The book begins with the most boring prose introduction, reminiscent of Hardy droning on and on about one thing but never getting to the point. Chapter two however introduces the concept of the protagonist waking up from his winter's sleep to discover it is a hot June morning 100 year in the future, and everything is cleaner, brighter, fresher. The shift in reality was promising. I thought about reading this book in instalments, assuming it was originally published as one chapter a week. The similarity of this story to Bellamy's Looking Backward was striking, but Morris seems to expect a move away from technology to achieve a greater future, picking fruit for breakfast, planting trees and removing factories. The woman in chapter three has discovered prolonged youth (a 42 year old looks to be in her 20s). Morris found a funny solution the the parliament building since the government had been dissolved - a place for dung storage!
Overall I was disappointed, as Morris used Bellamy's structure and idea to present his own platform to promote socialistic ideals. I found the story dry; gardens, nature, working for the fun of working, no poverty, no currency, no smoking factories, no government, just rowing up the clean Thames towards the harvest fields. Just like Bellamy, Morris categorised explanations for education, sexual relations, religion, currency, etc, but Looking Backward was much more fun. Stick to the wallpaper. ( )

A good edition of Morris' writings. "News from Nowhere" provides an interesting utopian perspective, though there's not a whole lot of depth to it. Some of the included essays are quite good, and I enjoyed reading his "Aims on Founding the Kelmscott Press." ( )

An interesting non-fiction collection. ( )

An interesting glimpse into the past, but a bit dense and difficult to follow at times. ( )

William Morris was a dreamer with a genius for turning dreams into reality. Self-taught in 13 different crafts, some of them ancient, he became a great European pattern-designer. This volume illustrates the variety of Morris's prose, while focusing on the theme of earthly paradise.

Outside a classroom, I struggle to find the patience for these kinds of tales. My interest in Morris would probably be better served by a high-quality biography or an essay-only collection, but I would very much like to revisit this at a later date. ( )