High-Rise (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: J. G. Ballard
- First Published: 1975
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Science fiction—dystopia
- Time of Work: The late twentieth century
- Setting: A high-rise apartment building in London
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction, Dystopian fiction
- Subjects: Twentieth century, Class consciousness, Violence, London, Apartment houses, Buildings, Elevators
- Locales: London, England
The Plot
High-Rise begins as the last of the one thousand apartment units in a new forty-story high-rise building is filled. Parties are held every night in the fully occupied building. The first of many violent images in the book is a wine bottle falling from an upper balcony to a lower one, then shattering. Soon the building splits into three groups: the lower class, occupying the bottom ten floors, the middle class, on floors eleven through thirty-five, and the upper class, on the top five floors. The best unit of the top floor is reserved for Anthony Royal, the...
[The entire page is 878 words long]
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