Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles

Steven McLean (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1950

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Science Fiction
Story Collection

Resources

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The Martian Chronicles

is a collection of interlinked short stories published in 1950. The

Chronicles

, which made Bradbury famous, and are set between 1999 and 2026, focus on human attempts to colonise the planet Mars, a project which results in the near extinction of both Earth and Mars. In contrast to earlier Mars stories like H. G. Wells’s

The War of the Worlds

(1898),

The Martian Chronicles

does not portray Martians as malignant aggressors. Instead, the human “invasion” of Mars – which is analogous to the European colonialization of America – has a devastating impact on the Martian natives. Some stories were published individually prior to their inclusion in

The Martian Chronicles

. A 1997 edition of the work advances all the original dates by 31 years, and excises “Way Up…

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2358 words

Citation: McLean, Steven. "The Martian Chronicles". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 January 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=215, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles

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