September 25, 2025 • 13 mins
Dive into Omega The Last Days of the World, a captivating science fiction novel written by Camille Flammarion in 1894. Set in the 25th century, this thought-provoking tale explores the impending threat of a carbonic-oxide comet on a collision course with Earth. Through its narrative, the novel delves into the philosophical and political ramifications of humanity facing its potential end. (Summary by Wikipedia)
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section fourteen of Omega The Last Days of the World.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or two volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Omega The Last Days of the
(00:22):
World by Camille Flammarion, Part two, Chapter five. In the
Ruins of the Other Equatorial City, occupying a once submerged
valley south of the island of Ceylon, was a young
girl whose mother and older sister had perished of consumption
(00:42):
and cold, and who was now left alone, the last
surviving member of the last family of the race. A
few trees of northern species had been preserved under the
spacious dome of glass, and beneath the scanti foliage. Holding
the cold hands of her mother, who had died the
(01:02):
night before, the young girl sat alone, doomed to death,
in the very flower of her rage. The night was cold.
In the sky above, the full moon shone like a
golden torch, but its yellow rays were as cold as
the silver beams of the ancient Celini. In the vast
(01:23):
room reigned the stillness and solitude of death, broken only
by the young girl's breathing, which seemed to animate the
silence with the semblance of life. She was not weeping.
Her sixteen years contained more experience and knowledge than sixty
years of the world's prime. She knew that she was
(01:46):
the sole survivor of the last group of human beings,
and that every happiness, every joy, and every hope had vanished. Forever.
There was no present, no future, only solitude and silence,
the physical and moral impossibility of life, and soon eternal sleep.
(02:08):
She thought of the women of bygone days, of those
who would live the real life of humanity, of lovers,
wives and mothers. But to her red and tearless eyes
appeared only images of death, while beyond the walls of
glass stretched a barren desert, covered by the last ice
and the last snow. Now her young heart beat violently
(02:31):
in her breast till her slender hands could no longer
compress its tumult. And now life seemed arrested in her bosom,
and every respiration suspended. If for a moment she fell asleep.
In her dreams, she played again with her laughing and
carefree sister, while her mother sung in a pure and
(02:53):
penetrating voice, the beautiful inspirations of the last poets, and
she seemed to see once more the last fates of
a brilliant society, as if reflected from the surface of
some distant mirror. Then, on awakening, these magic memories faded
into the somber reality. Alone, alone in the world, and
(03:17):
to morrow death. Without having known life to struggle against
this unavoidable fate was useless. The decree of destiny was
without appeal, and there was nothing to do but to
submit to await the inevitable end, since without food or air,
organic life was impossible or else to anticipate death and
(03:39):
deliver oneself at once from a joyless existence and a
certain doom. She passed into the bathroom, where the warm
water was still flowing, although the appliances which Art had
designed to supply the wants of life were no longer
in working order, for the last remaining servants, descendants of
(04:00):
ancient Simian species, modified as the human race had been
by the changing conditions of life, had also succumbed to
the insufficiency of water. She plunged into the perfumed bath,
turned the key which regulated the supply of electricity derived
from subterranean water courses still unfrozen, and for a moment
(04:23):
seemed to forget the decree of destiny in the enjoyment
of this refreshing rest. Had any indiscreet spectator beheld her
as standing upon the bare skin before the large mirror
she began to arrange the tresses of her long auburn hair,
he would have detected a smile upon her lips, showing
that for an instant she was oblivious of her dark future.
(04:47):
Passing into another room, she approached the apparatus which furnished
the food of that time, extracted from the water, air,
and the plants and fruits automatically cultivated in the greenhouses.
It was still in working order, like a clock which
has been wound up for thousands of years. The genius
of man had been almost exclusively applied to the struggle
(05:11):
with destiny. The last remaining water had been forced to
circulate in subterranean canals, where also the solar heat had
been stored. The last animals had been trained to serve
these machines, and the nutritious properties of the last plants
had been utilized to the Utmost men had finally succeeded
(05:33):
in living upon almost nothing, so far as quantity was concerned.
Every newly discovered form of food, being completely assimilable. Cities
have finally been built of glass open to the sun,
to which was conveyed every substance necessary to the synthesis
of the food, which replaced the products of nature. But
(05:56):
as time passed it came more and more difficult to
obtain the necessaries of life. The mind was at last exhausted.
Matter had been conquered by intelligence, But the day had
come when intelligence itself was overmatched, when every worker had
died at his post, and the Earth's storehouse had been depleted.
