FIRST EDITION of Émile Souvestre`s dystopian science fiction novel "Le Monde Tel Qu`il Sera" (The World as It Will Be), describing a journey to the distant future, where eugenics and steam-based technology completely transformed the world. The book includes many b&w figures and full-page illustrations by an eminent French illustrator, engraver, caricaturist, and a pioneer in photography Charles Albert d`Arnoux (Charles Constant Albert Nicolas, Vicomte d`Arnoux, Count of Limoges-Saint-Saëns), known as Bertall (or Bertal, an anagram of Albert) or Tortu-Goth (1820-1882). 235x155mm. 324 pages. Black quarter-leather Hardcover. Gilt lettering on spine. Cover worn and bumped. Cover edges and corners bumped and peeling. Cover detached from binding. Spine rubbed. Spine upper edge and front hinge peeling, bottom edge bumped, rear hinge bottom part cracked. Marbled whitepages wrinkled. Plates and text block edges browning. Some page corners curved/bumped. Pages yellowing and age-stained. [SUMMARY]: This rare mid 19th-century science fiction novel, well preceding the ones written by Jules Verne, has sustained damage to cover, but is still in good reading condition.