Caesar's Column

Study Guide
Fall 2004

Caesar's Column was published in 1890 by Ignatius Donnelly. It is a work of fiction and as the introduction points out, it is a pioneering work of the genre of science fiction. The author was a failed politician who went from the Democratic Party to the Republican and ultimately to the Populist Party. His novel is a reflection of his politics and the social conditions of the 1880s and 1890s. Unlike Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, which presents an optimistic view of a future utopian society, Donnelly's New York in 1888 is a place of deep social injustice and social divisions that collapses into revolutionary chaos. Caesar's Column is a didactic novel — that is, it is trying to teach its readers about social problems and possible solutions of those problems.

Use detailed examples from the introduction and the novel to answer these questions:

1) What is the basic plot of Caesar's Column and who are the main characters?

2) Donnelly's novel purports to describe the condition of the world in 1888. Obviously he got it wrong. What major aspects of modern technology are missing from Caesar's Column? How does their absence effect the plot?

3) In ch. 11, "How the World Came to be Ruined" allows Donnelly to describe those aspect of his age that he thought endangered democracy and social equality in American society. What were the things that undermined American society?

4) In ch. 12, "Gabriel's Utopia", the main character describes what he considered to be a good and just society. What does he see as the traits of a good and just society?

5) In ch. 21, "A Sermon of the Twentieth Century", Donnelly describes how Christianity has become corrupted under the materialistic views of the plutocracy. Describe the ways Christianity became corrupted.

6) In ch. 40, "The Garden in the Mountains", Donnelly describes how the colonists of Uganda establish a just and equitable society. How do they set up their government and laws to avoid the corruption that lead to the destruction of civilization?

7) How does Donnelly use and criticize the ideas of Social Darwinism in Caesar's Column?

8) How does Caesar's Column reflect antisemiticism and the Victorian era's double standard for the sexes?

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