The Hampdenshire Wonder - (Mit Press / Radium Age) by J D Beresford (Paperback)

About the Book

"Victor Stott is a giant-headed "supernormal" child mutated - in the womb - by his parents' desire to have a son born without habits. After surveying science, philosophy, history, literature, religion, the best that has been thought and said, the Wonder is dismissive: "So elementary... inchoate... a disjunctive... patchwork." Young Victor's adult interlocutors are shattered by his statements about the nature of the universe and human progress; his philosophy begins with rejecting "the interposing and utterly false concepts of space and time," and ends with the notion that life and all matter are merely "a disease of the ether." Alas, his interlocutors are unable to live without illusions; they reject the Wonder's disenchanting insights"--

Book Synopsis

In this pioneering science-fictional treatment of superhuman intelligence, a mutant wonder child's insights prove devastating.

Science fiction luminary Ted Chiang introduces The Hampdenshire Wonder, one of the genre's first treatments of superhuman intelligence. Victor Stott is a large-headed "supernormal" mutated in the womb by his parents' desire to have a child born without habits. Known as "the Wonder," Victor surveys humankind's science, philosophy, history, literature, religion--the best that has been thought and said--and dismisses it brutally: "So elementary . . . inchoate . . . a disjunctive patchwork." Rejecting "the interposing and utterly false concepts of space and time," the Wonder claims that life itself is merely "a disease of the ether." Unable to deal with the child's disenchanting insights, his adult interlocutors seek to silence him . . . perhaps permanently.

Review Quotes

"However you interpret Beresford's touching short novel, it remains, like its protagonist, a wonder."
--Washington Post

"One of the earliest exemplars in SF of the genius unbound, the more-than-human intellect whose insights are sublime and terrible . . . The Hampdenshire Wonder has more than just historical value, and earns this latest reprint."
--Locus Magazine

"What makes the Radium Age series so valuable is how it illuminates the origins of science fiction tropes we take for granted. . . . The Hampdenshire Wonder tackles transhumanism decades before it became a preoccupation of science fiction and posthumanist philosophy."
--Boing Boing

About the Author

J.D. Beresford (1873-1947) was an English dramatist, journalist, and author. His proto-science fiction novels include The Hampdenshire Wonder (1911), A World of Women (1913), and The Riddle of the Tower (1944, with Esme Wynne-Tyson); he also wrote in the horror and ghost story genres. A great admirer of H.G. Wells, he wrote the first critical study of Wells in 1915. His daughter, Elisabeth Beresford (1926-2010), was creator of the literary and TV franchise The Wombles.