The Future's Eve

Villiers de L'Isle-Adam's The Future's Eve (L'Éve Future, 1886) is a visionaryinterrogation of technology, humanity, and ideal love. When Lord Ewald asks hisfriend (a fictionized Thomas Edison) to replace Alicia, his flawed lover, Edison birthsHadaly, a lifelike android. Blending science fiction, Gothic romance and Symbolist philosophy, The Future'sEve attacks the pursuit of perfection and is considered to be the first populardepiction of artificial life. It is celebrated for its prescient themes, poetic language,and its profound commentary on the meeting of human longing and technologicalinnovation. By reimagining the text in twenty-first century English, R J Dent carefully preservesthe novel's essence while addressing the linguistic complexities and challenges of theoriginal novel. This new translation of The Future's Eve revitalises L'Isle-Adam's1886 text and provides readers with a fresh, accessible, modern English version ofthis groundbreaking work which reflects the author's satirical take on science.