Other editions of book The Iron Heel, The Game & The Scarlet Plague

iron heel kindle eBook with unique illustration.The Iron Heel is a dystopian novel by American writer Jack London, first published in 1908.Generally considered to be "the earliest of the modern Dystopian," it chronicles the rise of an oligarchic tyranny in the United States. It is arguably the novel in which Jack London's socialist views are most explicitly on display. A forerunner of soft science fiction novels and stories of the 1960s and 1970s, the book stresses future changes in society and politics while paying much less attention to technological changes.The Iron Heel / Jack London / iron heel jack london / iron heel book / The Iron Heel ebook / The Iron Heel by Jack London

First published in the year 1908; famous writer Jack London's dystopian novel 'The Iron Heel' chronicles the rise of an oligarchic tyranny in the United States. "It cannot be said that the Everhard Manuscript is an important historical document. To the historian it bristles with errors—not errors of fact; but errors of interpretation. Looking back across the seven centuries that have lapsed since Avis Everhard completed her manuscript; events; and the bearings of events; that were confused and veiled to her; are clear to us. She lacked perspective. She was too close to the events she writes about. Nay; she was merged in the events she has described." -Preface

The Iron Heel is a dystopian novel by American writer Jack London, first published in 1908. Generally considered to be "the earliest of the modern Dystopian," it chronicles the rise of an oligarchic tyranny in the United States. It is arguably the novel in which Jack London's socialist views are most explicitly on display. A forerunner of soft science fiction novels and stories of the 1960s and 1970s, the book stresses future changes in society and politics while paying much less attention to technological changes.

The Iron Heel is a dystopian novel by American writer Jack London, first published in 1908.Generally considered to be "the earliest of the modern Dystopian" fiction, it chronicles the rise of an oligarchic tyranny in the United States. It is arguably the novel in which Jack London's socialist views are most explicitly on display. A forerunner of soft science fiction novels and stories of the 1960s and '70s, the book stresses future changes in society and politics while paying much less attention to technological changes.

The Iron Heel is a novel by Jack London, first published in 1908. Generally considered to be "the earliest of the modern Dystopian",it chronicles the rise of an oligarchic tyranny in the United States. It is arguably the novel in which Jack London's socialist views are most explicitly on display. A forerunner of soft science fiction novels and stories of the 1960s and '70s, the book stresses future changes in society and politics while paying much less attention to technological changes. The book is unusual among London's writings in being a first-person narrative of a woman protagonist written by a man.

The novel is based on the fictional "Everhard Manuscript" written by Avis Everhard, which she hid and which was subsequently found centuries later. In addition, this novel has an introduction and series of (often lengthy) footnotes written from the perspective of scholar Anthony Meredith. Meredith writes from around 2600 AD or 419 B.O.M. (the Brotherhood of Man). Jack London writes at two levels, often having Meredith condescendingly correcting the errors of Everhard yet, at the same time, exposing the often incomplete understanding of this distant future perspective.Meredith's introduction also acts as a deliberate "spoiler" (the term did not yet exist at the time of writing). Before ever getting a chance to get to know Avis and Ernest, how they fell in love or how Avis became politically involved, the reader is already told that all their struggles and hopes would end in total failure and repression, and that both of them would be summarily executed. This gives all that follows the air of a foreordained tragedy. There is still left the consolation that a happy end would come for humanity as a whole - though hundreds of years too late for Avis and Ernest as individuals; the cruel oligarchy would fall, and the two will be vindicated and respected by posterity as pioneers and martyrs. The book begins with the acquaintance of Avis Cunningham, a daughter of a renowned physicist with the socialist Ernest Everhard. At first, Avis does not agree with Ernest in that the whole contemporary social system is based on exploitation of labour. However, she proceeds to investigate the conditions the workers live in and those terrible conditions make her change her mind and accept Ernest's worldview. Similarly, Bishop Morehouse does not initially believe in the horrors described by Ernest but then becomes convinced in their truth and is confined to a madhouse because of his new views.

When you think of Jack London, you probably think of works like Call of the Wild -- yes, there's something fantastic about the work, but in the end it's not something you'd want to shelve with the SF or the Fantasy. It's conservative, and thoughtful, and has a very real understanding of the world. This is something different. Oh, it's got London's understanding, but it was written before he changed his politics -- The Iron Heel gives us a grim, SFnal, and socialist vision of the world endlessly at war -- Vietnam-style war, at that. Fascinating, thoughtful, and exciting stuff from a real master.

The Iron Heel is a dystopian novel by American writer Jack London, first published in 1908. Generally considered to be "the earliest of the modern Dystopian", it chronicles the rise of an oligarchic tyranny in the United States. It is arguably the novel in which Jack London's socialist views are most explicitly on display. A forerunner of soft science fiction novels and stories of the 1960s and '70s, the book stresses future changes in society and politics while paying much less attention to technological changes.