Hampdenshire Wonder

J.D. Beresford (1873–1947) was an English dramatist, journalist, and author. His proto-science fiction novels include The Hampdenshire Wonder (1911), A World of Women (1913), and The Riddle of the Tower (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.

"However you interpret Beresford’s touching short novel, it remains, like its protagonist, a wonder."—Washington Post"One of the earliest exemplars in SF of the genius unbound, the more-than-human intellect whose insights are sublime and terrible . . . The Hampdenshire Wonder has more than just historical value, and earns this latest reprint."—Locus Magazine"What makes the Radium Age series so valuable is how it illuminates the origins of science fiction tropes we take for granted. . . . The Hampdenshire Wonder tackles transhumanism decades before it became a preoccupation of science fiction and posthumanist philosophy."—Boing Boing“In The Hampdenshire Wonder, 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?”—John Kessel, author of Pride and Prometheus, The Moon and the Other, and The Dark Ride“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.”—Morning Post (1911)“Extravagance . . . but of so remarkable a character that it keeps you almost spell-bound. What follows is philosophy, psychology, poetry, allegory, what you will.”—The Bookman (1911)“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.”—English Review“A clever and curious book.”—The Book Monthly (1911)“A thoughtful and original novel.”—The Athenaeum (1911)“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.”—Pall Mall Gazette (1911)“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.”—Westminster Gazette (1911)

• Series Foreword - Joshua GlennIntroduction: “The Idea is Inconceivable” - Ted ChiangPart 1: My Early Associations with Ginger Stott1 The Motive2 Notes for a Biography of Ginger Stott3 The Disillusionment of Ginger StottPart 2: The Childhood of the Wonder4 The Manner of his Birth5 His Departure from Stoke-Underhill6 His Father’s Desertion7 His Debt to Henry Challis8 His First Visit to Challis CourtInterludePart 2 (Continued): The Wonder among Books9 His Passage through the Prison of Knowledge10 His Pastors and Masters11 His Examination12 FugitivePart 3: My Association with the Wonder13 How I Went to Pym to Write a Book14 The Incipience of my Subjection to the Wonder15 The Progress and Relaxation of my Subjection16 Release17 ImplicationsEpilogue: The Uses of Mystery