Long before nuclear war, climate catastrophe, and zombie outbreaks became staples of modern fiction, visionary writers were imagining the end of civilization in startlingly original ways. Apocalypse Then brings together six pioneering classics of apocalyptic and cosmic horror literature, exploring humanity’s fragility in the face of plague, technology, alien forces, and the indifferent universe itself.

In E.M. Forster’s prophetic The Machine Stops, humanity lives underground, utterly dependent on a vast technological system—until it begins to fail. Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague follows one of the last survivors of a devastating pandemic as he recounts the collapse of modern society. Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Poison Belt imagines Earth drifting through a deadly cosmic phenomenon that threatens all life.

M.P. Shiel’s haunting The Purple Cloud presents a lone survivor wandering a silent, empty world after a mysterious global extinction event. H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror unleashes ancient cosmic terrors whose arrival could spell humanity’s doom. Finally, Mary Shelley’s groundbreaking The Last Man—often considered the first modern post-apocalyptic novel—chronicles the slow extinction of the human race through a relentless plague.

Together, these remarkable works trace the origins of apocalypse fiction, revealing how earlier generations grappled with fears that remain strikingly relevant today. From scientific speculation and social collapse to cosmic dread and existential loneliness, Apocalypse Then offers a fascinating journey through some of the most influential visions of humanity’s end ever written.

Contains:

The Machine Stops — E.M. Forster

The Scarlet Plague — Jack London

The Poison Belt — Arthur Conan Doyle

The Purple Cloud — M.P. Shiel

The Dunwich Horror — H.P. Lovecraft

The Last Man — Mary Shelley

A collection of classic tales that helped define the end of the world.