- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Black Swan; New edition edition (1 July 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0552770000
- ISBN-13: 978-0552770002
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,237,160 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Amazon.co.uk Review
In London at the turn of the 20th century, H. G. Wells's time machine mysteriously appears--empty--in a squatter's flat. From where did it come, and for what purpose was it sent? The answers to these questions--though not to an even greater mystery connected with the machine's appearance--are contained in a letter written by Wells on May 2, 1946, which falls into the hands of one David Lambert on the eve of the millennium. Lambert, an industrial archeologist, reads the letter foretelling the arrival of the machine and, half convinced the whole thing is a hoax, goes to the address Wells provides, where, at the appointed hour, the time machine materializes. Thus begins Ronald Wright's fine and fantastical novel A Scientific Romance.
Romance can refer to an affair of the heart; it can also describe a heroic tale of extraordinary events. In A Scientific Romance, Wright plays on both possible meanings as he weaves a tragic story of betrayal and lost love into a larger narrative of time travel. Lambert, having lost the woman he loved, is reckless enough to test Wells's machine himself, catapulting 500 years into the future, where he finds London--indeed, all of England--a deserted, semitropical landscape. As David explores the future, he also sifts through his own past, creating in this Möbius strip of time and relationship a chilling cautionary tale about the limits of science and human ambition. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Julie Myerson, OBSERVER
Pure pleasure...Deeply seductive and brilliantly sustained...enthrallingly descriptive, fragile scary, easy to take seriously...A compelling cultural satire.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This novel's attraction is summarised by its title: the notion of a 'scientific romance' is superficially perhaps oxymoronic, but invites exploration of the multiple meanings of both these words. Wright is hardly writing 'science fiction' as such; rather, the strange future landscape he creates serves as an arena in which David Lambert is forced to confront the role in his life of both 'scientia' and 'romance' - acquired knowledge, and the narratives of emotion. David's oddysey is moving, thought-provoking and often comic (such as in the incongruous notion that Scotland lives on only in Gaelic-speaking Episcopalians!). His journey of learning and reflection, however, is probably closer to Dante's than Odysseus's - albeit a mournful, aimless, secular Dante, if such a thing can be imagined. No ascent from an earthly to a true paradise here.
It is perhaps unfortunate that readers of SF may well be disappointed, while readers who think they dislike SF may well not bother picking it up. This book deserves a broad readership!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ronald Wright's literary debut is one of the most engrossing novels I've read recently, and lives up to the promise of its bold title. It is an adventure story, on one level, but on another level it is a thoughtful and insightful look at a very ordinary narrator flung into very extraordinary circumstances. What makes Wright's debut so impressive, however, is the power of its imagery. Wright has commented that he thinks smells - specifically, fictional descriptions of smells - are of great importance to novels, because they remind the reader of specific emotional moments. They are triggers for the imagination. In 'A Scientific Romance' Wright uses smells - and textures, colours, tastes, among other real, physical sensations - to create in the minds of the reader a future world that feels true and tangible. It is world containing history and futurity, memory and desire: Wright has created a world, and a narrator, to really believe in.
'A Scientific Romance' is also full of references to other books: the Time Machine used to transport the narrator into the future is the Time Machine that was 'actually' witnessed by H. G. Wells, inspiring him to write his infamous novel about time travel. Wright is happy to play these intertextual games: throughout the narrative the narrator refers to other works of apocalypse and abandoned English lands, using these references to better communicate vivid picture of the world the narrator sees before him. It is a novel about novels, a book about how our imaginations are built upon traditions of literature: and it is more besides. 'A Scientific Romance' is about science fiction, about history, the future, and our debt (both imaginative and emotional) to both the future and the past. It is an absorbing and beautiful book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A proper novel with credible characters, and a thought provoking plot. Wright's vision of UK in AD 2500 is coherent and believable. He points up how lucky we are in our current affluence and social order, and how fragile that might be. A real "can't put it down" book for me - I was completely immersed in the future for a few days! A small gripe - if you had to pack for a time voyage, sure you take antibiotics, laptop, gun, your money in gold... but why not a radio? With that you'd instantly know if there was any civilisation still intact.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Excellent literary SF
I disliked A Scientific Romance when I reviewed an earlier edition, but it's grown on me as a clever stream-of-consciousness novel, rich with literary reference, that intercuts a... Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2002 by Durnovaria
Good for a while
Despite the irritating refusal to use a simple word where a more complex alternative was available, the beginning promised grown-up science fiction. Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2001 by Gary
Not for those who have a romance with science fiction
I do agree with the previous reviews but, for me, it was enjoyable enough to give it 3 stars. I didn't like the ending though and sometimes I thought the author was trying too... Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2001
Failed literary science fiction
This is a disappointing book. It's a great premise, and descriptions of the future jungle England have a real trad-SF sense of wonder. Read more
Published on 17 Aug 2000
Science Fiction for grown ups.
A proper novel with credible characters, and a thought provoking plot. Wright's vision of UK in AD 2500 is coherent and believable. Read more
Published on 27 Feb 2000 by Owen Boyd(owen@merrill.demon.co.uk)
Excellent "science fiction" with a strong ecological twist
If I was being uncharitable I would label this book "science fiction". Like HG Wells, however, the author effortlessly transcends the boundaries of genre. Read more
Published on 4 Oct 1999
A bit of a let down, really.
What if H. G. Wells' Time Machine wasn't entirely fictitious? What if the eponymous machine materialised in front of your very eyes, riderless and apparently yours to do with as... Read more
Published on 24 Jun 1999
"The Time Machine" meets the human condition
If you have read Wells' "The Time Machine" and thought what you might do if it returned now, then read this. Read more
Published on 8 Dec 1998
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