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Author | Sir Julius Vogel |
---|---|
Language | English |
Published | 1889 |
Publication place | New Zealand |
Anno Domini 2000, or, Woman's Destiny (1889) is often referred to as New Zealand's first science fiction novel. [1] [2] It was written by former Prime Minister of New Zealand Sir Julius Vogel while he was in England. [3] It anticipated a utopian world where women held many positions of authority, and in fact New Zealand became the first country to give women the vote, and from 1998 to 2008 continuously had a female Prime Minister, while for a short period (2005–2006) all five highest government positions (Queen, Governor-General, Prime Minister, Speaker of the House and Chief Justice) were simultaneously held by women.
The novel describes the exploits of Hilda Fitzherbert, a 23-year-old Undersecretary for Home Affairs in a future where the British Empire has achieved both female suffrage (which New Zealand granted in real life in 1893) and become an Imperial Federation, which also included Belgium and coastal territories along the English Channel. However, Sir Reginald Paramatta, a villainous Australian republican, has his eyes set on the abduction and wooing of Miss Fitzherbert. Miss Fitzherbert foils the Republican plans and falls in love with Emperor Albert, the dashing young ruler of the Federated British Empire.
Unfortunately, their plans hit a snag when the Emperor refuses the hand of the female US president's daughter, which precipitates an Anglo-American war, which the Empire wins, leading to the dissolution of the United States, its reabsorption into the Empire, and the ensuing marriage of Hilda and the Emperor. Several years later, the Emperor and his Empress find that their opinions about male primacy in royal succession have reversed themselves, when faced with a brilliantly competent princess and bookish, scholarly prince as prospective heirs apparent to the throne.
Literary scholar Roger Robinson has described Anno Domini 2000 as ""that unenviable kind of book that many have heard of [in New Zealand] but almost no one has read". [3] His 2002 edition of the novel was published with the tagline, "The Utopian Novel That Got the Future Right". [4]
It has attracted posthumous recognition for its uncanny representation of New Zealand's female-dominated political, judicial and corporate executive hierarchies in 2000. It was reissued in 2001, and the University of Hawaii Press published its first American edition in 2002. An ebook version was published in 2013 by Hurricane Press with a retrospective chapter describing the origins of the book and the early newspaper reviews.
Sir Julius Vogel was the eighth premier of New Zealand. His administration is best remembered for the issuing of bonds to fund railway construction and other public works. He was the first Jewish prime minister of New Zealand. Historian Warwick R. Armstrong assesses Vogel's strengths and weaknesses:
Vogel's politics were like his nature, imaginative – and occasionally brilliant – but reckless and speculative. He was an excellent policymaker but he needed a strong leader to restrain him....Yet Vogel had vision. He saw New Zealand as a potential 'Britain of the South Seas', strong both in agriculture and in industry, and inhabited by a large and flourishing population.
Kirk Mitchell is an American author who is known for his time travel, alternate history, historical fiction, and adventure fiction novels. Mitchell has also created several novelizations of movies.
The Sir Julius Vogel Awards are awarded each year at the New Zealand National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in New Zealand science fiction, fantasy, horror, and science fiction fandom. They are commonly referred to as the Vogels.
Tessa Duder is a New Zealand author of novels for young people, short stories, plays and non-fiction, and a former swimmer who won a silver medal for her country at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. As a writer, she is primarily known for her Alex quartet and long-term advocacy for New Zealand children's literature. As an editor, she has also published a number of anthologies. In 2020 she received the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in acknowledgement of her significant contributions to New Zealand fiction.
Russell Kirkpatrick is a New Zealand novelist, geography lecturer, mapmaker and photographer. He has contributed to a number of notable atlases, and since 2004 has completed two fantasy trilogies. He is a three-time winner of the award for best novel at New Zealand's Sir Julius Vogel Awards. His books were first published in Australia and in the mid-2010s he moved to Canberra, where he now lectures at the University of Canberra.
Women's suffrage was an important political issue in the late-nineteenth-century New Zealand. In early colonial New Zealand, as in European societies, women were excluded from any involvement in politics. Public opinion began to change in the latter half of the nineteenth century and after years of effort by women's suffrage campaigners, led by Kate Sheppard, New Zealand became the first nation in the world in which all women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections.
The following lists events that happened during 1889 in New Zealand.
The following lists events that happened during 1875 in New Zealand.
The following lists events that happened during 1873 in New Zealand.
The following lists events that happened during 1869 in New Zealand.
Lyn McConchie is a New Zealand writer of speculative fiction, picture books for children, a nonfiction humour series, a number of standalone books and many short stories, articles, poems, opinion pieces, and reviews.
Ken Catran is a children's novelist and television screenwriter from New Zealand.
Anno Domini designates years since the traditional date of the birth of Jesus Christ.
Marilyn Rose Duckworth is a New Zealand novelist, poet and short story writer. Since her first novel was published at the age of 23 in 1959, she has published fifteen novels, one novella, a collection of short stories and a collection of poetry. Many of her novels feature women with complex lives and relationships. She has also written for television and radio. Over the course of her career she has received a number of prestigious awards including the top prize for fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards for Disorderly Conduct (1984) and a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in 2016.
Bill Direen is a musician and poet. He manages the music group Bilders and lives in Otago, New Zealand.
The 1889 New Zealand Liberal leadership election was held on 6 July to choose who would lead New Zealand's parliamentary opposition and, ultimately, decide the inaugural leader of the New Zealand Liberal Party. The election was won by Wanganui MP John Ballance.
Eleanor Catherine Sperrey, also known as Kate Sperrey, was a noted portraitist from New Zealand who flourished at the end of the nineteenth century. She painted portraits of many of the most noted statesmen of New Zealand and has works in the permanent collections of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the Alexander Turnbull Library, Auckland Art Gallery, and the Whangarei Art Museum.
Michael Stephen Botur is a New Zealand author described as "one of the most original story writers of his generation in New Zealand." As a journalist, he has published longform news articles in VICE World News, NZ Listener, New Zealand Herald, Herald on Sunday, Sunday Star-Times, The Spinoff, Mana and North & South. His short fiction and poetry has been published in most New Zealand literary journals including Landfall, Poetry New Zealand and Newsroom. In 2023 he founded the mentoring service Creative Writing Northland.
Women's Christian Temperance Union of New Zealand is a non-partisan, non-denominational, and non-profit organisation that is the oldest continuously active national organisation of women in New Zealand. The national organisation began in 1885 during the visit to New Zealand by Mary Clement Leavitt, the first world missionary for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The WCTU NZ was an early branch of the World Woman's Christian Temperance Union and a founding affiliate of the National Council of Women of New Zealand. Men may join the WCTU NZ as honorary members.