News from Nowhere
Morris wrote this after a Socialist League meeting sent him home dreaming, and the book keeps that dream’s logic. His narrator falls asleep and wakes in a future England where money, private property, prisons, and central government have all vanished. People live in a green, decentralized commonwealth, doing work they enjoy because it is craft rather than drudgery, and beauty has returned to ordinary life. Much of the story is a slow journey up the Thames, with long talks about how the great change came about. Written partly as a reply to the mechanized socialism of Edward Bellamy, it argues that a good society should feel like art, not a factory. Free to read here as a PDF and EPUB edition.
About the Author
William Morris (1834-1896) was an English poet, designer, and socialist whose wallpapers and textiles helped define the Arts and Crafts movement. Late in life he turned to prose romances set in imagined lands, and those books are now regarded as foundations of modern fantasy literature.
See all books by William Morris →
Listen to News from Nowhere Audiobook Free
Listen to News from Nowhere by William Morris free online. The full audiobook (7 hr 24 min, 31 chapters, read by Elizabeth Klett) streams free on this page.
News from Nowhere (1890) is a public domain work.
| # | Chapter | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chapter 1, Discussion and Bed | 6:14 | |
| 2 | Chapter 2, A Morning Bath | 16:53 | |
| 3 | Chapter 3, The Guest House and Breakfast Therein | 19:20 | |
| 4 | Chapter 4, A Market By the Way | 6:37 | |
| 5 | Chapter 5, Children on the Road | 14:04 | |
| 6 | Chapter 6, A Little Shopping | 14:55 | |
| 7 | Chapter 7, Trafalgar Square | 15:21 | |
| 8 | Chapter 8, An Old Friend | 7:32 | |
| 9 | Chapter 9, Concerning Love | 24:03 | |
| 10 | Chapter 10, Questions and Answers | 24:02 | |
| 11 | Chapter 11, Concerning Government | 8:40 | |
| 12 | Chapter 12, Concerning the Arrangement of Life | 11:23 | |
| 13 | Chapter 13, Concerning Politics and Chapter 14, How Matters Are Arranged | 12:00 | |
| 14 | Chapter 15, On the Lack of Incentive to Labour in a Communist Society | 18:03 | |
| 15 | Chapter 16, Dinner in the Hall of Bloomsbury Market | 8:36 | |
| 16 | Chapter 17, Part 1, How the Change Came | 31:11 | |
| 17 | Chapter 17, Part 2, How the Change Came | 27:38 | |
| 18 | Chapter 18, The Beginning of the New Life | 11:08 | |
| 19 | Chapter 19, The Drive Back to Hammersmith | 11:00 | |
| 20 | Chapter 20, The Hammersmith Guest House Again, and Chapter 21, Going Up the River | 9:13 | |
| 21 | Chapter 22, Hampton Court and a Praiser of Past Times | 20:46 | |
| 22 | Chapter 23, An Early Morning By Runnymede | 11:57 | |
| 23 | Chapter 24, Up the Thames: The Second Day | 18:31 | |
| 24 | Chapter 25, The Third Day on the Thames | 8:59 | |
| 25 | Chapter 26, The Obstinate Refusers | 9:08 | |
| 26 | Chapter 27, The Upper Waters | 22:33 | |
| 27 | Chapter 28, The Little River | 8:22 | |
| 28 | Chapter 29, A Resting-Place on the Upper Thames | 10:06 | |
| 29 | Chapter 30, The Journey's End | 12:04 | |
| 30 | Chapter 31, An Old House Amongst New Folk | 10:50 | |
| 31 | Chapter 32, The Feast's Beginning - The End | 13:15 |
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