Novel
Ashes, Ashes
Ravage
René Barjavel · 1943
Synopsis
In 2052, in a Paris where technology governs all of life, François Deschamps, a peasants' son who has come to study agricultural chemistry, meets again his childhood friend, Blanche Rouget, whom the city has seduced and who is seeing Jérôme Seita, the wealthy director of a radio station. One day, electricity suddenly disappears across the whole world, with no explanation. Transport stops, water no longer flows, communications fall silent, and the city sinks into disorder.
Context
The novel appeared from Denoël in 1943, under the Occupation. It imagines the France of 2052, where a civilisation far more advanced than ours collapses within a few days, deprived of the energy on which it wholly depends. Its author takes a critical view of technical progress, one he kept returning to in his later novels of anticipation, often pessimistic about the future. The book has been discussed for its echoes with the ideology of its time.
Who it is for
A fast-paced, accessible science-fiction novel, built as an account of catastrophe followed by survival.
Prizes and reception
In English, Damon Knight translated it in 1967, for Doubleday, under the title Ashes, Ashes.
Sources for this page 3
The pages consulted to check this page.