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J. G. Ballard: The Drowned World (1962)

By Jeannette Baxter (University of East Anglia)

Indexing Data:

  • Domain: Literature.
  • Genre: Novel.
  • Country: England, Britain, Europe.

Life, Works and Times

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Published in 1962, The Drowned World established Ballard’s reputation as a formidable talent amongst science fiction writers. More popular and commercially successful than his first novel (The Wind From Nowhere, 1962), The Drowned World was also critically acclaimed for its evocative prose style and ferocious imagination. Forty years later, the reach of Ballard’s mesmerising poetics has earned the novel a place in science fiction’s hall of fame. In 2001 The Drowned World was remarketed as part of Gollancz’s SF Masterworks series – a ‘library of the greatest SF ever written, chosen with the help of today’s leading SF writers and editors.’

Set in 2145, The Drowned World is a haunting vision of

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Published 01 October 2004

Citation: Baxter, Jeannette. "The Drowned World ". The Literary Encyclopedia. 1 October 2004.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1018, accessed 20 November 2009.]