J. D. Beresford - Böcker

In this pioneering science-fictional treatment of superhuman intelligence, a mutant wonder child s insights prove devastating. Science fiction luminary Ted Chiang introduces The Hampdenshire Wonder, 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. J.D. Beresford (1873 1947) was an English dramatist, journalist, and author. A great admirer of H.G. Wells, he published the first critical study of Wells's scientific romances in 1915. In addition to The Hampdenshire Wonder (1911), an early and influential proto-sf novel about super-intelligence, his genre novels include A World of Women (1913), Revolution (1921), and The Riddle of the Tower (1944, with Esme Wynne-Tyson).

Nothing will ever mystify or challenge the Wonder. He masters entire libraries and languages with little effort. No equation, no problem is too difficult to solve. His casual conversations with ministers and philosophers decimate their vaunted beliefs and crush their cherished intellectual ambitions. The Wonder compels obedience and silence with a glance. His mother idolizes him as a god. Yet no one is more hated or alone than the Wonder. This is the chilling tale of Victor Stott, an English boy born thousands of years ahead of his time. Raised in the village of Hampdenshire, the strangely proportioned young Victor possesses mental abilities vastly superior to those of his fellow villagers. The incomprehensible intellect and powers of the Wonder inspire awe, provoke horror, and eventually threaten to rip apart Hampdenshire. Long recognized as a classic of speculative fiction but never before widely available, The Wonder is one of the first novels about a "superman." J. D. Beresford's subtle and intriguing story of a boy with superhuman abilities paved the way for such noted works as Philip Wylie's Gladiator and A. E. van Vogt's Slan