Description

Richard Jefferies's After London; or, Wild England (1885) imagines an undetermined ecological event that devastates London and transforms England, its land, people, and wildlife. Told in two parts, Jefferies details the processes and effects of a "change" on individuals, their relationships, and their hopes. The story is divided into two parts and shared by an unidentified narrator from an unspecified future moment. In part II, the narrator details a brutal society seemingly devoid of the spirit of Victorian progress. In this updated critical edition, Michael Kramp and Sarita Jayanty Mizin provide a new scholarly apparatus for engaging with the narrative, its historical contexts, and its contemporary legacies, making the text accessible to diverse readers. They include diverse appendices, allowing teachers, students, and scholars the opportunity to explore After London's cultural importance to England's changing landscape, nineteenth century conceptions of climate and climate change, and Victorian fears of racial degeneration. In addition, they invite the readers to consider Jefferies's fiction with discussions about the fate of London, the stability of the Empire, and the changing roles of men and women in the Victorian period. Kramp and Jayanty Mizin illustrate the importance of After London to our broader understanding of the Anthropocene.