The Victorian Hugos

December 8, 2011 8:20 AM

The Victorian Hugos: "Over the next several months, in open imitation of Jo Walton's splendid "Revisiting the Hugos" series at Tor.com, I'll be reviewing science fiction and fantasy works from 1885 to 1930 and deciding which novels and short works would have received the Hugo had a Worldcon been held that year and which novels and short works should have received the Hugo–often not the same thing." 1885 1886 1887 1888
posted by Lentrohamsanin (12 comments total)

Shouldn't that be the Victorian/Edwardian Hugos?
posted by Larry Duke at 8:23 AM on December 8, 2011

Good catch, but answered! From the 1886 entry:

Before diving in to the novels and stories, I need to respond to a criticism of the last column: Queen Victoria died in 1901, yet I'm going to cover through 1930. The Hugos from 1901-1910 will be the "Edwardian Hugos," and the Hugos from 1911-1930 will be the "Pulp Era Hugos.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 8:29 AM on December 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

Somebody wake me when we get to 1895. Especially if Lilith is a candidate. I love that book but I've never convinced anyone else to read it.
posted by JaredSeth at 8:34 AM on December 8, 2011

Reviews like the one I linked don't help either.
posted by JaredSeth at 8:35 AM on December 8, 2011

They can just give it to Arthur Machen every year he wrote anything and save time. If The Hill of Dreams doesn't win for 1907 I will know what to think about the judges.
posted by winna at 8:49 AM on December 8, 2011

Jess Nevins, everyone!

Author of THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FANTASTIC VICTORIANA!
Future author of The Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes!
Tumblrist! Pulp fiction statistician! (see also).
Historical Dildo expert!
posted by zamboni at 8:59 AM on December 8, 2011

Jess Nevins is a critic and a writer I wish more genres had, clever, funny, hard working, and presicent.
posted by PinkMoose at 9:29 AM on December 8, 2011

Should be interesting when they get to 1911 and have to review a novel by Hugo Gernsback himself. He was a huge inspiration and did invent the name of the genre but he was a pretty terrible writer.
posted by octothorpe at 9:35 AM on December 8, 2011

Reviews like the one I linked don't help either.
posted by JaredSeth

Got me pretty excited to read it anyway, though.

Made Lilith sound like his Finnegan's Wake-- a book I detest and deride as "the dessicated and mephitic afterbirth of Ulysses"-- yet still very much worth seeking out and reading, somehow, if I can get past my wistfulness at not knowing whether I still have that copy I bought years ago and never got around to starting.
posted by jamjam at 11:42 AM on December 8, 2011

jamjam, I read both Lilith and Phantastes about twenty years ago and was left with the impression that MacDonald was criminally overlooked. As it happens, it was ER Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros that led me to read those, figuring I'd missed out on a goldmine of fantasy reading material by concentrating on modern stuff.

I actually needed two bookmarks for Ouroboros, one for the story and one for the glossary of terms.
posted by JaredSeth at 1:35 PM on December 8, 2011

And the best part is that, since the majority of the works are in the public domain, anyone can read them and tell Nevins where to get off.

Now, if only there were a way to a notice as each article is published.

I take it he's ending in 1930 to be sure to get to Olaf Stapledon, one of the best ever?
posted by Twang at 3:50 PM on December 8, 2011

Jess Nevins is a mensch.
posted by X-Himy at 8:30 AM on December 10, 2011 [1 favorite]