Vingtième siècle

In 1883, Albert Robida dared to imagine the year 2000, and terrified us with how right he'd be. This scintillating satirical novel follows Hélène Colobry, a young woman just out of the lycee with practically nothing learned, as she searches for her place in a world that hasn't yet decided what to do with educated women. Her guardian, the wealthy banker Raphaël Ponto, guides her through absurd attempts at law (where female lawyers defend criminals by making juries weep), politics, and finally journalism. Through Hélène's misadventures, Robida dismantles democracy, mocks the rising cult of celebrity, and predicts with eerie precision the telephone, television, synchronized global spectacles, mass tourism, and the propaganda machinery of media. The prose crackles with witty absurdity, but beneath the comedy lies genuine foresight about technology, capitalism, and women's emancipation. The original illustrations are revelatory, visionary drawings that anticipate the modern world with unsettling accuracy. This is science fiction as social prophecy dressed in vaudeville costumes: frightening, funny, and strangely inevitable.