Swastika night

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Katharine Burdekin: Swastika night (1985, Lawrence and Wishart)

196 pages

English language

Published 1985 by Lawrence and Wishart.

ISBN:
978-0-85315-640-6
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3 stars (1 review)

Published in 1937, twelve years before Orwell's 1984, Swastika Night projects a totally male-controlled fascist world that has eliminated women as we know them. Women are breeders, kept as cattle, while men in this post-Hitlerian world are embittered automatons, fearful of all feelings, having abolished all history, education, creativity, books, and art. The plot centers on a “misfit” who asks, “How could this have happened?”

4 editions

Review of 'Swastika Night (S.F. MASTERWORKS)' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Eh. Too many good Nazis.

There ar other reasons this is not a classic.
I think it is always giving exactly the wrong amount of details. For example, in the main part the Nazi knight goes on and on about music. Really? Music? That is what is important?. I mean, that bit also shows that Nazi writer is an unreliable narrator. What, with there not having been any English composers. Even if yu don’t count Handel, there was, say, Purcell. Or a really minor one at the end: »The lorry would not start, and on investigation was found to have a broken connection in the feed pipe. It was tiresome and difficult to manage a makeshift in the dark by the light of torches, so the corporal ordered the party to march home.«. Who cares‽ A group of Nazis marching by. Done. If the details arn’t important, than don’t give …