Release date is 2026-05-15

Tim Lindell, chenzw, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)

The coming of the Amazons by Owen Johnson is a satirical speculative novel written in the early 20th century. It imagines a time‑traveling gentleman thrust into a future matriarchy where science, social engineering, and female power have reordered civilization. Guided—and desired—by a formidable scientist named Acquilla, he discovers a depopulated, tightly regulated world that treats men as ornamental dependents, setting up a sharp comedy of manners and ideas. Expect brisk technological marvels, gender‑war polemics, and a triangle that pits the cool strategist Acquilla against the magnetic diva Dianne, all filtered through the narrator’s wry, old‑world charm.

The opening of the novel follows John Bogardus, a 1929 clubman who, after a speculative lunch with biologist Dr. Sachaloff, submits to an experiment in induced catalepsy and refrigeration—and awakens in 2181. Revived by towering, blonde “Amazons” on an aerodrome three miles above a rebuilt Manhattan, he is claimed by Acquilla, who ushers him through a world of silent aircraft, weather control, machinot servants, immersive home theatres, and thermostatic baths. Over dinner and demonstrations, she explains that male civilization destroyed itself in colossal wars, after which a matriarchal order depopulated and reorganized the planet, disenfranchising men and regulating birth. Bogardus is shocked to find laughter absent, cuisine perfected, and theatres replaced by lifelike transmissions; he falls for the soprano Dianne after witnessing Tristan at home, then meets her via telepresence, where she discreetly warns that his very presence threatens the regime and could see him re‑frozen. Meanwhile the æsthete‑physician Gallia assesses him for longevity treatments, and even the housekeeper Mag shows a jealous spark, as Bogardus, equal parts dazzled and wary, begins to survey the records of the lost 20th‑century city. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1931