Richard Jefferies

After London Richard Jefferies

After London (1885) is an early example of post-apocalyptic fiction. After some sudden and unspecified catastrophe has depopulated England, the countryside reverts to nature, and the few survivors to a quasi-medieval way of life. The book has two parts. The first, "The Relapse into Barbarism", is the account by some later historian of the fall of civilization and its consequences, with a loving description of nature reclaiming England. The second part, "Wild England", is largely a straightforward adventure set many years later in the wild landscape and society, giving a disturbing and surreal description of the site of the fallen city. Despite some improbabilities, the story has been much admired for its rigor and compelling narrative. And although the society that Jefferies depicts after the fall of London is an unpleasant one, with oppressive petty tyrants at war with each other, and insecurity and injustice for the poor, it served as an inspiration for other works, like William Morris's utopian News from Nowhere; and M. P. Shiel's post-apocalyptic novel, The Purple Cloud.