Thousands of Years from Now by Hans Christian Andersen. Short summary

5 seconds

An essay about how in 1000 years Americans will fly to Europe to see it in 8 days. It will lie in ruins, but the names of heroes, inventors, and writers will not be forgotten.

1 minute

In this essay, Andersen envisions an era of the dominance of technology and high technology. The Atlantic can be crossed in a couple of hours, a canal will be built under the English Channel, a luxury hotel will be built at the top of Mount Olympus.

The happy generation of Americans will fly to Europe to view it in 8 days — because their contemporary (his last name is not important) wrote the guidebook.

Mont Blanc will still tower proudly over the Alps, the Danube and the Rhone will still flow. But the cities of Europe would fall into decay. This is where Shakespeare worked,» Americans will say as they fly over Britain, «and this is the birthplace of Columbus, who discovered our continent.

The monuments of Europe would be in ruins by then, and Rome and Paris would become miserable villages.

But even Andersen’s contemporaries went to Egypt or India to see the remains of great civilizations. No one remembers who rests in the mound. But the artifact found under the skeleton surprises by the subtlety of the ancient master’s work. The names of the great ones will never die.