Scientific romance is an archaic, mainly British term for the genre of fiction now commonly known as

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

. The term originated in the 1850s to describe both fiction and elements of scientific writing, but it has since come to refer to the science fiction of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, primarily that of

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the '' Voyages extra ...

, H. G. Wells and

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

. In recent years the term has come to be applied to science fiction written in a deliberately anachronistic style as a homage to or pastiche of the original scientific romances.

History

Early usages

The earliest use of the term "scientific romance" is thought to have been in 1845, when critics applied it to Robert Chambers's ''

Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation ''Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation'' is an 1844 work of speculative natural history and philosophy by Robert Chambers. Published anonymously in England, it brought together various ideas of stellar evolution with the progressive tra ...

'', a speculative natural history published in 1844. It was used again in 1851 by the ''Edinburgh Ecclesiastical Journal and Literary Review'' in reference to Thoman Hunt's ''Panthea, or the Spirit of Nature''. In 1859 the ''

Southern Literary Messenger The ''Southern Literary Messenger'' was a periodical published in Richmond, Virginia, from August 1834 to June 1864, and from 1939 to 1945. Each issue carried a subtitle of "Devoted to Every Department of Literature and the Fine Arts" or some va ...

'' referred to Balzac's '' Ursule Mirouët'' as "a scientific romance of mesmerism". In addition, the term was sometimes used to dismiss a scientific principle considered by the writer to be fanciful, as in ''The Principles of Metaphysical and Ethical Science'' (1855), which stated that "Milton's conception of inorganic matter left to itself, without an indwelling soul, is not merely more poetical, but more philosophical and just, than the scientific romance, now generally repudiated by all rational inquirers, which represents it as necessarily imbued with the seminal principles of organization and life, and waking up by its own force from eternal quietude to eternal motion." Then, in 1884,

Charles Howard Hinton Charles Howard Hinton (1853 – 30 April 1907) was a British mathematician and writer of science fiction works titled ''Scientific Romances''. He was interested in higher dimensions, particularly the fourth dimension. He is known for coining t ...

published a series of scientific and philosophical essays under the title ''Scientific Romances''.

20th century

"Scientific romance" is now commonly used to refer to science fiction of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as in the anthologies ''Under the Moons of Mars: A History and Anthology of "The Scientific Romance" in the Munsey Magazines, 1912–1920'' and ''Scientific Romance in Britain: 1890–1950''.Stableford, Brian (1985), ''Scientific Romance in Britain, 1890–1950'' Palgrave Macmillan, 978-0312703059 One of the earliest writers to be described in this way was the French astronomer and writer

Camille Flammarion Nicolas Camille Flammarion FRAS (; 26 February 1842 – 3 June 1925) was a French astronomer and author. He was a prolific author of more than fifty titles, including popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science ficti ...

, whose ''Recits de l'infini'' and ''La fin du monde'' have both been described as scientific romances. The term is most widely applied to Jules Verne, as in the 1879 edition of the ''

American Cyclopædia American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

'', and H. G. Wells, whose historical society continues to refer to his work as "scientific romances" today.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best-known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, ...

's '' A Princess of Mars'' (1912) is also sometimes seen as a major work of scientific romance, and

Sam Moskowitz Sam Moskowitz (June 30, 1920 – April 15, 1997) was an American writer, critic, and historian of science fiction. Biography As a child, Moskowitz greatly enjoyed reading science fiction pulp magazines. As a teenager, he organized a branch of ...

referred to him in 1958 as "the acknowledged master of the scientific romance," though the scholar E. F. Bleiler views Burroughs as a writer involved in the "new development" of pulp science fiction that arose in the early 20th century. The same year as ''A Princess of Mars'', Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published '' The Lost World'', which is also commonly referred to as a scientific romance. 1902 saw the cinematic release of

Georges Méliès Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was well known for the use of ...

's film ''Le Voyage dans la Lune'' (''

A Trip to the Moon ''A Trip to the Moon'' (french: Le Voyage dans la Lune) is a 1902 French adventure short film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, including Jules Verne's 1865 novel '' From the Earth to the Moon'' and its 187 ...

''); the time period and the fact that it is based partially on works by Verne and Wells has led to its being labelled as a scientific romance as well.

Modern revival

In recent years the term "scientific romance" has seen a revival, being self-applied in works of science fiction that deliberately ape previous styles. Examples include Christopher Priest's '' The Space Machine: A Scientific Romance'', published in 1976,

Ronald Wright Ronald Wright (born 1948, London, England) is a Canadian author who has written books of travel, history and fiction. His nonfiction includes the bestseller '' Stolen Continents'', winner of the Gordon Montador Award and chosen as a book of th ...

's Wells pastiche ''A Scientific Romance: A Novel'', published in 1998, and the 1993 tabletop roleplaying game '' Forgotten Futures.'' Though it uses the term, Dennis Overbye's novel ''Einstein in Love: A Scientific Romance'' does not imitate science fiction of the past in the manner of the other novels mentioned.

Definitions

Brian Stableford has argued, in ''Scientific Romance in Britain: 1890–1950'', that early British science-fiction writers who used the term "scientific romance" differed in several significant ways from American science fiction writers of the time. Most notably, the British writers tended to minimise the role of individual "heroes", took an "evolutionary perspective", held a bleak view of the future, and had little interest in space as a new frontier. Regarding "heroes", several novels by H. G. Wells have the protagonist as nameless, and often powerless, in the face of natural forces. The evolutionary perspective can be seen in tales involving long time periods, such as '' The War of the Worlds'' and '' The Time Machine'' by Wells, or ''

Star Maker ''Star Maker'' is a science fiction novel by British writer Olaf Stapledon, published in 1937. The book describes a history of life in the universe, dwarfing in scale Stapledon's previous book, '' Last and First Men'' (1930), a history of the ...

