IMAGINARY WORLDS By Paul Bloomfield
In this work, Imaginary Worlds, (Hamish Hamilton, 7s. 6d.), Mr. Bloomfield has made a survey of fourteen " representative Utopias " from the ideal state of Pluto to Mr. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, but the sub-title of the book, " The Evolution of Utopia," is misleading ; for Mr. Bloomfield is concerned to show, not how one ideal arose out of another, but in what way each is unsatisfactory from the point of view of an ordinary intelligent human being. This he does with some good sense, a little prejudice, and considerable literary grace, arriving finally at the conclusion that " personal clashes, jealousies," &c. . . . " will attend the life of the community until man ceases to be human," although it is possible to imagine a better state than the present. This somewhat unsensational conclusion, however, does not represent the book fairly. It has considerable charm.