Page "Time travel" Paragraph 26

Another more recent story involving travel to the future is Louis-Sébastien Mercier's L ' An 2440, rêve s ' il en fût jamais (" The Year 2440: A Dream If Ever There Were One "), a utopian novel in which the main character is transported to the year 2440.

An extremely popular work ( it went through 25 editions after its first appearance in 1771 ), it describes the adventures of an unnamed man who, after engaging in a heated discussion with a philosopher friend about the injustices of Paris, falls asleep and finds himself in a Paris of the future.

Robert Darnton writes that " despite its self-proclaimed character of fantasy ... L ' An 2440 demanded to be read as a serious guidebook to the future.