Hartmann the Anarchist: A Book Review

"Hartmann the Anarchist; or the Doom of the Great City" was published in 1892 by then 16 year old Edward Douglas Fawcett and introduces a socialist named Stanley who is standing for election in Brittan's Labor party. Stanley has regular dealings with a journalist and "anarchical communist" agitator named Burnett. And while Burnett is more a theorist, he introduces him to an old anarchist named Schwarz who has put those theories into action and, with the titular Hartmann, attempted to assassinate the German Crown Prince by blowing up Westminster Bridge ten years previously. Both were believed to have been killed in the resulting chase by authorities but have now returned in secret, Hartmann with a devastating weapon with which he intends to destroy London and, in fact, all of civilization.

I don't know much about the state of socialism and anarchy at the turn of the 20th Century but this little adventure does stand as a reasonable introduction to the complexities of revolutionary thought. Stanley seems firmly set as a progressive thoroughly opposed to violence and outright revolution. At one point he says that he will "stand by any Government, Tory or Radical, in supporting the cause of order. . . should the revolutionary socialists or the anarchists initiate a crusade in the streets." And yet, when Burnett draws him into a secret, terroristic conspiracy that aims to do just that, he walks in willingly. He is merely one end of a spectrum and seems somewhat dazzled by the men of action at the other end.

And much like Verne's science pirates Robur and Nemo, Hartmann does not quite see the inevitable consequences of his actions and the failing of his philosophy, even when stated almost explicitly. One crewmember of the aeronef Attila remarks, "We are anarchists, and everything depends on private initiative. Every man is as good as another, and every man is a volunteer." Yet, when asked what authority then does Hartmann have, he responds without any sense of irony, "The authority of the soul of this enterprise, and its best man. We would voluntarily support him in a crisis. Five days ago a couple of Italians turned rusty. He shot both where they stood, and the men in their hearts approved of it."

All men are created equal but some are more equal than others.

Stanley realizes that the destroyer of tyrants is no less a tyrant himself and, treading on egshells, resolves to do what he can to talk him out of his apocalyptic course of action while avoiding antagonizing him so much as to be thrown overboard from a great height. He is unsuccessful, for as things develop, the crew of the airship become more and more devout and, once the bombing begins, become ensnared in the bloodlust of destruction.

And through the firestorm, the author is able to subtly show that it is all for naught. Even as half of London is ablaze from the bombs and sheets of flaming petroleum dropped from the airship, there are places in the city where people look out their unbroken windows windows in the suburbs at the devastation going on in the city. Clearly, civilization is not overturned.

The defeat of Hartmann at the end is a bit of a literary letdown. Stanley, who had been able to convince Hartmann to allow him to leave the Attila during the bombing, eventually discovers Hartmann's mother, fatally trampled by a mob incited by Hartmann's anarchic compatriots on the ground. Stanley is able to get the woman's death bed letter to Hartmann who, overcome with grief at being the indirect cause of his mother's death, self-destructs his mighty airship.

Really? I would not expect zealots of the caliber of Hartmann to crumble so easily. It stretches credibility. Were I an editor, I would have suggested a longer period of brutal realization on Hartmann's part as he see that the terrible death and destruction he had inflicted upon the London citizenry had only strengthened their unity and resolve to make order out of the chaos. Fawcett does put some of this into his prose but, without it being Hartmann realizing this failure, it's hard to see the death of his mother bringing him down.

E. Douglas Fawcett went on to write several more science fiction adventures. "The Secret of the Desert, or How We Crossed Arabia in the "Antelope", probably the first fictional account of an armored fighting vehicle in the modern sense, 20 years before the first tanks appeared in the Great War and a decade before Wells "land ironclads," and Swallowed By An Earthquake, where the characters find themselves in an underground world. After the turn of the century, his writings became more philosophical, his two major theosophist works, "The Zermatt Dialogues" and "The Oberland Dialogues" remain in print. He was a pioneer skier and accomplished mountaineer and after suffering a heart attack on his annual climb of the Matterhorn at age 66 he simply took up flying.

Reviewers do seem to give a lot of credit to Fawcett's little adventure novel but if you look past the simple plot (as you must sometimes do with Wells) and the overlong descriptions of the aeronef technology (as you must sometimes do with Verne) you see a keen insight into the philosophy and practicality of anarchism and portents of the First World War.