14 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a city can send pictures across distances but leaves its poor with nothing to hope for?
In Ignatius Donnelly’s Caesar’s Column, Gabriel Weltstein travels from a farming community in Uganda to New York to sell produce. The year is 1988. Airships and electric light dazzle him, but misery sits beside towering wealth. In letters to his brother Heinrich, Gabriel describes a city where a few men own nearly everything.
Maximilian Petion helps Gabriel see how power works behind the glitter. Prince Cabano embodies the ruling class, while Estella Washington, a governess with little money, draws Gabriel’s heart. Beneath this divided city, the Brotherhood of Destruction gathers. Its leader, Caesar Lomellini, wants to break the rich by force, turning anger toward a violent reckoning.
What you’ll discover
- A dazzling, divided city Explore a future where airships and bright towers stand beside poverty and fear.
- Letters from an outsider Follow Gabriel’s hopes and fears as he tells his brother what New York reveals.
- Love amid the fear Meet Estella Washington, whose modest circumstances place Gabriel’s love within the city’s stark divide.
- Anger beneath the glitter Encounter a secret brotherhood that sees force as the answer to the power of wealth.
- A blunt political warning Consider Donnelly’s argument that concentrated wealth leaves democracy hollow and society in danger.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy early science fiction, big arguments about money and power, and tales of conspiracy, romance and revolution will find plenty here. It suits anyone curious how people in 1890 pictured the future.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The shining city lacks human warmth
- A kind act becomes a crime
- Estella discovers the truth about captivity
- Power plans to answer with slaughter
- The opposing councils mirror each other
- Justice cannot rest on empty promises
- Gabriel would restrain wealth and cunning
- Love preserves another way to live
- Mercy must come before destruction
Who’s who
- Gabriel WeltsteinA Swiss-African sheep farmer who comes to New York to sell wool and cannot stand by while innocent people suffer.
- Maximilian PetionA lawyer who lives under disguise, belongs to the secret Brotherhood and wants justice and revenge for a family wrong.
- Estella WashingtonA young woman of noble Virginia descent, sold to a prince, who fights to keep her freedom and her honour.
- Prince CabanoThe richest man in New York and head of the ruling council, he wants to keep his power at any cost.
- RudolphThe Master of the Servants in the Prince's palace, secretly loyal to the Brotherhood and quick at planning escapes.
- Caesar LomelliniA giant, fearless commander of the Brotherhood of Destruction, driven by old wrongs and a hunger for revenge.
- General QuincyCommander of the airships called the Demons, whose men hold the balance of power between the rich and the rebels.
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Caesar's Column
by Ignatius Donnelly · 1890
A shepherd from Africa hides behind cactus flowers in a palace and hears a plan to kill ten million people.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“When the stomach cries out, the soul falls silent.”
In short
What would you do if you crouched behind a screen of flowering cactus and heard the richest men in the world plan the death of ten million people? Gabriel Weltstein, a sheep farmer from the mountains of Africa, finds himself in exactly that place.
Caesar's Column at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 20 min5 h fast, 7 h 30 min slow
- Length
- 90,000 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1890by Ignatius Donnelly
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A glittering city that has lost its heart
The book opens in New York in September 1988. Gabriel Weltstein, a young sheep farmer from the new African state of Uganda, has come to sell his wool. He writes to his brother Heinrich that the city leaves him speechless.
Streets glow with light drawn from the magnetism of the earth, so midnight looks like noon. Airships reach London in thirty-six hours. At the Darwin Hotel, a mirror rises from the table to show a menu, and dinner appears at the touch of a button.
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Details
- First published
- 1890
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 7 h 10 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Donnelly, Ignatius. Caesar's Column. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/caesars-column.
Donnelly, I. (2026). Caesar's column. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/caesars-column (Original work published 1890)
Donnelly, Ignatius. Caesar's Column. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/caesars-column.
@book{donnelly2026caesars,
author = {Donnelly, Ignatius},
title = {Caesar's Column},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/caesars-column},
note = {First published 1890}
}
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What is Caesar's Column about?
It follows Gabriel Weltstein, a shepherd from Africa, who visits a future New York in 1988. He discovers a ruling class of wealthy men, a desperate working class and a secret Brotherhood preparing a vast uprising.
When was Caesar's Column written and is it a true story?
Ignatius Donnelly published it in 1890. It is a work of fiction set about a century ahead, using invented events and inventions to warn about rising inequality and corruption in his own time.
Who is Caesar in Caesar's Column?
Caesar Lomellini is a giant of a man, a former farmer ruined by debt, who becomes commander of the Brotherhood of Destruction. He appears in the middle of the book as the rebels' fearsome leader.
The author
Ignatius Donnelly
1831–1901 · American politician and writer
Ignatius Donnelly (1831–1901) was an American politician and writer. He was born in Philadelphia and later lived in Minnesota. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1863 to 1869. His books included Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882) and the novel Caesar’s Column (1890).
“When the stomach cries out, the soul falls silent.”
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