Lord of the World

Twice acclaimed by Pope Francis as the one novel everyone must read, this dystopian novel also was branded by the Pope: "prophetic." Before Huxley, before Orwell, and long before Fahrenheit 451, A Clockwork Orange, Blade Runner, and The Hunger Games, Robert Hugh Benson wrote a story of the coming of the Anti-Christ that today is considered one of the first modern dystopian novels. Lord of the World, published in 1907, presents a world controlled by Freemasonry, with only a small Catholic minority bravely opposing them. Benson's portrayal of the Freemasons as dominated by Marxism and Humanism made the novel a counterpoint to the socialist-themed dystopias written at the same time by H. G. Wells (The Sleeper Awakes) and Jack London (The Iron Heel). Introduced and edited by Luke Hartwell, author of Atom Heart John Beloved.