The Island of Anarchy

by Elizabeth Waterhouse

It is late in the 20th Century. The Federal Government of Europe rounds up its troublesome anarchists and ships them off to a South Sea Island. Hooray, one thinks. But, of course, all does not go smoothly..... Published in Reading, England, in 1887, this extraordinary tale is by turns prophetic and hopelessly dated. It also raises important questions about the nature of the State and the Law. Reproduced here in a glorious letterpress edition, with all profits going to the Campaign Against The Arms Trade.

106 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1997

Reviews

[Snorki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marketed as an early sci-FI story, written by Waterhouse in the late 1880s, and set a century in the future, the 1980s. It’s a short story more than anything else, but I’m not really sure why it’s gone the sci-FI label, as it’s more a story of moralising than anything else. Groups from different countries migrate to an isolated Southern Island with the idea of creating some sort of utopia, which of course doesn’t go as planned ... but not much of interest here to be honest - it struck me as a moralistic, Victorian Christian story rather than anything else.