The Inheritors: An Extravagant Story (1901) is a quasi-science fiction novel
on which Ford Madox Ford and Joseph Conrad collaborated. It looks at society's
mental evolution and what is gained and lost in the process. Written before the
first World War, its themes of corruption and the effect of the 20th Century on
British aristocracy appeared to predict history. It was first published in
London by William Heinemann and later the same year in New York by McClure,
Phillips & Co.
In the novel, the metaphor of the "fourth dimension" is used to explain a
societal shift from a generation of people who have traditional values of
interdependence, being overtaken by a modern generation who believe in
expediency, callously using political power to bring down the old order. Its
narrator is an aspiring writer who himself makes a similar transition at a
personal level only to feel he has lost everything.
Start Page
All books by Ford Madox Ford
