The Forgotten Enemy

The Forgotten Enemy

"The Forgotten Enemy" is a short story written by Arthur C. Clarke and published in 1949. This story details the life of a survivor of global cooling living in London, which due to climate change has turned into a lifeless frozen city.

The short story details some events twenty years after London (and the whole of Britain) was evacuated due to climate change causing the climate of Britain to change from temperate to Arctic-like. The cause of this catastrophic climate change is called "The Dust" - an astronomic cloud the Sun System is moving through, that blocks out much of the Sun rays.

The main character of the short story is one of the last remaining humans in Britain, Professor Millward, who lives in an unnamed university in London, guarding what he sees as mankind's greatest treasures: books. It is not specified whether he is a genuine Professor or if he merely took the moniker because he lived in the university.

At the beginning of the story, the Professor is woken in the night by a loud noise, described as "thunder". He begins to wonder whether Man is returning to Britain, and if the noise is technology at work removing ice and snow from Britain to make it habitable. The next morning he sets out to an electronics store, where in the past he used to patiently scan the radio frequencies for signs of human life. He does this, and detects no transmissions. On his way back to the University, he is chased by a polar bear and seeks shelter in an Underground station. He makes it back to the university shaken but unharmed. Over the next few months, he watches the wildlife, such as wolves and deer from the university roof and concludes that they are moving south, away from the approaching Men. He dreams of rescue by the men, and hears more thunder-like noises which seem to be getting closer. He attributes them to "Atomic bombs, burning and blasting away the snow". Eventually he climbs up to the roof and sees with the aid of binoculars that the cause of the noises was a glacier, moving relentlessly towards London.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero — Directed by Shyam Benegal Produced by Raj Pius Barbara von Wrangell …   Wikipedia

  • The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke — infobox Book | name = The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke title orig = translator = image caption = Dust jacket from the 1st edition author = Arthur C. Clarke illustrator = cover artist = Blacksheep country = United Kingdom language =… …   Wikipedia

  • Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone — Developer(s) Stormfront Studios Zono Inc. Publisher(s) At …   Wikipedia

  • The Complete Psionics Handbook —   Author(s) Steve Winter …   Wikipedia

  • The Nightmare Room — Genre Anthology Children s Horror Fantasy Adventure Science Fiction Narrated by R …   Wikipedia

  • The Cleric Quintet — is a series of five novels set in the Forgotten Realms universe around the Snowflake Mountains. They are written by R. A. Salvatore and follow the story of Cadderly Bonaduce, a scholar cleric, as he attempts to stop the Chaos Curse unleashed upon …   Wikipedia

  • The Legend of the Condor Heroes — The Legend of Condor Heroes (zh tsp|t=射鵰英雄傳|s=射雕英雄传|p=shè diāo yīng xióng zhuàn) is one of the most acclaimed wuxia novels by Jinyong, first published in 1957 in Hong Kong Commercial Daily . This is the first novel of the Condor Trilogy . The… …   Wikipedia

  • The Midnight Express (professional wrestling) — The Midnight Express Statistics Members Dennis Condrey Randy Rose Norvell Austin Bobby Eaton Stan Lane Bombastic Bob Bodacious Bart Rikki Nelson Name(s) The Midnight Express …   Wikipedia

  • The Star (Amman newspaper) — The Star is an English language newspaper published in Amman, Jordan every Thursday. The daily Jordan Times and it are the only two English newspapers in the Kingdom, and have been so for a long time despite short lived attempts to create other… …   Wikipedia

  • The Culpepper Cattle Co. — The Culpepper Cattle Co. Promotional poster for The Culpepper Cattle Co. Directed by Dick Richards …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”