Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell about the End of the World

As Dorian Lynskey writes, "People have been contemplating the end of the world for millennia." In this immersive, darkly playful and compelling look, at first, into how religions of the East and West have dealt with death and apocalypse, Lynskey moves on to his seven secular visions which are rich historical discussions. In these, he writes about the 19th century up to the present day of the doomsday tropes and predictions in the literature, art, music and film of each era. In his seven secular visions, Lynskey points up the events that inspired final day thoughts whether it is comets, pandemics, the Spanish Flu Epidemic, World War I and II, the bomb, the Cuban Missile Crisis or Y2K. His first secular vision chapter, set in the 19th century is a beautifully written look at the doomsday mania triggered by the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora that led to temporary climate change and to Byron's poem Darkness (1816) about the end of the world and Mary Shelley's Last Man (1926), a dystopian science fiction novel. This is a book that feels very of the moment but rather than being grim is so rich in wonderful unknown stories and facts that it is magically transporting. Lynskey lets us keep company with celebrated works of art, writers and films among them: H.G. Wells, Jack London, W.B. Yeats, J.G. Ballard, or such comics as Superman and, of course, The Twilight Zone or Dr. Strangelove.

Prescient and original, Everything Must Go is a brilliant work of history that provides many astute insights for our times.