Ralph 124C 41+
A Romance of the Year 2660
Hugo Gernsback 1911
This science fiction romance follows an inventor's adventures in the technologically advanced world of 2660. Ralph meets his future sweetheart through an accidental video call.
165 pages 3h 12m reading time
- One of the earliest American science fiction novels, and a key text in the birth of the modern genre.
- Imagines a future where science and invention solve everyday problems, with gadgets like solar power, recorded sound, and machines that teach you while you sleep.
- Presents the inventor as a hero, suggesting that a brilliant scientist can save lives and change the world through clever machines.
- Contains a detailed description of bouncing waves off distant objects to find them, often cited as one of the first accurate predictions of radar.
- Set the pattern of idea-driven, gadget-filled science fiction that its author went on to champion in Amazing Stories, the first magazine devoted to the genre.
Written to fill pages
The author wrote the first part to fill empty space in Modern Electrics, his own radio magazine.
A title that's a pun
Read aloud, the hero's name sounds like "one to foresee for one another," or "one plus."
Told in monthly parts
It first ran as a twelve-part magazine serial and only became a book more than ten years later.
Mocked for its writing
Many critics have called its plot and dialogue clumsy, even while admiring its many predictions.