What Not, a Prophetic Comedy (Paperback)

from pamelad

First published in 1918, then swiftly withdrawn, Macaulay's book deals with eugenics, newspaper censorship and government control of people's private lives. The book predates Brave New World and 1984 and may have been an unacknowledged influence on both. Kitty Grammont works for the Ministry of B...

from CurrerBell

Reasonably good comic satire, but the characters arouse little interest or sympathy. In fairness, it was probably a better novel in its own time of publication, but I don't think it's aged well and the satire is terribly tame by the standards of later dystopian novels.

from Liz1564

What Not, a Prophetic Comedy is sort of a cross between Wodehouse and Huxley. After the Great War, a solution was proposed to avoid any future conflicts. Since war is the ultimate example of human stupidity, make the population smarter and, therefore it follows that reason will trump militarism. ...