Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
32 used & new from £2.62

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Earth Abides (S.F. Masterworks)
 
 

Earth Abides (S.F. Masterworks) (Paperback)

by George.R. Stewart (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £5.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £2.00 (25%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, July 21? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
22 new from £3.08 10 used from £2.62

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Earth Abides (S.F. Masterworks) + The Road
  • This item: Earth Abides (S.F. Masterworks) by George.R. Stewart

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • The Road by Cormac McCarthy

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    Eligible for FREE UK delivery on orders over £5 with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Road

The Road

by Cormac McCarthy
4.3 out of 5 stars (331)  £2.99
A Canticle for Leibowitz (Bantam Spectra Book)

A Canticle for Leibowitz (Bantam Spectra Book)

by Walter M. Miller Jr.
4.8 out of 5 stars (21)  £9.99
Alas, Babylon (Perennial Classics)

Alas, Babylon (Perennial Classics)

by David Brin
4.4 out of 5 stars (34)  £7.91
I Am Legend (S.F. Masterworks)

I Am Legend (S.F. Masterworks)

by Richard Matheson
4.7 out of 5 stars (119)  £5.49
Last And First Men (S.F. Masterworks)

Last And First Men (S.F. Masterworks)

by Olaf Stapledon
4.3 out of 5 stars (18)  £5.99
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Gollancz; New Ed edition (10 Jun 1999)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1857988213
  • ISBN-13: 978-1857988215
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 34,413 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Generally regarded as the classic tale of life struggling on after a global disaster, Earth Abides (1949) was George R. Stewart's only venture into SF. Before the first page the human race has been almost completely wiped out by plague. Our hero Isherwood "Ish" Williams discovers a female survivor and fumblingly tries to bring up a new civilization in the ruins of California. It's an elegiac story of loss as humanity makes it through the crisis, at the cost of our race's painfully gathered knowledge--which seems irrelevant to the new generations as they develop a hunter-gatherer society reminiscent of the old Amerindian tribes, and see no practicality in the fabulous tales of the old days told them by Ish. His nickname is deliberately reminiscent of Ishi, the once famous Californian Indian who was also the last of his tribe and became a misfit in a new world, in his case early 20th-century America. Annoyingly for fans of survivalist SF who reckon civilization can be rebuilt in about a month with a Swiss army knife, Earth Abides proposes that the cycle of regrowth will take significant time ... but there is always time. Stewart's title and epigraph echo the Book of Ecclesiastes: "Men go and come, but Earth abides." One of the sadder, gentler Millennium SF Masterworks reissues. --David Langford

Product Description
In this profound ecological fable, a mysterious plague has destroyed the vast majority of the human race. Isherwood Williams, one of the few survivors, returns from a wilderness field trip to discover that civilization has vanished during his absence. Eventually he returns to San Francisco and encounters a female survivor who becomes his wife. Around them and their children a small community develops, living like their pioneer ancestors, but rebuilding civilization is beyond their resources, and gradually they return to a simpler way of life.

See all Product Description

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Earth Abides (S.F. Masterworks)
74% buy the item featured on this page:
Earth Abides (S.F. Masterworks) 4.6 out of 5 stars (95)
£5.99
The Road
8% buy
The Road 4.3 out of 5 stars (331)
£2.99
A Canticle for Leibowitz (Bantam Spectra Book)
7% buy
A Canticle for Leibowitz (Bantam Spectra Book) 4.8 out of 5 stars (21)
£9.99
The Death of Grass (Penguin Modern Classics)
6% buy
The Death of Grass (Penguin Modern Classics) 4.4 out of 5 stars (19)
£4.99

 

Customer Reviews

95 Reviews
5 star:
 (73)
4 star:
 (14)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (95 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A timeless classic, 18 Mar 2006
By S. Paul "Flying high" (Yorkshire) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I first read Earth Abides as a teenager and was greatly impressed with it then. I have now just read it again at the age of 53 after finding it through Amazon. This is clearly one of the greatest's texts I have read and I don't say that lightly. I was deeply moved as I re-read the chronicling of the passing of an era and the great deep wisdom of Ish, the main character. Even more poignant in these difficult days. It has given me great pleasure to to record these words of appreciation. I wonder why it has never been made into a film, but am also pleased as the dignity of the message of this book remains untarnished. If you want to read a profound story on the fragile nature of our civilisation and the great strength of human beings read this.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars You Thought A Swan Dying Was Beautiful, 25 April 2001
By A Customer
I have always enjoyed post-apocalypse stories and approached 'Earth Abides' as another of those, if a somewhat more subtle one. But it is not another one of those. Stewart had an uncanny perception of the natural world and this permeates every page. He describes a seductive, idyllic existence where humans and nature are inseparable. One criticism is that of the 'cosy catastrophe'. The first sixty pages or so are slow, but stick with it because it contains the most moving and heartbreaking death scene in literature ever. It is difficult to believe that it was written a half-century ago, so little has it dated.

