News from Nowhere · Chapters

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Chapter companions for News from Nowhere by William Morris.

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Chapter 1
Discussion and Bed
The narrator attends a League meeting where a heated but good-tempered discussion about the future of a fully-developed new society takes place among six participants with divergent Anarchist views. After the meeting, he travels home discontentedly via the underground railway, muttering a wish to see the new world. Upon reaching the riverside near his home, the beauty of the winter night lifts his spirits, and he goes to bed with a vague hope for peace and goodwill. He wakes in a preternaturally sharp state, reflecting on his life's muddles, and later falls asleep again, only to awake into surprising adventures that he decides to narrate in the first person.
Chapter 2
II: A Morning Bath
The narrator awakens on a summer morning, disoriented to find the season changed from winter to early June. He goes for a swim in the Thames and is astonished by the transformation of the riverbanks: the industrial works are gone, replaced by beautiful houses and a graceful stone bridge. He meets a friendly waterman, Dick, who offers to guide him through this new world, and they are joined by Bob, who will take over Dick's work.
Chapter 3
The Guest House and the Breakfast Therein
The narrator lingers to admire the Guest House, built on the site of his old dwelling, and is struck by its beautiful architecture and frescoes. Inside, three young women greet him warmly and serve a simple but delicately prepared breakfast. During the meal, the narrator reads an inscription commemorating the former lecture-room of the Hammersmith Socialists, which deeply moves him. He introduces himself as 'Guest' and engages in conversation about Epping Forest, revealing his age and prompting astonishment from the weaver Robert. The chapter highlights the unanxious happiness, good temper, and timeless youthfulness of the people, as exemplified by a woman who looks twenty but is forty-two.
Chapter 4
IV: A Market by the Way
The narrator and Dick travel through Hammersmith, now transformed into a pastoral landscape with beautiful houses and gardens. They arrive at a splendid market square featuring a magnificent hall and an octagonal theatre. The narrator is struck by the beauty and joy of the people, particularly a dark-haired woman in green, and remarks on the absence of poor or rough people, which Dick finds puzzling. Dick suggests they visit his great-grandfather for better understanding.
Chapter 5
Children on the Road
The Guest and Dick travel through Kensington, observing the transformed Houses of Parliament used as a market and manure store, and then enter Kensington Wood. They encounter many children living in tents and playing freely. Dick explains that children learn practical skills like swimming, cooking, and thatching, and pick up languages naturally through immersion, while formal schooling as the Guest knew it no longer exists.

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Discussion and Bed

II: A Morning Bath

The Guest House and the Breakfast Therein

IV: A Market by the Way

Children on the Road