
A piece of Victorian science fiction considered first tale of urban apocalypse - Vigier
https://publicdomainreview.org/2015/09/30/bad-air-pollution-sin-and-science-fiction
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jhbadger
Another early example of this, although five years later in 1885, was Richard
Jefferies' "After London". It basically created the conceit that many works of
science fiction used later -- the book is set in what appears to be a medieval
society only for the reader to learn later that this isn't the past but the
future after industrial civilization destroyed itself by pollution.

~~~
lainga
_We wonder,—and some Hunter may express_

 _Wonder like ours, when thro ' the wilderness_

 _Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,_

 _He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess_

 _What powerful but unrecorded race_

 _Once dwelt in that annihilated place_

The other _Ozymandias_ , Horace Smith, 1818

[http://www.potw.org/archive/potw192.html](http://www.potw.org/archive/potw192.html)

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smacktoward
If you're interested in the history that provided the jumping-off point for
this story, a good overview can be found in Lee Jackson's 2014 book _Dirty Old
London_ ([https://www.npr.org/2015/03/12/392332431/dirty-old-
london-a-...](https://www.npr.org/2015/03/12/392332431/dirty-old-london-a-
history-of-the-victorians-infamous-filth)), which goes into great detail on
Victorian London's long struggle to clean up its filthy streets, air and
water.

------
trop
There's some remarkable apocalyptic imagery out and about from even earlier in
the 19th century. Check out Samuel Colman's "The Edge of Doom" (a decent
reproduction at
[https://artblart.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/colman_edgedoom...](https://artblart.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/colman_edgedoom-
web.jpg)) for a striking example. From the Brooklyn Museum's write-up:

"In The Edge of Doom, Samuel Colman paints the ultimate disaster: the
destruction of the world. Lightning was particularly suited for evoking the
emotions of awe and terror associated with the Sublime notion of nature. Here,
it strikes erratically, blasting classical buildings, carriages, paintings,
and even Time (a figure with an hourglass and scythe) to create a central
glowing void. All that survives is the memorial sculpture of William
Shakespeare, then and now on view in London’s Westminster Abbey."

\-
[https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4811](https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4811)

On one hand, this has to have been a British communication of contemporaneous
Caspar David Friedrich sublime, but there also must have been something
brewing in industrial London to create fear of impending absolute destruction,
and this doesn't read as Biblical wrath to me.

~~~
twic
See also John Martin's 'The Great Day of His Wrath':

[http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/martin-the-great-day-
of-...](http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/martin-the-great-day-of-his-
wrath-n05613)

There was an exhibition of John Martin's work a few years ago; looking at a
computer screen doesn't communicate just how overwhelming some of it was:

[http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-
britain/exhibition/john...](http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-
britain/exhibition/john-martin-apocalypse)

------
notahacker
> It imagines the entire population of London choked to death under a soot-
> filled fog. The story is told by the event’s lone survivor sixty years later
> as he recalls “the greatest calamity that perhaps this earth has ever
> witnessed” at what was, for Hay’s first readers, the distant future date of
> 1942.

He was 10 years out...
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London)

(and a few orders of magnitude of survivor numbers tbf)

------
robotkdick
I'm not religious, but I am a voracious reader, and I think _Revelations_ from
the Old Testament is probably going to predate this apocalyptic story by more
than 6000 years. For a more specifically urban tale of apocalypse, there's
Sodom and Gomorrah:

"Sodom and Gomorrah, notoriously sinful cities in the biblical book of
Genesis, destroyed by 'sulfur and fire' because of their wickedness (Genesis
19:24)"

Reference: [https://www.britannica.com/place/Sodom-and-
Gomorrah](https://www.britannica.com/place/Sodom-and-Gomorrah)

Most 'modern' stories have either biblical, Greek, or mythological roots.
Apocalyptic themes have always been a big seller, e.g., Jesus of Nazareth
predicted a second coming that would not be a pleasant experience. In
scholarly circles, he's known as emerging from a group of apocalyptic
prophets, which were common for his time.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
Um, Revelations is in the _New_ Testament. It was written around 90 AD.

And I don't think any of the Old Testament is as old as 6000 years.

~~~
robotkdick
You’re right on the details, my bad for not looking up the dates and books,
but the argument would be the same, except to say 1600 years or so prior to
the cited work in the article, meaning the article is incorrect in its facts.
If I was writing an article I guess I would have checked my facts ;)

