Speculative Modernists--British and American writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries--successfully grappled with the same forces that would drive their better-known literary counterparts to existential despair. Building on the ideas of the nineteenth-century Gothic and utopian movements, these speculative writers anticipated literary Modernism and blazed alternative literary trails in science, religion, ecology and sociology. Authors including H. G. Wells and H. P. Lovecraft have gained widespread recognition today for their science fiction and gothic horror stories. Budding from their inspiration, other speculative authors published fascinating tales individuals trapped in dystopias, anti-society attitudes, post-apocalyptic worlds and the rapidly expanding knowledge of humanity's little corner of this limitless universe. This book documents the Gothic and utopian roots of speculative fiction and explores how these authors played a crucial role in shaping the culture of the new century with their darker, more evolved themes.