Since finishing this book, I haven’t stopped thinking about it. Originally published in 1939, it tells of a future without the influence.of technology, such as current dystopian literature includes. Scientists have concluded the moon has left its path and on May 3 will crash into the Earth. The stage is set by a fictional foreword that announces this manuscript, hidden for hundreds of years, was recently discovered in a thermos flask and was hoped it would reveal the history of England after the collapse of Western Civilization. The manuscript is then discounted by the writer because Edgar Hopkins, it’s author “was a man of such unquenchable self-esteem and limited vision that his narrative becomes almost valueless to the scientist and historian.” That is the opinion of The Imperial Research Press of Addis Ababa.
This reader had a very different opinion, and I’m sure it was the intent of R.C. Sheriff that I would reach the conclusion I did.
This in fact is the most honest account of an individual revealing his true self that I have ever read. The weaknesses and fears Edgar Hopkins shares are those hidden beneath the stories we all tell ourselves if we were honest.
As a psychological study, it is unbeatable. Add to that the story of an isolated English village and its plucky inhabitants and you will attract lovers of the British novel. Then tell a fascinating account of the world preparing for its demise and the weather and geographic factors that follow the moon’s trajectory and you will hook all the Doomsday crowd.
What I don’t understand is why this novel never got the audience it deserved. I hope the reissuing of the piece of speculative fiction will lead to new interest for the book and its author.

First published in Great Britain in 1939; published by Scribner on January 17, 2023

Apart from its outdated science and technology, The Hopkins Manuscript is a book that could have been written this year. Set in the mid-1940s, this post-apocalyptic novel is based on the kind of European nationalism that was festering when it was first published in 1939. The novel even imagines a nationalistic British prime minister who might be mistaken for Boris Johnson. But the novel is not overtly political. At least initially, the apocalypse has a natural rather than a human cause.

The story purports to be a manuscript found in the ruins of Notting Hill. The Royal Society of Abyssinia has been investigating the dead societies of Western Europe. Historians found the manuscript to be of little value, although it does supply the only firsthand account of a Western European who survived the Cataclysm that occurred 700 years earlier.

The Hopkins Manuscript is as much pre-apocalyptic as post-apocalyptic. This is the story of an ordinary man who, despite being flawed by conceit and an inflated sense of self-importance, tells a gradually darkening story about muddling his way through catastrophic times.

Edgar Hopkins is a 53-year-old bachelor and a retired schoolmaster in a small English village. He has given up grammar school arithmetic and now devotes his days to hobbies: raising and showing chickens, gardening, and studying the moon. Hopkins is a prideful man who, thanks to his prize bantam’s accumulation of blue ribbons, regards himself as a minor celebrity. He easily feels slighted. Hopkins is quick to judge people he regards as self-impressed, often believing them to be jealous of his own accomplishments. Like many people, Hopkins wants to be the star of his own story and resents anyone who receives attention that he believes to be his due.

Hopkins attends quarterly meetings of the British Lunar Society in London. Scientists and philosophers deliver lectures about the moon to its members. At one eventful meeting, Hopkins learns that the moon is moving closer to the Earth. The members are sworn to secrecy, as the government does not want the public to panic. Hopkins is unbearably proud that he is among the chosen few who are entrusted with the secret but can barely refrain from boasting of his own importance.

To keep people well-mannered as the apocalypse approaches, the government convinces newspaper editors to report the possibility that the moon will only strike a “glancing blow,” perhaps causing a survivable atmospheric disturbance that will merely cause hurricanes and floods. The government orders the construction of dugouts in each city and village to maximize the chance of survival in the event that the moon does not obliterate the Earth when the bodies collide. It supplies watertight steel doors and oxygen cylinders so that village residents can sit out the apocalypse in comfort before cleaning up the mess. The villagers are happy to have a project to distract them from the end of the world and are even happier to believe that the apocalypse is nothing to worry about.

The reader knows from the start that Hopkins will survive. More than half the manuscript is devoted to events that lead to the cataclysmic event. The wry humor with which Hopkins describes his life is a welcome change from typical apocalyptic fiction. The zombie apocalypse novels that were popular as the end of the twentieth century neared were often amusing (not always intentionally), but the eco-catastrophe novels that have dominated the current century and the “war of annihilation” novels that followed the Second World War were not meant to tickle the funny bone. R.C. Sherriff imagines an unlikely apocalypse that does not depend on war or pandemic or global warming or even a zombie attack. I wish apocalyptic writers of today were as creative, even if modern readers might think it unlikely that the Earth would survive the apocalyptic event (or that the event could happen in the way the novel describes).

