The Dawn of All

The Dawn of All, the second of Robert Hugh Benson's two science fiction satires, is a "counterblast" to the terrifying Lord of the World. Contradiction the idea that this novel presents a blueprint for an ideal society, "Benson wrote often and emphatically that he did not for a moment expect the pictured solution to realize itself, and that he even hoped it would not. Neither Science, nor the State, nor Religion would ever, he was convinced, find themselves in such mutual relations as he had invented." (C. C. Martindale, S.J.) Robert Hugh Benson (1871-1914) enjoyed a career that lasted little over a decade. In addition to a great many non-fiction works, he authored a series of twenty novels and short story collections that combined a specific moral orientation with an astonishing popularity among the general public of the early twentieth century. As an Anglican and later a Catholic priest, Father Benson was in great demand as a speaker in both England and the United States. The most sensational English convert from the Anglican Communion to Catholicism since John Henry Newman, Benson was a son of the Archbishop of Canterbury. He wrote from a Catholic perspective, but with real understanding and sympathy for the Protestant position.