“This novel, published in 1894, tells the story of a utopian world around the year 2192 (330 years after the First Republic of 1792) where each innovation or attempt to create a perfect world, tilts society towards barbarism. Spronck is thus one of the pioneers of dystopia, or counter-utopia, in French literature. He reverses the principle of utopia: a perfect society according to certain principles – in this case, “liberty, equality, fraternity” – turns out in practice to be a hell on Earth“. (Amazon, translation: OLA)