Dated in some ways but reasonably well-written otherwise ( )

Easily one of my favourite books from the get to, this is a story of individual and collective reactions to a mass disaster. It is also one of the funniest books that I've ever read. It is science fiction (of the type heavily based in reality), it is socio-political commentary, and it is small English village life. I love everything about the book and the story: how I got the book, where I read the book, the cover, the backgrounding of the imminent threat to the more pressing issues of everyday life and comfort, to the presaged resolution. Impossible for me to rate this experience higher. ( )

An interesting reissue of a science fiction novel published in1939. There were some slow-going patches but overall this book has held up well. ( )

This is an early science fiction novel. Its premise is that a manuscript has been found in the ruins of what was once London, a manuscript hundreds of years old from before the collapse of Western Civilization after the "cataclysm," which occurred when the moon collided with Earth. After a forward, the bulk of the book consists of this manuscript, which consists of a narrative written by one Edgar Hopkins, a poultry breeder, as he describes how he learned of the impending collision with the moon and what happened thereafter.

I enjoyed the book. There is actually a fair amount of humor in the book (for a book about an apocalyptic doom), although I sometimes couldn't decide whether the humor was intentional or not. The humor frequently arose from the inability to grasp the enormity of what was about to happen, to view it on a merely personal behavior. Edgar for example decides to invest in a pottery company because he believes that a lot of dishes are going to be broken during the collision and people will be sure to need new dishes afterwards. Edgar also worries about whether the impending collision will interfere with the poultry show at which he intends to exhibit his prize hens. Edgar's housekeeper remarks that she hopes the collision "wouldn't land upon th earth when it was a new moon, because in that case the sharp points might cut somebody."

Of course it does get a bit more serious after the collision, and does raise some questions about the ability of humans and individual nations to deal with a calamity affecting the entire world. I found this to be an interesting and enjoyable read.

First Line: "I am writing by the light of a piece of string which I have pushed through a fragment of bacon fat and arranged in an egg cup."

Last Line: " I wonder who it is?"

3 stars ( )

Sherriff, R. C. The Hopkins Manuscript. 1939. E-book, Scribner, 2023.
It is tempting to see The Hopkins Manuscript by R. C. Sherriff as a story predicting the Second World War, but it is just as likely that it looks back to World War I, the global calamity in which Sherriff had been wounded. It is also possible that his concerns were more recent, having to do with what he may have learned about greed working as an insurance adjuster after the war. He is not much interested in orbital mechanics or the realistic effects of a collision between the Earth and the Moon. The survivors of Hopkins’ village keep calm and carry on in noble British fashion until the earthbound Moon becomes the object of an international border dispute that expands into a global conflict that destroys civilization more thoroughly than the collision with the moon. 4 stars. ( )