{"product_id":"the-hampdenshire-wonder-isbn-9780262551410","title":"The Hampdenshire Wonder","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn this pioneering science-fictional treatment of superhuman intelligence, a mutant wonder child’s insights prove devastating.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eScience fiction luminary Ted Chiang introduces \u003ci\u003eThe Hampdenshire Wonder\u003c\/i\u003e, one of the genre’s first treatments of superhuman intelligence. Victor Stott is a large-headed “supernormal” mutated in the womb by his parents’ desire to have a child born without habits. Known as “the Wonder,” Victor surveys humankind’s science, philosophy, history, literature, religion—the best that has been thought and said—and dismisses it brutally: “So elementary . . . inchoate . . . a disjunctive patchwork.” Rejecting “the interposing and utterly false concepts of space and time,” the Wonder claims that life itself is merely “a disease of the ether.” Unable to deal with the child’s disenchanting insights, his adult interlocutors seek to silence him . . . perhaps permanently.Series Foreword - Joshua Glenn\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction: “The Idea is Inconceivable” - Ted Chiang\u003cbr\u003ePart 1: My Early Associations with Ginger Stott\u003cbr\u003e1 The Motive\u003cbr\u003e2 Notes for a Biography of Ginger Stott\u003cbr\u003e3 The Disillusionment of Ginger Stott\u003cbr\u003ePart 2: The Childhood of the Wonder\u003cbr\u003e4 The Manner of his Birth\u003cbr\u003e5 His Departure from Stoke-Underhill\u003cbr\u003e6 His Father’s Desertion\u003cbr\u003e7 His Debt to Henry Challis\u003cbr\u003e8 His First Visit to Challis Court\u003cbr\u003eInterlude\u003cbr\u003ePart 2 (Continued): The Wonder among Books\u003cbr\u003e9 His Passage through the Prison of Knowledge\u003cbr\u003e10 His Pastors and Masters\u003cbr\u003e11 His Examination\u003cbr\u003e12 Fugitive\u003cbr\u003ePart 3: My Association with the Wonder\u003cbr\u003e13 How I Went to Pym to Write a Book\u003cbr\u003e14 The Incipience of my Subjection to the Wonder\u003cbr\u003e15 The Progress and Relaxation of my Subjection\u003cbr\u003e16 Release\u003cbr\u003e17 Implications\u003cbr\u003eEpilogue: The Uses of Mystery\"However you interpret Beresford’s touching short novel, it remains, like its protagonist, a wonder.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eWashington Post\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"One of the earliest exemplars in SF of the genius unbound, the more-than-human intellect whose insights are sublime and terrible . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Hampdenshire Wonder\u003c\/i\u003e has more than just historical value, and earns this latest reprint.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eLocus Magazine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What makes the Radium Age series so valuable is how it illuminates the origins of science fiction tropes we take for granted. . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Hampdenshire Wonder \u003c\/i\u003etackles transhumanism decades before it became a preoccupation of science fiction and posthumanist philosophy.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eBoing Boing\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“In \u003ci\u003eThe Hampdenshire Wonder\u003c\/i\u003e, Beresford explores anxieties about human evolution and the limits of knowledge. Is Victor Stott our evolutionary successor or simply a vulnerable boy in a provincial town? A threat or a victim?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—John Kessel, author of \u003ci\u003ePride and Prometheus\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Moon and the Other\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Dark Ride\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A novel which, in point of originality, both of conception and execution, is the most remarkable that has been published for some time. A wonderful effort of vision and imagination.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eMorning Post\u003c\/i\u003e (1911)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Extravagance . . . but of so remarkable a character that it keeps you almost spell-bound. What follows is philosophy, psychology, poetry, allegory, what you will.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Bookman\u003c\/i\u003e (1911)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Mr. Beresford reveals himself as a man who has something to say very distinct and different from the ordinary rut of novelists, something that amounts almost to a message.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eEnglish Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A clever and curious book.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Book Monthly\u003c\/i\u003e (1911)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A thoughtful and original novel.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Athenaeum\u003c\/i\u003e (1911)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The striking originality of the book is what first catches the reader’s attention; afterwards it is held by the quiet, truth-compelling manner of the telling.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePall Mall Gazette\u003c\/i\u003e (1911)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Mr. Beresford has done a very difficult thing extremely well. He has written a story which anyone can read with pleasure, and in which the philosophic reader will find a rich vein of meaning and suggestion.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eWestminster Gazette\u003c\/i\u003e (1911)\u003c\/b\u003eJ.D. Beresford (1873–1947) was an English dramatist, journalist, and author. His proto-science fiction novels include \u003ci\u003eThe Hampdenshire Wonder\u003c\/i\u003e (1911), \u003ci\u003eA World of Women\u003c\/i\u003e (1913), and \u003ci\u003eThe Riddle of the Tower\u003c\/i\u003e (1944, with Esme Wynne-Tyson); he also wrote in the horror and ghost story genres. A great admirer of H.G. Wells, he wrote the first critical study of Wells in 1915. His daughter, Elisabeth Beresford (1926–2010), was creator of the literary and TV franchise The Wombles.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300451537125,"sku":"NP9780262551410","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262551410.jpg?v=1767739698","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-hampdenshire-wonder-isbn-9780262551410","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}