This is a quiet book and attracts little attention to itself even within sf. It has yet to receive the wider praise I am sure it will one day attain. If one book ever deserved to escape the constraints of genre fiction and find favour amongst the mainstream this is it. If everyone in the world read it, it is hard to see how the world would not be a better place.

There are downsides though. 'Earth Abides' may well become the bench mark by which every book you read after it will be compared to and your friends will probably get fed up of you talking about it.

Only shut up when they've read it too.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Gentle and powerful, 24 Aug 2004
By Richard Kelly (Manchester, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
Imagine a world where most of the people simply die and just a few survive. This is the premise for Earth Abides -I know that this idea has been used endlessly in science fiction, but nobdody has even carried the story in such a peotical fashion.

As a basic overview of the story one man returns from a visit to the mountains to discover that civilisation has collapsed with the death of virtually everyone. He then manages to gather together some people together and forms a small close knit community that eventually starts to return to a more primative nature. Along the way the community has to dish out it's own brand of punishment, to produce it's own food and protect itself from other communities.

We follow the story as man reverts to being a primative again in a world where reading and writing are lost and books are used to make fires.

It's difficult to get across how beautifully crafted this piece of fiction is and it is still a cautionary tale today. This is probably one of my favourite pieces of fiction as it still stands out clearly in my brain and the only problem with it is that I can no longer get that wonderful sense of reading it for the first time!

I would strongly recommend that you read this book - even if you don't like science fiction as it is a simple story marvellously told! 10/10

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars After the apocalypse a distinctly small-town America vision for the future
What would be your first instinctive act you if you awoke to find yourself apparently the last living human after some pestilential catastrophe? Read more
Published 7 days ago by Trevor Coote

5.0 out of 5 stars remarkable meditation on ecology and anthropology
This is a beautifully written, quietly profound book that affected me deeply as I read it and has stuck in my mind ever since. Read more
Published 3 months ago by L. Williams

4.0 out of 5 stars What do you mean you've done nothing in 20 years?
As other reviews have said - it is dated and also some core parts of the story are questionable and somewhat annoying. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Halo572

5.0 out of 5 stars Dated, but timeless.
I'm a survivalist, but I'm also a realist. This book tells a highly credible story, which is well written, if a little dated; especially with some of the social and sociological... Read more
Published 6 months ago by David Coomer

5.0 out of 5 stars Well deserved of the title 'classic'
In many ways this is what Brian Aldiss describes as a `cosy catastrophe'. Isherwood Williams, alone in a US mountain cabin is bitten by a rattlesnake and despite treating himself... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Rod Williams

4.0 out of 5 stars A genuine classic, very thought-provoking
This is a very thought-provoking book as it portrays in very vivid detail what would happen if only a few survivors from a plague had to start all over again. Read more
Published 15 months ago by N. Burgess

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Book
I first read this over 30 years ago and over the years I've read it and re-read it and its never lost its impact or failed to move me. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Carr

1.0 out of 5 stars Oh dear, so tedious and just not believable...
I feel I almost have to apologise because I'm so at variance with the majority of the reviewers here. Read more
Published 17 months ago by J. Wallington

5.0 out of 5 stars Very moving and well worth reading
A moving novel tracing the experiences of one survivor in the aftermath of a plague that wipes out most of humanity, then his experiences with a small group of fellow survivors in... Read more
Published 19 months ago by John Hopper

4.0 out of 5 stars To the point
I don't want to prattle on so I will do what my title says. Overall a great look into what COULD happen, classicaly told from a distant era. Read more
Published on 18 Jul 2007 by K. Robson

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Feedback


The Body Shop

The Body Shop - Vitamin C Skin Boost
Protect and boost your glow with The Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Boost.

Shop The Body Shop

 

Let Olay Amaze You

Olay Total Effects Day Moisturiser SPF15 50ml
Amazon.co.uk sells all your favourite ranges from Olay, including Regenerist and Total Effects.

Discover Olay at Amazon.co.uk

 

A Close Shave

Philips Nivea Coolskin HS8060 Moisturizing Rotary Shaving System
For all types of hair removal, stay smooth with Amazon.co.uk.

Discover Shaving & Hair Removal

 

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

Learn more about Gift Certificates

 
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.

Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates