''The Voyage to Icaria'' (French: ''Voyage en Icarie'' ) is a novel written by

Étienne Cabet Étienne Cabet (; January 1, 1788 – November 9, 1856) was a philosopher and utopian socialist who founded the Icarian movement. Cabet became the most popular socialist advocate of his day, with a special appeal to artisans who were being under ...

and published in 1840. In this romance, he described a

communistic Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, distrib ...

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

, whose terms he had dreamed out; and he began at once to try to realize his dream. He framed a constitution for an actual Icaria. The

Icarians The Icarians () was an American utopian socialist movement, established by the followers of French politician, journalist, and author Étienne Cabet. In an attempt to put his economic and social theories into practice, many of Cabet's followe ...

were a French utopian movement, founded by Étienne Cabet, who led his followers to America where they established a group of

egalitarian Egalitarianism (; also equalitarianism) is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds on the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all h ...

communes during the period from 1848 through 1898.

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

mentions ''Voyage en Icarie'' in an 1843 letter to

Arnold Ruge Arnold Ruge (; 13 September 1802 – 31 December 1880) was a German philosopher and political writer. He was the older brother of Ludwig Ruge. Studies in university and prison Born in Bergen auf Rügen, he studied at Halle, Jena and Heidelberg. ...

, contrasting the "communist utopia" of the book with the real and pragmatic conditions necessary for building socialism in the Germany of his time.Letter from Marx to Arnold Ruge
Kreuzenach, September 1843; first published in the '' Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher'', 1844; Retrieved 9 July 2018

References

External links

Voyage to Icaria (French) full text on Archive.org
by

Charles Nordhoff Charles Bernard Nordhoff (February 1, 1887 – April 10, 1947) was an American novelist and traveler, born in England. Nordhoff is perhaps best known for '' The Bounty Trilogy'', three historical novels he wrote with James Norman Hall: '' Mutin ...

, 1875 1840 French novels 1840s science fiction novels French science fiction novels Utopian novels {{poli-novel-stub