Angleterre, fin du XIXe siècle. Edward Carpenter rompt avec son milieu bourgeois et part à la rencontre d’un monde plus juste, mêlant écologie, amour libre et militantisme.

It is evident that no very great change for the better in marriage-relations can take place except as the accompaniment of deep-lying changes in Society at large; and that alterations in the Law alone will effect but a limited improvement. Indeed it is not very likely, as long as the present commercial order of society lasts, that the existing Marriage-laws-founded as they are on the idea of property-will be very radically altered, though they may be to some extent. More likely is it that, underneath the law, the common practice will slide forward into newer customs. With the rise of the new society, which is already outlining itself within the structure of the old, many of the difficulties and bugbears, that at present seem to stand in the way of a more healthy relation between the sexes, will of themselves disappear.

This publication, by English utopian socialist Edward Carpenter, describes civilisation as a sort of disease with which humanity is afflicted. Alongside this influential publication (originally published in 1889), are compiled other essays: Modern Science: A Criticism; The Science of the Future: A Forecast; Defence of Criminals: A Criticism of Morality; Exfoliation: Lamarck versus Darwin; Custom; A Rational and Humane Science; and The New Morality, plus Appendices (notes on various "Pre-Civilised peoples").

"The little god of Love is generally represented as a child; and rightly, perhaps, considering the erratic character of his ways among the human race. There are signs, however, of a new order in the relations of the Sexes; and the following papers are, among other things, an attempt to indicate the inner laws which, rather than the outer, may guide Love when-some day-he shall have come to his full estate."

Days with Walt Whitman is a contemplative summary of the life of Walt Whitman and the making of the poet, by one of his followers. Edward Carpenter collected a half dozen essays he had written about different aspects of the American poet's work and habits. The essays have an ecstatic but grounded style, elevating Whitman to immortality, and showcasing Carpenter's familiarity with ancient Sanskrit texts.