''The Hopkins Manuscript'' is a social-political

dystopian A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

published by

R. C. Sherriff Robert Cedric Sherriff, FSA, FRSL (6 June 1896 – 13 November 1975) was an English writer best known for his play '' Journey's End'', which was based on his experiences as an army officer in the First World War. He wrote several plays, many nov ...

in 1939. Originally titled ''An Ordinary Man'', the novel was published with its present title by Victor Gollancz, then republished as a Pan paperback in 1958 under the title ''The Cataclysm''. The book was further published by The Macmillan Company in 1963 and by

Persephone Books ''Persephone Books'' is an independent publisher based in Bath, England. Founded in 1999 by Nicola Beauman, Persephone Books reprints works largely by women writers of the late 19th and 20th century, though a few books by men are included. Th ...

in 2002. The story is set in England, where the main character, Edgar Hopkins, writes a narrative about a catastrophe in which the Moon collides with Earth, and his life afterward. The foreword has the perspective of an academic society 1,000 years in the future finding the manuscript as an historical document.

References

1939 British novels 1939 science fiction novels Dystopian novels British political novels British science fiction novels Novels set in London Novels about impact events Works about the Moon Novels by R. C. Sherriff {{1930s-specf-novel-stub