquid, thinking it
will cure his passion for Yoletta, which he doesn't realize she has
begun to learn to reciprocate. It is only when his body grows stiff
and cold that he realizes that the potion is a poison, and that the
only relief from the pains of life it provides is death.

This story, of a traveler who falls in love with a mysterious,
beautiful young girl with an elderly protector, anticipates the plot
of Hudson's later and more famous 1904 novel, 'Green Mansions', and
its young forest-dwelling character, Rima.


                          Utopian context
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The utopian literature of Hudson's generation was strongly preoccupied
with the prospect of altered gender roles and related issues; 'A
Crystal Age' conforms to this general tendency. Like Addison Peale
Russell in 'Sub-Coelum' (1893) and Alexander Craig in 'Ionia' (1898),
Hudson foresees a world of emotional and sexual repression. His
narrator rebels against this staid world he encounters, with an urge
to "repeople the peaceful world with struggling, starving millions, as
in the past," as the author writes in the Preface, Nature abhors a
vacuum, and the Victorian sedate world of manners, and repression,
proposed as the only alternative to a Malthusian over-population
catastrophe (like in the later Soylent Green) will only lead to a
fetid stagnation, and ultimately, depopulation, and death, of the
species.


Like Hudson's 'A Crystal Age', Elizabeth Corbett's 1889 novel 'New
Amazonia' also addresses a 19th-century man's difficulties in adapting
to a proposed future society in which the gender equation has changed
radically.


                           External links
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*[https://archive.org/search.php?query=title%3A%22A%20Crystal%20Age%22
'A Crystal Age'] at Internet Archive (scanned books including from
Google Books, Project Gutenberg etc.)
*


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