Cover of The Plato Papers

The Plato Papers

From the imagination of one of the most brilliant writers of our time and bestselling author of The Life of Thomas More, a novel that playfully imagines how the "modern" era might appear to a thinker seventeen centuries hence.

Read more

At the turn of the 38th century, London's greatest orator, Plato, is known for his lectures on the long, tumultuous history of his now tranquil city. Plato focuses on the obscure and confusing era that began in A.D. 1500, the Age of Mouldwarp. His subjects include Sigmund Freud's comic masterpiece "Jokes and Their Relation to the Subconscious," and Charles D.'s greatest novel, "The Origin of Species." He explores the rituals of Mouldwarp, and the later cult of webs and nets that enslaved the population. By the end of his lecture series, however, Plato has been drawn closer to the subject of his fascination than he could ever have anticipated. At once funny and erudite, The Plato Papersis a smart and entertaining look at how the future is imagined, the present absorbed, and the past misrepresented.

Audience
adult
Length
short · 192 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked The Plato Papers? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The Plato Papers. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Difficulties with Girls Shares fiction
  2. The Field of the Cloth of Gold Shares fiction, historical fiction, literature
  3. The Philosopher's Apprentice Shares fiction, science fiction, philosophy
  4. The Stone Woman Shares fiction, historical fiction, literature

“People who read The Plato Papers tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Dreams Of Rivers And Seas
  2. Harbor
  3. Once more, with feeling
  4. Lillian's Story: One Womans Journey through the 20th Century

“If you want more of the same (historical fiction), start with these.”

  1. The Soul of Anna Klane
  2. Tunnel Visions: Journeys of an Underground Philosopher
  3. Dune and Philosophy: Weirding Way of the Mentat
  4. Time Must Have a Stop

“If it was the science fiction that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Medusa Frequency
  2. Shark
  3. The Baroque Cycle Collection
  4. The Missing Shade of Blue

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Understanding Movies: The Art and History of Film
  2. The Medieval World I: Kingdoms, Empires, and War
  3. Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-1978
  4. An Introduction to Greek Philosophy