''The Voyage to Icaria'' (French: ''Voyage en Icarie'' ) is a novel written by

Étienne Cabet Étienne Cabet (; January 1, 1788 – November 9, 1856) was a French philosopher and utopian socialist who founded the Icarian movement. Cabet became the most popular socialist advocate of his day, with a special appeal to artisans who were bei ...

and published in 1840. In this romance, he described a

communistic Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island societ ...

, whose terms he had dreamed out; and he began at once to try to realize his dream. He framed a constitution for an actual Icaria. The

Icarians The Icarians were a French-based utopian socialist movement, established by the followers of politician, journalist, and author Étienne Cabet. In an attempt to put his economic and social theories into practice, Cabet led his followers to the ...

were a French utopian movement, founded by Étienne Cabet, who led his followers to America where they established a group of

egalitarian Egalitarianism (), or equalitarianism, is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds from the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all hu ...

communes during the period from 1848 through 1898.

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

mentions ''Voyage en Icarie'' in an 1843 letter to

Arnold Ruge Arnold Ruge (13 September 1802 – 31 December 1880) was a German philosopher and political writer. He was the older brother of Ludwig Ruge. Studies in university and prison Born in Bergen auf Rügen, he studied in Halle, Jena and Heidelberg. ...

, contrasting the "communist utopia" of the book with the real and pragmatic conditions necessary for building socialism in the Germany of his time.Letter from Marx to Arnold Ruge
Kreuzenach, September 1843; first published in the '' Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher'', 1844; Retrieved 9 July 2018

References

External links

Voyage to Icaria (French) full text on Archive.org
by Charles Nordhoff, 1875 1840 French novels 1840s science fiction novels French science fiction novels Utopian novels {{poli-novel-stub