The Hopkins Manuscript
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- € 8,99
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- € 8,99
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The funny and moving story of the apocalypse - as seen from one small village in England
'I loved this book, by turns funny and tragic ... It moves between abject despair and good old-fashioned British stoicism with ease. Magical' Jeff Noon, Spectator, Books of the Year 2018
Retired teacher Edgar Hopkins lives for the thrill of winning poultry prizes. But his narrow world is shattered when he learns that the moon is about to come crashing into the earth, with apocalyptic consequences. The manuscript he leaves behind will be a testament - to his growing humanity and to how one English village tried to survive the end of the world...
Written in 1939 as the world was teetering on the brink of global war, R. C. Sherriff's tragicomic novel is a masterly work of science fiction, and a powerful warning from the past.
'Spectacular, skilled and moving. It is supremely and alarmingly relevant' Fay Weldon
'Intensely readable and touching' Sunday Telegraph
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
English screenwriter and playwright Sherriff (Journey's End), who died in 1975, first published this droll postapocalyptic yarn in 1939. It has the effect of H.G. Wells rewritten by Evelyn Waugh, and the narrator's reflections continue to resonate: "Today, when all attempt at organised government has long since passed," begins one chapter. The Edgar Hopkins of the title is living out his final days quite happily in a quaint English village, until he learns that the moon is hurtling towards Earth, putting the country's fears about the Nazis on the back burner. A retired teacher, Hopkins decides to record the presumed end of civilization for posterity. A scholarly foreword to Hopkins's journal, published a millennium after his death, explains how Great Britain has remained a "deserted, ghost-haunted waste" because nobody wants to live in its cold, damp climate, and notes that Hopkins possessed both "unquenchable self-esteem and limited vision." Indeed, Hopkins imagines an elevation of his social status via his knowledge of the cataclysm to come. Sherriff's a confident and graceful stylist, and his greatest achievement is keeping his multiple subgenres in play simultaneously. The threat of the lunar collision builds incrementally, pulsing beneath Hopkins's commentary on his fellow villagers' deficient response to disaster. This delivers on multiple levels.