The last third of The Hopkins Manuscript reveals its broad lesson. Devastating events can pull us together. Eventually, however, the worst aspects of human nature will pull us apart again. Greed, tribalism, and appeals to fear are so much easier to sustain than compassion and cooperation. R.W. Sherriff certainly had the rise of Nazi Germany in mind as he wrote the story.

Hopkins takes note of political conflicts that weaken western European nations and make it vulnerable to attack from the East, but he sticks to his goal of telling “the story of these days as I saw them with my own eyes.” The days become increasingly depressing, turning an amusing story into a sad one.

Hopkins is true to himself through the entire novel. He’s lonely, apart from the post-apocalyptic attachment he forms with a young man and his sister for a couple of years after the catastrophe. He’s content with his loneliness because he prefers breeding chickens to the company of those who do not appreciate his courage, fortitude, and wisdom. Although those attributes might actually be in short supply, he is appealing because of his ordinariness. He lacks insight into his faults (as do most people), but he is a decent human and the perfect observer to record an eyewitness account of the end of western civilization, albeit from a narrow perspective.

Fans of post-apocalyptic fiction might want to seek out The Hopkins Manuscript as an early example of the genre. It isn’t as emotionally affecting as the best post-apocalyptic novels of the 1950s, but like those novels, it works because of its focus on the life of one person rather than the death (and possible rebirth) of the planet as a whole.

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What an odd read. I think I would have like this more if told from the perspective of another character (I didn't connect well with our main character), but the moons collision seemed incredibly anticlimactic.

"A stunning speculative novel about a small English village preparing of the end of the world.

Edgar Hopkins is a retired math teacher with a strong sense of self-importance, whose greatest pride is winning poultry-breeding contests. When not meticulously caring for his Bantam, Edgar is an active member of the British Lunar Society. Thanks to that affiliation, Edgar becomes one of the first people to learn that the moon is on a collision course with the earth.

Members of the society are sworn to secrecy, but eventually the moon begins to loom so large in the sky that the truth can no longer be denied. During these final days, Edgar writes what he calls "The Hopkins Manuscript" - a testimony juxtaposing the ordinary and extraordinary as the villagers dig trenches and play cricket before the end of days.

First published in 1939, as the world was teetering on the brink of global war, R.C. Sherriff's classic science fiction novel is a timely and powerful missive from the past that captures human nature in all its complexity."

So eerily timely and timeless!

What an intriguing read-largely because it was published in 1939. Sheriff has created a world in which Edgar Hopkins, a somewhat repellant man, is convinced the moon is going to hit earth . And then it does. HIs small world expands beyond his chickens to people. There's much that can be draw from this well written novel but frankly I'm most curious as to how it was seen by regular readers at the time of its publication (sadly, there was no goodreads then). Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Happy to see this reissued.

We know from the Foreward, written in the distant future, that something very bad has happened to destroy Europe and western civilization. A recently discovered manuscript, written by Edgar Hopkins, retired professor and chicken breeder, tells the horrible story. The moon has drifted from its orbit and will collide with earth in six months. For the first three months Hopkins, a member of the British Lunar Society, must keep this terrible secret. Then the rapidly increasing size of the moon makes what is to happen very real. Governments ask citizens to dig shelters, store food and water and prepare for the worst. Everyone in Hopkins’ small English village works together to get ready. However, the moon is not the worst threat they face.

1984 meets The War of the Worlds in The Hopkins Manuscript, originally published in 1939. R.C. Sherriff was a gifted writer and screenwriter and his talent pulls the reader in to a story that at first you think cannot be true. Surely, there would be many deadly effects from the moon’s movement before any collision could take place. What R.C. Sherriff gets right will make you uncomfortable. He describes human nature so well that you see the parallels to today. Strong characterization, a compelling plot and descriptions of English country life make this a book you won’t want to put down. 5 stars in 1939, 5 more now.

Thank you to NetGalley, Scribner and R.C. Sherriff for this ARC.

What a strange, and strangely infectious novel this is. Redolent of distant times and attitudes, it evokes war and human nature in tones of tragedy and comedy. The narrator, Hopkins himself, is a snob, a self-regarding introvert whose amour proper blazes from most pages. Yet, he’s a stout-hearted Brit who glories in his country and it’s good people. Sherriff conjures up disaster in credible fashion and the book casts an all-consuming mood. Haunting.

This is classic sci-fi, and I enjoyed it. Since it's about 80 years old, this title has lots of helpful reviews, so I'll just recommend it.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

...this really was not my cup of tea. It was an interesting premise and the writing was incredible.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.