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Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887 — cover
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Aeneas Press edition Victorian First published 1888

Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887

The Bellamy Duology, Book 1

by Edward Bellamy 1850–1898

The book, and the century it came out of.

A Boston gentleman goes to sleep in a sealed underground chamber in 1887 and is dug out in the year 2000, in a city with no money, no advertising, no servants and no poor. Bellamy’s romance sold in the hundreds of thousands, spawned more than 160 Nationalist clubs across America, and made him — a mild journalist — briefly the most politically dangerous man in the country. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Bonington, Davis and Daguerre among them.

I first saw the light in the city of Boston in the year 1857.
The first sentence of Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887
A note on this edition

Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887, by Edward Bellamy, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 240 pages
Reading time
about 5 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785501967540
The plates

60 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

Paris, vu de la Butte Montmartre, Louis Daguerre
Paris, vu de la Butte Montmartre Louis Daguerre 1830
La rue de la Paix, Giuseppe Canella
La rue de la Paix Giuseppe Canella 1829
The Augustusbrücke in Dresden, Thomas Fearnley
The Augustusbrücke in Dresden Thomas Fearnley 1829
Highland Music, Edwin Landseer
Highland Music Edwin Landseer 1829
Dublin Bay, Frederick Calvert
Dublin Bay Frederick Calvert 1830
View of the Sainte-Paterne Tower from a Window, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot
View of the Sainte-Paterne Tower from a Window Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot 1830
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887 as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887 as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887, first published 1888, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Science Fiction shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501967540, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Edward Bellamy's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 240 pages, which is roughly about 5 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
If this one suits you
Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887
$6.99
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