The book‘s opening scene portrays the protagonist, John Hope, awakening from a sleep of 193 years. Hope had been a prominent mid-twentieth-century scientist, who had developed new power sources that enabled air travel and, eventually, space exploration. In the year 1950, Hope had taken a “sleeping draught” that put him into a long suspended animation, as part of a planned experiment. When he wakes in the year 2143, he is met by Alfred and Edith Weir, descendants of John Malcolm Weir, the chemist who had prepared the sleeping draft Hope had taken in 1950.

The original edition of The Great Romance is one of the rarest books extant, with single copies of Parts 1 and 2 existing in New Zealand libraries. After a century of neglect, the book was reprinted by editor Dominic Alessio, first in Science Fiction Studies #61 in 1993 (Part 1) and then in a separate volume in 2008 (Parts 1 and 2, plus Alessio’s commentary on the influence the writing may have had on Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward. ). An additional part of the story is thought to have been written, but no copy is known to exist.

Considerable detective work has been applied to the question of the identity of the pseudonymous Inhabitant, although with no definite result. Nevertheless, we lean toward the theory of one “Honnor of Ashburton” because of an annotation to this effect in the only known original copies of the first two volumes of the work.
—based on Wikipedia
In the year one thousand nine hundred and fifty my dearest friend, John Malcolm Weir, the greatest chemist of his day, had given me the sleeping draught: it should tie up the senses—life itself—for an indefinite period; and when the appointed years were over life might again be awakened.

Tags

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Variants

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  1. The Great Romance, as by The Inhabitant, 2 vols. [plus a possible lost third volume] (Ashburton Guardian and Dunedin Daily Times [publishers], 1881).
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by unknown persons

Translations

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  1. Polish: excerpt.
    Wielki romans, as by The Inhabitant, HYNH+, vol. 5, #1, First Quarter 2022.
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by unknown persons

Derived Works

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  1. The Diothas, or A Far Look Ahead by John Macnie (1883).

Indexer Notes

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  1. Length—We estimate the length of the first two volumes at around 31,000 combined; if there is a missing third section, then that would possibly put the total length into novel territory.
  2. Publisher— from Science Fiction Studies #61 (footnote 2): The Dunedin title leaf was printed at the “Daily Times” office, the Ashburton at “The Guardian” office. Bagnall, having also examined the copy in the Turnbull Library, gives the place of publication as Ashburton without explanation for the discrepancy in the title pages. Since the Dunedin title is printed on yellow paper whereas the paper of the Ashburton title and the rest of the book is white, and since nearly all the advertising is for Ashburton business firms, it seems probable that the Turnbull copy was printed entirely at Ashburton and that there was a special issue for Dunedin with different advertising as well as a different title page.
  3. Photograph— Of the two title leafs found with Volume 1, the Ashburton title leaf was printed on paper that matches that of the volume itself, and the volume contained advertisements for Ashburton businesses. This explains the photo we’ve attached to the story, which depicts the Ashburton Borough Council and Public Library, circa 1881. So far as we know, the clock tower has no connection to the lightning storm of 12 October 1955.