8 h 47 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 8 h 47 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if you woke to a clean Thames, streets like gardens, and a world where work brings pleasure?
After a quarrel at a socialist meeting, William Guest goes to sleep in grim, smoky London. He wakes in a future England he barely recognises. Dick, a cheerful young waterman, welcomes him into a life of good food, beautiful objects, and shared work. Guest wants to understand how such a world can exist.
In William Morris's News from Nowhere; Or, An Epoch of Rest, there is no money and no wages. Old Hammond explains the change, while a journey up the Thames lets Guest see this society at close quarters. Clara and Ellen bring love, feeling, and searching thought into a vision where equality does not erase human complexity.
What you’ll discover
- Work worth doing Explore a society where people choose useful tasks they enjoy and share what they make.
- Beauty at the table Join Guest for plain, good food served in dishes made with care.
- Memory of a different world Listen as Old Hammond explains how the old order gives way to another life.
- Love beyond legal bonds See how affection and heartbreak remain in a world without marriage contracts or property disputes.
- A river journey Travel up the Thames past meadows, villages, and old houses, with room to wonder.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who love imagining better worlds, the English countryside and the Thames, handmade things, or a great designer's picture of a fair and cheerful society.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A heated meeting and a strange awakening
- Breakfast at the Guest House and a drive begins
- Forests, children and shops without money
- Trafalgar Square and a country without prisons
- Old Hammond explains love, learning and government
- How work became pleasure and how the change came
- Up the Thames with Dick, Clara and a grumbler
- Ellen joins the boat and the river narrows
- Work as art and beauty as a shared right
- Memory, hope and the outsider who watches
- A dream told in a plain, friendly voice
Who’s who
- William GuestThe narrator, a Socialist who wakes in a changed England and asks questions about everything, hoping to see what the future looks like.
- Dick HammondA boatman and metalworker, cheerful and warm, who becomes Guest's guide and takes him from Hammersmith up the Thames.
- ClaraA bright, sometimes uneasy young woman who has just come back to Dick and travels with him and Guest.
- Old HammondDick's great-grandfather, a historian over a hundred years old, who explains how the old world gave way to the new.
- EllenA sun-browned young woman with a quick mind and strong views, who sees that Guest does not quite belong and wants to learn from him.
- BoffinHenry Johnson, a dustman in golden embroidery who writes novels and wants to question the stranger.
- Robert the weaverA young scholar of mathematics and old books, curious about Guest's past and keen to write about the nineteenth century.
Formats and delivery
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- The same book in bigger, clearer type, once the book texts are online.
- Audiobook
- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read today.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Kunde von Nirgendwo oder eine Epoche der Ruhe
by William Morris · 1890
A man wakes up in a London where the Thames runs clear, salmon swim, and nobody asks him to pay.
Challenging2–5 hours to readDeutsch
Learn a language with challenging classicsSpanischFranzösischDeutschItalienischJapanischPortugiesischEnglischHow we measure levels
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In short
Imagine going to bed in a smoky London suburb in winter and waking on a bright June morning beside a clear Thames, where a young boatman cannot understand why you want to pay him. That is how News from Nowhere begins.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A heated meeting and a strange awakening
The story opens at a meeting of the Socialist League, where friends argue about life on the day after the revolution. The talk ends in shouting. The narrator, who later gives his name as William Guest, goes home angry at the clever points he forgot to make.
On the underground train he mutters that he wishes he could see a day of that future.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1890
- Language
- Deutsch
- Reading time
- 5 h 40 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Morris, William. News from Nowhere; Or, An Epoch of Rest. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/news-from-nowhere-or-an-epoch-of-rest.
Morris, W. (2026). News from nowhere; or, an epoch of rest. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/news-from-nowhere-or-an-epoch-of-rest (Original work published 1890)
Morris, William. News from Nowhere; Or, An Epoch of Rest. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/news-from-nowhere-or-an-epoch-of-rest.
@book{morris2026news,
author = {Morris, William},
title = {News from Nowhere; Or, An Epoch of Rest},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/news-from-nowhere-or-an-epoch-of-rest},
note = {First published 1890}
}
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What is News from Nowhere about?
A man falls asleep in nineteenth-century London and wakes in a future England without money, prisons or private property. A boatman named Dick guides him through London and up the Thames while people explain how society changed.
When was News from Nowhere written?
William Morris wrote and published it in 1890. It is a work of imagination, a utopian romance, not a true story, though it draws on the real Socialist debates of his time.
Who are Dick, Clara, Ellen and Hammond?
Dick is the boatman who guides Guest. Clara is the woman he loves. Old Hammond is Dick's great-grandfather and a historian, and Ellen is a bright young woman Guest meets at Runnymede.
The author
William Morris
1834–1896 · English poet and designer
William Morris (1834–1896) was an English writer, textile designer, artist, and printer. He was born in Walthamstow and died in London. His books include The House of the Wolfings (1889), News from Nowhere (1890), and The Well at the World's End (1896). He founded the Kelmscott Press in 1891.
More by William Morris
Alle Bücher des Autors ansehenMore like this
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