Mr. Edison making an android who was an ideal woman....
In this work, Villiers tried to search for the possibility of an existence of literally perfect woman. The android was perfect existence, and his attempt seemed succeeded at one time, but, in the end, after all, he had to sink her deep in the ocean....

Tomorrow's Eve is a French novel, first published in 1886. It is, equally, a hard science-fiction philosophical page-turner -- the story of how Thomas Edison invents a robot girlfriend for an Englishman to whom he owes a favor. The conjunction of the novel's age, Frenchness, and subject matter may seem astonishing, and it is; yet their synthesis, as it turns out, makes for a plot that is contemplative yet riveting, peopled by characters who are exaggerated yet nuanced.

At heart, Tomorrow's Eve is concerned with exploring human nature, and in particular the nature of love, the soul, and (since this is a French novel) women. Author Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam is an unrepentant cynic on these themes, and his pessimism percolates into his Edison; Edison's excitement about his robotic creation derives from his conviction that a guileless machine is actually an improvement on certain humans. Some women, he argues, are walking pharmacies, treated with so many chemicals that the admirer falls in love with a facade; then why not fall in love with a robot, who is equally artificial and less duplicitous? Villiers, a devout Catholic, seems to regard his fictional Edison's work as sacrilege, but keeps his religious undertones subtle and allows the reader to form his own judgments.

And there is plenty to judge! Villiers doesn't neglect characterization; everyone brims with personality, from the darkly intense Edison to his noble but desperate English friend to his tragic creation Hadaly. Despite a superficial resemblance to the earlier character, Edison is no clichéd Dr. Frankenstein takeoff. But don't take it from me, take it from Villiers:

"Drops of sweat stood like tears on the brow of Lord Ewald; he looked upon the features, now glacial in their austerity, of Edison. He felt that beneath this strident, scientific demonstration two things were hidden in the lecturer's infinite range of severely controlled secret thoughts.

The first was love of Humanity.

The second was one of the most violent shrieks of despair -- the coldest, the most intense, the most far-reaching, even to the Heavens, perhaps! -- that was ever emitted by a living being." (p.143)

Perhaps most astonishing is the way Villiers integrates his philosophy and characters with his science-fiction; Tomorrow's Eve is possibly the most detailed sci-fi novel ever written up to its time. The operation of Edison's "Android" -- a term this novel is credited with popularizing -- is described in loving, even prurient, detail. Edison's frequent and lengthy exposition is both ingenious and diabolical; it is also the weakest aspect of the novel. I don't feel like knowing how Hadaly keeps her balance really helps me interpret the story. But then, I'm not a hard science-fiction fan. Tomorrow's Eve may be Jules Verne in diction, but it is Robert Heinlein in detail.

All in all, Tomorrow's Eve is a great read -- not life-changing, at least for me, but frank and thought-provoking. I suspect I'll find myself pulling it from my bookshelf occasionally to look up an especially incisive quote, but I probably won't reread it in its entirety. ( )