(06:19):
Unwilling to abandon this desperate struggle, man had put forth
every effort, but he could not prevent the Earth's absorption
of water and the last resources of a science which
seemed greater even the nature itself had been exhausted. Eva
returned to the body of her mother and once more
took the cold hands in her own. The psychic faculties
(06:43):
of the race in these its latter days, had acquired,
as we have said, transcendent powers, and she thought for
a moment to summon her mother from the tomb. It
seemed to her as if she must have one more
approving glance, one more come. So a single idea took
possession of her, so fascinating her that she even lost
(07:06):
the desire to die. She saw afar the soul which
should respond to her own. Every man belonging to that
company of which she was the last survivor, had died
before her birth. Women had outlived the sex once called strong.
In the pictures upon the walls of the Great Library,
(07:27):
in books, engravings, and statues she saw represented the great
men of the city, But she had never seen a
living man, and still dreaming, strange and disquieting forms passed
before her. She was transported into an unknown and mysterious world,
into a new life, and love did not seem to
(07:47):
be yet wholly banished from the earth. During the reign
of cold, all electrical communications between the two last cities
left upon the earth had been interrupted. Their inhabitants could
speak no more with each other, see each other no more,
nor feel each other's presence. Yet she was as well
(08:08):
acquainted with the ocean city as if she had seen it.
And when she fixed her eyes upon the great terrestrial
globe suspended from the ceiling of the library, and then
closing them, concentrating all her will and psychic power upon
the object of her thoughts. She acted at a distance
as effectively, though in a different way, as in former
(08:32):
days men had done when communicating with each other by electricity.
She called and felt that another heard and understood. The
preceding night, she had transported herself to the ancient city
in which Omigar lived, and had appeared to him for
an instant in a dream. That very morning she had
(08:53):
witnessed his despairing act, and by a supreme effort of
the will, had arrested his arm. And how stretched in
her chair beside the dead body of her mother, heavy
with sleep, her solitary soul wandered in dreams above the
ocean city, seeking the companionship of the only mate left
(09:14):
upon the Earth. And far away in that ocean city,
Omagar heard her call. Slowly, as in a dream, he
ascended the platform from which the airships used to take
their flight. Yielding to a mysterious influence, he obeyed the
distant summons, Speeding toward the west. The electric airship passed
(09:36):
above the frozen regions of the tropics, once the sight
of the Pacific Ocean, Polynesia, Malaysia, and the Sunda Islands,
and stopped at the landing of the Crystal Palace. The
young girl, startled from a dream by the traveler, who
fell from the air at her feet. Fled in terror
(09:56):
to the farther end of the immense hall, lifting the
heavy curve of skin which separated it from the library.
When the young man reached her side, he stopped, knelt
and took her hand in his, saying, simply, you called me,
I have come, And then he added, I have known
you for a long time. I knew that you existed.
(10:19):
I have often seen you. You are the constant thought
of my heart. But I did not dare to come.
She bade him rise, saying, my friend, I know that
we are alone in the world, and that we are
about to die. A will stronger than my own compelled
me to call you. It seemed as if it were
the supreme desire of my mother, supreme even in death.
(10:43):
See she sleeps thus since yesterday, how long the night is.
The young man, kneeling, had taken the hand of the dead,
and they both stood there beside the funeral couch, as
if in prayer. He leaned gently toward the young girl,
and their heads touched. He let fall the hand of
(11:04):
the dead. Eva shuddered. No, she said. Then suddenly he
sprang to his feet in terror. The dead woman had revived.
She had withdrawn the hand which he had taken in
his own, and had opened her eyes. She made a
movement looking at them. I wake from a strange dream,
(11:25):
she said, without seeming surprised at the presence of Omegar. Behold,
my children, my dream, and she pointed to the planet Jupiter,
shining with dazzling splendor in the sky. And as they
gazed upon the star, to their astonished vision, it appeared
to approach them, to grow larger, to take the place
(11:49):
of the frozen scene about them. Its immense seas were
covered with ships. Aerial fleets cleaved the air. The shores
of its seas, and the miles of its great rivers
were the scenes of a prodigious activity. Brilliant cities appeared,
peopled by moving multitudes. Neither the details of their habitations
(12:12):
nor the forms of these new beings could be distinguished,
but one divined that there was a humanity quite different
from ours, living in the bosom of another nature, having
other senses at its disposal. And one felt also that
this vast world was incomparably superior to the earth. Behold
(12:36):
where we shall be to morrow, said the dying woman.
We shall find there all the human race, perfected and transformed.
Jupiter has received the inheritance of the Earth. Our world
has accomplished its mission, and life is over here below. Farewell.
(12:57):
She stretched out her arms to them. They bent over
her pale face and pressed a long kiss upon her forehead.
