Following the Second World War, the Fleuve Noir publishing house published popular American genre fiction in translation for a French audience. Anticipation was an imprint of Fleuve Noir, specializing in science fiction. This critical text examines in ideological terms eleven writers who published under the Anticipation imprint. Anticipation eschewed English-translation science fiction, preferring instead French work and thus making the imprint an important outlet for native French post-war ideas and aesthetics. Careful analysis reveals the way these writers criticized mid-century notions of progress while adapting and reworking American genre formats.