| The History of the Sevarambians: A Utopian Novel Contributor(s): Veiras, Denis (Author), Laursen, John Christian (Introduction by), Masroori, Cyrus (Introduction by) |
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ISBN: 0791467775 ISBN-13: 9780791467770 Publisher: State University of New York Press OUR PRICE: $90.25 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: May 2006 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Literary - Fiction | Fantasy - Epic - Fiction | Political |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 2005021346 |
| Physical Information: 1.2" H x 6.1" W x 9" (1.54 lbs) 390 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Reminiscent of More's Utopia and Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Denis Veiras's History of the Sevarambians is one of the great utopian novels of the seventeenth century. Set in Australia, this rollicking adventure story comes complete with a shipwreck, romantic tales, religious fraud, magical talismans, and supernatural animals. The current volume contains two versions of Veiras's story: the original English and the 1738 English translation of the expanded French version. Veiras's work was well known in its own time and has been translated into a number of languages, including German, French, Russian, and Japanese, while the English version has been largely forgotten. The book has been read to teach a variety of political doctrines, and also has been cited as an early development in the history of ideas about religious toleration. It reveals a great deal about early modern English, Dutch, and French attitudes toward other cultures. One of the first utopian writings to qualify as a novel, it can be interpreted as a metaphor for human life, in all its complexity and ambiguity. |