Subtitled A Dream If There Ever Was One (well, that’s the English translation, at least), French author Louis-Sébastien Mercier’s look at France in the year 2440 was eerily prescient in some ways, which made it exceedingly controversial in his own time. After man sleeps his way, Rip Van Winkle-style, into the 25th century, he wakes up in the ruins of the Palace of Versailles. The France he finds is pretty much a utopia based on rationality and science. There are no taxes, no slavery, no poverty, no soldiers, and no religion. On the flip side, there are no vices such as alcohol and tobacco—Wikipedia notes even the pastry chefs had to go, as presumably their wares were too delicious and fattening—and most books have been burned for being secularly immoral. This book was, as you can guess, a major critique of the French monarchy and exploitative aristocracy and thus not particularly well-received by those groups. Mercier didn’t claim ownership until 1791, after the French revolution made it safe to do so.
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