Marie at 1 Write Way

In this guest blog, Dr Oliver Tearle, a lecturer at the University of Loughborough and founder of the Interesting Literature blog (also on Twitter @InterestingLit), examines the history of dystopian literature. 

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the noun ‘dystopia’ (defined as ‘an imaginary place or condition in which everything is as bad as possible’) first turns up in print in 1952, and ‘dystopian’ (in the word’s most common sense, namely ‘of or pertaining to a dystopia’) not until a decade later. But the first citation for the word ‘dystopian’ in the sense of ‘one who advocates or describes a dystopia’ comes from a speech made in the House of Commons by the Victorian philosopher, John Stuart Mill in 1868. ‘Dystopian’, then, was a Victorian coinage. But recently the noun ‘dystopia’ has been traced back to 1747 where it is spelled ‘dustopia’ but is used in clear contrast…

That’s right folks, The Paperbook Blog is seeking guest posters to share with us your favourite books, authors, book stores and all else booky.

Do you love to read? Do you love to write? Do you love to write about reading or read about writing?

Then this could be the guest post for you!

I would like all posts to revolve around Penguin books, (or Penguin published authors, or even your local book store that sells these little gems!), bringing the reviews back to where I started from. They can be Penguins of any genre, but preferably Penguin Classics, simply because they are my absolute favourite. There are hundreds of these guys to choose from, and the beauty is, they’re only $10 each! Make friends with a Penguin, you’ll be glad you did.

Guidelines:

• 800 words (approx)
• Must be a paper book (no e-readers sorry!)
• Must not reveal the ending…