Hartmann the Anarchist; or, The Doom of the Great City by E. Douglas Fawcett

E. Douglas Fawcett’s Hartmann the Anarchist; or, The Doom of the Great City is not the first science fiction novel ever written, but this illustrated version with twenty five drawings by Fred T. Jane (of Jane’s Fighting Ships fame), being originally published in 1893, is certainly an early science fiction novel, having been published in the midst of Jules Verne’s output and nearly coinciding with H. G. Wells’s first effort, The Time Machine, published two years later in 1895.

The storyline of Hartmann is surprisingly relevant to modern times, paralleling current events involving Antifa thugs and suchlike anarchists creating destruction and other mischief around the world. Mr. Fawcett (1866–1960), an English novelist and philosopher, asks the question: What would happen if anarchists should be the ones who develop the next great scientific breakthrough? What would happen if people who explicitly hate civilization should invent a new weapon of mass destruction? While taking a largely sympathetic view of the socialist political philosophy behind anarchism, the author nevertheless presents a stark, brutal, and horrifying answer.