After London, or Wild England

Jefferies' novel can be seen as an early example of "post-apocalyptic fiction." After some sudden and unspecified catastrophe has depopulated England, the countryside reverts to nature, and the few survivors to a quasi-medieval way of life.

The first part of the book, "The Relapse into Barbarism", is the account by some later historian of the fall of civilisation and its consequences, with a loving description of nature reclaiming England. The second part, "Wild England", is an adventure set many years later in the wild landscape and society.

The book is not without its flaws (notably the abrupt and unsatisfying ending) but is redeemed by the quality of the writing, particularly the unnervingly prophetic descriptions of the post-apocalyptic city and countryside.

By : Richard Jefferies (1848 - 1887)

01 - Part I, Chapter 1: The Great Forest



02 - Part I, Chapter 2: Wild Animals



03 - Part I, Chapter 3: Men of the Woods



04 - Part I, Chapter 4: The Invaders



05 - Part I, Chapter 5: The Lake



06 - Part II, Chapter 1: Sir Felix



07 - Part II, Chapter 2: The House of Aquila



08 - Part II, Chapter 3: The Stockade



09 - Part II, Chapter 4: The Canoe



10 - Part II, Chapter 5: Baron Aquila



11 - Part II, Chapter 6: The Forest Track



12 - Part II, Chapter 7: The Forest Track continued



13 - Part II, Chapter 8: Thyma Castle



14 - Part II, Chapter 9: Superstitions



15 - Part II, Chapter 10: The Feast



16 - Part II, Chapter 11: Aurora



17 - Part II, Chapter 12: Night in the Forest



18 - Part II, Chapter 13: Sailing Away



19 - Part II, Chapter 14: The Straits



20 - Part II, Chapter 15: Sailing Onwards



21 - Part II, Chapter 16: The City



22 - Part II, Chapter 17: The Camp



23 - Part II, Chapter 18: The King's Levy



24 - Part II, Chapter 19: Fighting



25 - Part II, Chapter 20: In Danger



26 - Part II, Chapter 21: A Voyage



27 - Part II, Chapter 22: Discoveries



28 - Part II, Chapter 23: Strange Things



29 - Part II, Chapter 24: Fiery Vapours



30 - Part II, Chapter 25: The Shepherds



31 - Part II, Chapter 26: Bow and Arrow



32 - Part II, Chapter 27: Surprised



33 - Part II, Chapter 28: For Aurora


Jefferies's next novel, After London (1885), can be seen as an early example of "post-apocalyptic fiction": after some sudden and unspecified catastrophe has depopulated England, the countryside reverts to nature, and the few survivors to a quasi-medieval way of life.

The book has two parts. The first, "The Relapse into Barbarism", is the account by some later historian of the fall of civilisation and its consequences, with a loving description of nature reclaiming England: fields becoming overrun by forest, domesticated animals running wild, roads and towns becoming overgrown, the hated London reverting to lake and poisonous swampland. The second part, "Wild England", is largely a straightforward adventure set many years later in the wild landscape and society (here too Jefferies was setting an example for the genre); but the opening section, despite some improbabilities, has been much admired for its rigour and compelling narrative.

Critics dissatisfied with the second part often make an exception of chapters 22–24, which go beyond recreation of a medieval world to give a disturbing and surreal description of the site of the fallen city.

Jefferies's interest in catastrophes predates After London: two short unpublished pieces from the 1870s describe social collapse after London is paralysed by freak winter conditions. In the better achieved of these, the narrator is a future historian piecing the story together from surviving accounts. The fantasy of the second part also has a predecessor in a short work, The Rise of Maximin, Emperor of the Occident, serialised in The New Monthly Magazine in 1876, in this case an adventure set in a remote and imaginary past.

Although the society that Jefferies depicts after the fall of London is an unpleasant one, with oppressive petty tyrants at war with each other, and insecurity and injustice for the poor, it still served as an inspiration for William Morris's utopian News from Nowhere (1890). In a letter of 1885, he writes of his reaction to After London: "absurd hopes curled around my heart as I read it." After London also influenced M.P. Shiel's post-apocalyptic novel, The Purple Cloud.

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