But they perceived that this forehead was cold as marble.
In spite of this strange awakening, the dead woman had
closed her eyes, to open them no more. End of
(13:20):
Chapter five.
Section fourteen of Omega The Last Days of the World.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or two volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Omega The Last Days of the
(00:22):
World by Camille Flammarion, Part two, Chapter five. In the
Ruins of the Other Equatorial City, occupying a once submerged
valley south of the island of Ceylon, was a young
girl whose mother and older sister had perished of consumption
(00:42):
and cold, and who was now left alone, the last
surviving member of the last family of the race. A
few trees of northern species had been preserved under the
spacious dome of glass, and beneath the scanti foliage. Holding
the cold hands of her mother, who had died the
(01:02):
night before, the young girl sat alone, doomed to death,
in the very flower of her rage. The night was cold.
In the sky above, the full moon shone like a
golden torch, but its yellow rays were as cold as
the silver beams of the ancient Celini. In the vast
(01:23):
room reigned the stillness and solitude of death, broken only
by the young girl's breathing, which seemed to animate the
silence with the semblance of life. She was not weeping.
Her sixteen years contained more experience and knowledge than sixty
years of the world's prime. She knew that she was
(01:46):
the sole survivor of the last group of human beings,
and that every happiness, every joy, and every hope had vanished. Forever.
There was no present, no future, only solitude and silence,
the physical and moral impossibility of life, and soon eternal sleep.
(02:08):
She thought of the women of bygone days, of those
who would live the real life of humanity, of lovers,
wives and mothers. But to her red and tearless eyes
appeared only images of death, while beyond the walls of
glass stretched a barren desert, covered by the last ice
and the last snow. Now her young heart beat violently
(02:31):
in her breast till her slender hands could no longer
compress its tumult. And now life seemed arrested in her bosom,
and every respiration suspended. If for a moment she fell asleep.
In her dreams, she played again with her laughing and
carefree sister, while her mother sung in a pure and
(02:53):
penetrating voice, the beautiful inspirations of the last poets, and
she seemed to see once more the last fates of
a brilliant society, as if reflected from the surface of
some distant mirror. Then, on awakening, these magic memories faded
into the somber reality. Alone, alone in the world, and
(03:17):
to morrow death. Without having known life to struggle against
this unavoidable fate was useless. The decree of destiny was
without appeal, and there was nothing to do but to
submit to await the inevitable end, since without food or air,
organic life was impossible or else to anticipate death and
(03:39):
deliver oneself at once from a joyless existence and a
certain doom. She passed into the bathroom, where the warm
water was still flowing, although the appliances which Art had
designed to supply the wants of life were no longer
in working order, for the last remaining servants, descendants of
(04:00):
ancient Simian species, modified as the human race had been
by the changing conditions of life, had also succumbed to
the insufficiency of water. She plunged into the perfumed bath,
turned the key which regulated the supply of electricity derived
from subterranean water courses still unfrozen, and for a moment
(04:23):
seemed to forget the decree of destiny in the enjoyment
of this refreshing rest. Had any indiscreet spectator beheld her
as standing upon the bare skin before the large mirror
she began to arrange the tresses of her long auburn hair,
he would have detected a smile upon her lips, showing
that for an instant she was oblivious of her dark future.
(04:47):
Passing into another room, she approached the apparatus which furnished
the food of that time, extracted from the water, air,
and the plants and fruits automatically cultivated in the greenhouses.
It was still in working order, like a clock which
has been wound up for thousands of years. The genius
of man had been almost exclusively applied to the struggle
(05:11):
with destiny. The last remaining water had been forced to
circulate in subterranean canals, where also the solar heat had
been stored. The last animals had been trained to serve
these machines, and the nutritious properties of the last plants
had been utilized to the Utmost men had finally succeeded
(05:33):
in living upon almost nothing, so far as quantity was concerned.
Every newly discovered form of food, being completely assimilable. Cities
have finally been built of glass open to the sun,
to which was conveyed every substance necessary to the synthesis
of the food, which replaced the products of nature. But
(05:56):
as time passed it came more and more difficult to
obtain the necessaries of life. The mind was at last exhausted.
Matter had been conquered by intelligence, But the day had
come when intelligence itself was overmatched, when every worker had
died at his post, and the Earth's storehouse had been depleted.
