Underground Man by Gabriel De Tarde Paperback Book 9789357279581

An influential French sociologist and criminologist Gabriel de Tarde The novel Underground Man which was released in 1905 was created to illustrate de Tardes belief that a person is a product of his or her social surroundings In the novel the suns extinction drives humanity below and as the migrants tunnel everdeeper views drastically shift There are three parts to the book In the first de Tarde cynically describes how man struggles to create a utopia in the second the sun becomes red the water turns to ice and airborne nitrogen and oxygen flakes start to fall The survivors begin creating massive crypts after becoming convinced that heat and electricity may be extracted from the earths core They establish a friendly artistic society here beneath the ground complete with incredible laborsaving devices that allow them to concentrate on producing works of art The conclusion of de Tardes story is that man may transcend his own fundamental character under the right circumstances