''Pandaemonium, 1660–1886: The Coming of the Machine as Seen by Contemporary Observers'' is a book of contemporary observations of the coming, development, and impact of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

in the United Kingdom, collected by documentary film-maker

Humphrey Jennings Frank Humphrey Sinkler Jennings (19 August 1907 – 24 September 1950) was an English documentary filmmaker and one of the founders of the Mass Observation organisation. Jennings was described by film critic and director Lindsay Anderson in 195 ...

and published posthumously in 1985 by Icon Books having received funding for the project from the Elephant Trust. The book takes its title from the first excerpt within it, the section in Book I of ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...

'' (1660) in which

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...

describes the building of Pandaemonium, the capital city of Hell. Jennings collated the excerpts between 1937 and his early death in 1950. Jennings' daughter, Mary-Louise Jennings, and a co-founder with Jennings of

Mass Observation Mass-Observation is a United Kingdom social research project; originally the name of an organisation which ran from 1937 to the mid-1960s, and was revived in 1981 at the University of Sussex. Mass-Observation originally aimed to record everyday ...

, Charles Madge, brought his work to publication in 1985. The first edition was published by André Deutsch Ltd, where

Diana Athill Diana Athill (21 December 1917 – 23 January 2019) was a British literary editor, novelist and memoirist who worked with some of the greatest writers of the 20th century at the London-based publishing company Andre Deutsch Ltd. Early life ...

was its editor. Reviewing ''Pandaemonium'', the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' said, "Many of the early milestones of industrialization and its effects have become textbook cliches, and a routine anthology devoted to the subject would hardly call for special attention. But ''Pandaemonium'' is far from routine; it reflects the deeply felt preoccupations of an unusual man", and said that through the texts selected, the book "conveys the heroic promise of industrialism as well as the devastation, the humanistic spirit of science as well the dehumanizing dangers".

2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony

2012 Olympics opening ceremony, Industrial Revolution scene

Writer

Frank Cottrell Boyce Frank Cottrell-Boyce (born 23 September 1959)"COTTRELL-BOYCE, Frank", ''Who's Who 2010'', A & C Black, 2010; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2009 ; online edn, Nov 200 Retrieved 2010-05-16. is an English people, English screenwriter, ...

, a longtime fan of the book, said of it "When I first held this book in my hand, I swear I could feel it shaking with its own internal energy." Director

Danny Boyle Daniel Francis Boyle (born 20 October 1956) is an English director and producer. He is known for his work on films including ''Shallow Grave'', '' Trainspotting'' and its sequel ''T2 Trainspotting'', '' The Beach'', '' 28 Days Later'', '' Su ...

was working on a West End theatrical production of

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic fiction, Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of scie ...

's ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ex ...

'', which opened in February 2011, and Cottrell Boyce had given Boyle a copy of ''Pandaemonium'' to help inform the Industrial Revolution sequence in the play. At the same time, Boyle and Cottrell Boyce were developing the opening ceremony for the 2012 Summer Olympics, with Boyle as its artistic director and Cottrell Boyce as the writer. Cottrell Boyce commented "Danny had a very clear idea that in the first 15 minutes f the ceremonyyou had to have a great, startling image that could go around the world. It had to climax with something that made people go, Oh my God!", and Boyle decided that "the journey from the pastoral to the industrial, ending with the forging of the Olympic rings" was that image. Boyle made ''Pandaemonium'' required reading for his opening ceremony team. The resulting section of the ceremony was named "Pandemonium", in acknowledgement of both Milton and Jennings' works.

Re-publication

Following an attempt to get the out-of-print 1985 edition published as an e-book, a new condensed edition of the book was published in October 2012, with a foreword by Frank Cottrell Boyce. It represents about a third of the original edition. Writing of the new edition,

observed " n its original publication in 1985it received many perceptive and enthusiastic reviews, but it has taken Boyle to shift it from academic appreciation to the general readership for which it was intended and which it deserves."

References

{{reflist Books about social history Books about economic history Humphrey Jennings