'' by Olaf Stapledon. Even in scientific romances that did not involve vast stretches of time, the issue of whether mankind was just another species subject to evolutionary pressures often arose, as can be seen in parts of ''

The Hampdenshire Wonder ''The Hampdenshire Wonder'' is a 1911 science fiction novel by J. D. Beresford. It is one of the first novels to involve a wunderkind. The child in it, Victor Stott, is the son of a famous cricket player. This origin is perhaps a reference to ...

'' by J. D. Beresford and several works by

S. Fowler Wright Sydney Fowler Wright (6 January 1874 – 25 February 1965) was a British editor, poet, science fiction author, writer of screenplays, mystery fiction and works in other genres, as well as being an accountant and a conservative political activi ...

. Regarding space,

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univer ...

's ''Space Trilogy'' took the position that "as long as humanity remains flawed and sinful, our exploration of other planets will tend to do them more harm than good"; and most scientific romance authors had not even that much interest in the topic. As for bleakness, it can be seen in many of the works by all the authors already cited, who deemed humanity flawed — either by

original sin Original sin is the Christian doctrine that holds that humans, through the fact of birth, inherit a tainted nature in need of regeneration and a proclivity to sinful conduct. The biblical basis for the belief is generally found in Genesis 3 ...

or, much more often, by biological factors inherited from our ape ancestors. Stableford also notes that some of the British scientific romances were saved from "being entirely gloomy" by their philosophical speculation (calling them works of "modest armchair philosophizing"). He cites E. V. Odle's ''The Clockwork Man'', John Gloag's ''Tomorrow's Yesterday'' and

Murray Constantine Katharine Burdekin (23 July 1896 – 10 August 1963) (born Katharine Penelope Cade) was a British novelist who wrote speculative fiction concerned with social and spiritual matters.John Clute, "Burdekin, Katherine P(enelope)" in The Encycloped ...

's ''Proud Man'' as examples of this type of scientific romance. Nonetheless, not all British science fiction from that period comports with Stableford's thesis. Some, for example, revelled in adventures in space and took an optimistic view of the future. By the 1930s there were British authors such as Eric Frank Russell who were intentionally writing "science fiction" for American publication. At that point British writers who used the term "scientific romance" did so either because they were unaware of science fiction or because they chose not to be associated with it. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

the influence of American science fiction caused the term "scientific romance" to lose favour, a process accelerated by the fact that few writers of scientific romance considered themselves "scientific romance" writers, instead viewing themselves as just writers who occasionally happened to write scientific romances. Even so, the influence of the scientific romance era persisted in British science fiction. John Wyndham's work has been cited as providing "a bridge between traditional British scientific romance and the more varied science fiction which has replaced it".Ian Ousby, ''The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English'', Cambridge University Press, 1993 (p. 1046) Some commentators believe scientific romance had some impact on the American variety.

References

Bibliography

* '' Flatland'' by Edwin Abbott Abbott (more of a fantasy, but see its subtitle) * ''

'' by J. D. Beresford * ''The Lost World'' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle * ''

The Night Land ''The Night Land'' is a horror/ fantasy novel by English writer William Hope Hodgson, first published in 1912. As a work of fantasy it belongs to the Dying Earth subgenre. Hodgson also published a much shorter version of the novel, entitled ' ...

'' by

William Hope Hodgson William Hope Hodgson (15 November 1877 – 19 April 1918) was an English author. He produced a large body of work, consisting of essays, short fiction, and novels, spanning several overlapping genres including horror, fantastic fiction, and sci ...

* ''

The Purple Cloud ''The Purple Cloud'' is an apocalyptic "last man" novel by the British writer M. P. Shiel. It was published in 1901. H. G. Wells lauded ''The Purple Cloud'' as "brilliant" and H. P. Lovecraft later praised the novel as exemplary weird fictio ...

'' by

M. P. Shiel Matthew Phipps Shiell (21 July 1865 – 17 February 1947), known as M. P. Shiel, was a British writer. His legal surname remained "Shiell" though he adopted the shorter version as a ''de facto'' pen name. He is remembered mainly for supernatura ...

* ''

Last and First Men ''Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future'' is a " future history" science fiction novel written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon. A work of unprecedented scale in the genre, it describes the history of humanity from ...

'' by Olaf Stapledon * ''

Last Men in London ''Last Men in London'' (1932) is a science fiction novel by British writer Olaf Stapledon. The narrator is the same member of the eighteenth and final human species who purportedly induced Stapledon to write ''Last and First Men''. ''Last Men ...

'' by Olaf Stapledon * '' Odd John by Olaf Stapledon * ''

'' by Olaf Stapledon * '' Journey to the Center of the Earth'' by

* '' From the Earth to the Moon by

* ''

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre- ...

* '' The Mysterious Island'' by

* '' The Time Machine'' by H. G. Wells * '' The War of the Worlds'' by H. G. Wells * '' The Island of Dr. Moreau'' by H. G. Wells * '' The Invisible Man'' by H. G. Wells * ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ...

'' by

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also ...

External links

"The Victorian Bookshelf: The First Century of the Scientific Romance and other Related Works"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scientific Romance Science fiction genres Science fantasy Steampunk Romanticism Adventure fiction

History

Early usages

20th century

Modern revival

Definitions

See also

References

Bibliography

External links