(06:19):
Unwilling to abandon this desperate struggle, man had put forth
every effort, but he could not prevent the Earth's absorption
of water and the last resources of a science which
seemed greater even the nature itself had been exhausted. Eva
returned to the body of her mother and once more
took the cold hands in her own. The psychic faculties
(06:43):
of the race in these its latter days, had acquired,
as we have said, transcendent powers, and she thought for
a moment to summon her mother from the tomb. It
seemed to her as if she must have one more
approving glance, one more come. So a single idea took
possession of her, so fascinating her that she even lost
(07:06):
the desire to die. She saw afar the soul which
should respond to her own. Every man belonging to that
company of which she was the last survivor, had died
before her birth. Women had outlived the sex once called strong.
In the pictures upon the walls of the Great Library,
(07:27):
in books, engravings, and statues she saw represented the great
men of the city, But she had never seen a
living man, and still dreaming, strange and disquieting forms passed
before her. She was transported into an unknown and mysterious world,
into a new life, and love did not seem to
(07:47):
be yet wholly banished from the earth. During the reign
of cold, all electrical communications between the two last cities
left upon the earth had been interrupted. Their inhabitants could
speak no more with each other, see each other no more,
nor feel each other's presence. Yet she was as well
(08:08):
acquainted with the ocean city as if she had seen it.
And when she fixed her eyes upon the great terrestrial
globe suspended from the ceiling of the library, and then
closing them, concentrating all her will and psychic power upon
the object of her thoughts. She acted at a distance
as effectively, though in a different way, as in former
(08:32):
days men had done when communicating with each other by electricity.
She called and felt that another heard and understood. The
preceding night, she had transported herself to the ancient city
in which Omigar lived, and had appeared to him for
an instant in a dream. That very morning she had
(08:53):
witnessed his despairing act, and by a supreme effort of
the will, had arrested his arm. And how stretched in
her chair beside the dead body of her mother, heavy
with sleep, her solitary soul wandered in dreams above the
ocean city, seeking the companionship of the only mate left
(09:14):
upon the Earth. And far away in that ocean city,
Omagar heard her call. Slowly, as in a dream, he
ascended the platform from which the airships used to take
their flight. Yielding to a mysterious influence, he obeyed the
distant summons, Speeding toward the west. The electric airship passed
(09:36):
above the frozen regions of the tropics, once the sight
of the Pacific Ocean, Polynesia, Malaysia, and the Sunda Islands,
and stopped at the landing of the Crystal Palace. The
young girl, startled from a dream by the traveler, who
fell from the air at her feet. Fled in terror
(09:56):
to the farther end of the immense hall, lifting the
heavy curve of skin which separated it from the library.
When the young man reached her side, he stopped, knelt
and took her hand in his, saying, simply, you called me,
I have come, And then he added, I have known
you for a long time. I knew that you existed.
(10:19):
I have often seen you. You are the constant thought
of my heart. But I did not dare to come.
She bade him rise, saying, my friend, I know that
we are alone in the world, and that we are
about to die. A will stronger than my own compelled
me to call you. It seemed as if it were
the supreme desire of my mother, supreme even in death.
(10:43):
See she sleeps thus since yesterday, how long the night is.
The young man, kneeling, had taken the hand of the dead,
and they both stood there beside the funeral couch, as
if in prayer. He leaned gently toward the young girl,
and their heads touched. He let fall the hand of
(11:04):
the dead. Eva shuddered. No, she said. Then suddenly he
sprang to his feet in terror. The dead woman had revived.
She had withdrawn the hand which he had taken in
his own, and had opened her eyes. She made a
movement looking at them. I wake from a strange dream,
(11:25):
she said, without seeming surprised at the presence of Omegar. Behold,
my children, my dream, and she pointed to the planet Jupiter,
shining with dazzling splendor in the sky. And as they
gazed upon the star, to their astonished vision, it appeared
to approach them, to grow larger, to take the place
(11:49):
of the frozen scene about them. Its immense seas were
covered with ships. Aerial fleets cleaved the air. The shores
of its seas, and the miles of its great rivers
were the scenes of a prodigious activity. Brilliant cities appeared,
peopled by moving multitudes. Neither the details of their habitations
(12:12):
nor the forms of these new beings could be distinguished,
but one divined that there was a humanity quite different
from ours, living in the bosom of another nature, having
other senses at its disposal. And one felt also that
this vast world was incomparably superior to the earth. Behold
(12:36):
where we shall be to morrow, said the dying woman.
We shall find there all the human race, perfected and transformed.
Jupiter has received the inheritance of the Earth. Our world
has accomplished its mission, and life is over here below. Farewell.
(12:57):
She stretched out her arms to them. They bent over
her pale face and pressed a long kiss upon her forehead.
But they perceived that this forehead was cold as marble.
In spite of this strange awakening, the dead woman had
closed her eyes, to open them no more. End of
(13:20):
Chapter five.
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