Morris: News from Nowhere

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, Mar 9, 1995 - History - 229 pages
News from Nowhere (1890), William Morris' most famous work, is a utopian picture of a future communist society, depicting a world in which capitalism has been abolished by a workers' revolution, and in which nature and society have become beautiful habitations for humanity. In an era that has seen the collapse of state socialism, Morris' damning critique of this conception, and his positing of a powerful alternative, are compelling reasons for paying attention to this classic of British socialism.
 

Selected pages

Contents

Discussion and bed
3
A morning bath
7
The guest house and breakfast therein
15
A market by the way
25
Children on the road
29
A little shopping
36
Trafalgar Square
43
An old friend
51
The beginning of the new life
134
The drive back to Hammersmith
140
The Hammersmith guest house again
145
Going up the river
147
Hampton Court and a praiser of past times
150
An early morning by Runnymede
159
Up the Thames
165
The third day on the Thames
174

Concerning love
55
Questions and answers
66
Concerning government
77
Concerning the arrangement of life
82
Concerning politics
87
How matters are managed
88
On the lack of incentive to labour in a communist society
94
Dinner in the hall of the Bloomsbury Market
103
How the change came
108
The Obstinate Refusers
179
The upper waters
184
The little river
195
A restingplace on the upper Thames
199
The journeys end
204
An old house amongst new folk
210
The feasts beginning the end
215
Index
221
Copyright

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About the author (1995)

Morris was the Victorian Age's model of the Renaissance man. Arrested in 1885 for preaching socialism on a London street corner (he was head of the Hammersmith Socialist League and editor of its paper, The Commonweal, at the time), he was called before a magistrate and asked for identification. He modestly described himself upon publication (1868--70) as "Author of "The Earthly Paradise,' pretty well known, I think, throughout Europe." He might have added that he was also the head of Morris and Company, makers of fine furniture, carpets, wallpapers, stained glass, and other crafts; founder of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings; and founder, as well as chief designer, for the Kelmscott Press, which set a standard for fine book design that has carried through to the present. His connection to design is significant. Morris and Company, for example, did much to revolutionize the art of house decoration and furniture in England. Morris's literary productions spanned the spectrum of styles and subjects. He began under the influence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti with a Pre-Raphaelite volume called The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems (1858); he turned to narrative verse, first in the pastoral mode ("The Earthly Paradise") and then under the influence of the Scandinavian sagas ("Sigurd the Volsung"). After "Sigurd," his masterpiece, Morris devoted himself for a time exclusively to social and political affairs, becoming known as a master of the public address; then, during the last decade of his life, he fused these two concerns in a series of socialist romances, the most famous of which is News from Nowhere (1891).