[1]https://www.britannica.com/list/10-devastating-dystopias
   10 Devastating Dystopias
   By Mic Anderson
   The curation of this content is at the discretion of the author, and
   not necessarily reflective of the views of Encyclopaedia Britannica or
   its editorial staff. For the most accurate and up-to-date information,
   consult individual encyclopedia entries about the topics.
   From delivering powerful critiques of toxic cultural practices to
   displaying the strength of the human spirit in the face of severe
   punishment from baneful authoritarians, dystopian novels have served as
   indispensable teachers to their readers through propelling societies
   into seemingly possible futuristic worlds. So jump into your time
   machine and visit each of these dystopian societies!
   The Time Machine (1895), by H.G. Wells
   Morlocks in "The Time Machine" (1960), directed by George
   Pal.
   © 1960 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.; photograph from a private collection
   In his premier novel, H.G. Wells begot the concept of time travel as
   well as pioneered the nascent genre of science fiction. The Time
   Machine features the so-named Time Traveller who ventures hundreds of
   thousands of years into the future, in which the human race, presumably
   thanks to evolution and the forces of unchecked capitalism, has split
   in two—the dissipated, hedonistic Eloi and the subterranean, vicious
   Morlocks, who terrorize the night and feed upon the former. In this
   futuristic dystopia, Wells craftily spells out a premonition of doom
   for the human race and the Earth itself while critiquing various social
   practices and beliefs held by the upper echelon of British society. So,
   while immersing yourself in this dystopian conquest, keep a keen eye
   out for hate-filled Morlocks and even futuristic crab monsters!
   The Iron Heel (1907), by Jack London
   Jack London’s first categorically political novel, The Iron Heel,
   eerily prophesizes the disastrous rise of fascism in the first half of
   the 20th century and earned praise from such renowned social critics as
   George Orwell and Leo Trotsky for his perceptive portrayals of how
   decaying capitalism could mutate into an authoritative plutocracy, in
   which a dominating circle of wealthy individuals turn farmers into
   serfs and laborers into near-slaves. Rhetorically, London demonstrates
   his abounding skill, as the story of the “2nd Revolution” during the
   then futuristic 1912–32 period is relayed to the reader through a
   fictitious historian in the 26th century (who lives in a tranquil
   socialist society that enjoys economic and social prosperity) who is
   editing a manuscript that was penned by Avis Everhard, the political
   adherent and lover of the revolution’s political leader. The manuscript
   recounts how the plutocracy is able to victimize members of the lower
   classes and beat out democracy from society through secret mercenaries
   as well as how the revolution eventually fails to overcome such a
   powerful, seemingly omnipresent force. Thus, this spellbinding
   dystopian novel predicts conspiracies and attacks of the pre-World War
   II era, all while espousing the importance of democracy in the face of
   fascist regimes.
   My (1920; We), by Yevgeny Zamyatin
   Yevgeny Zamyatin, one of the most subversive authors to hail from
   Russia, penned perhaps the most fundamental dystopian text in 1920.
   Although Russia forbade its publication until 1988, My (or We in
   English) circulated throughout the nation in manuscript form and found
   itself published in the United States as early as 1924. The novel
   depicts life in the “Single State,” where citizens are identified by
   numbers, live in glass houses, are assigned sex partners, and don
   identical uniforms, through the journal entries of an engineer of a
   government project to conquer neighboring planets. It has been credited
   as the fundamental text upon which most modern dystopias are based,
   chief among them being George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).
   Through the consistently and unanimously elected “Benefactor” and his
   totalitarian dictatorship, Zamyatin effectively warns against the
   dangers of strict utilitarianism and conformity. The extremity of
   Zamytain’s dystopia is so great that, in one instance, a female
   character is not allowed to procreate for the reason that she’s too
   short.
   Brave New World (1932), by Aldous Huxley
   Aldous Huxley’s empirical, efficiently managed society that suppresses
   emotions and nonconformity is perhaps the best-known dystopia on this
   list. In Brave New World, John the Savage—a feeling, thinking, and
   creative individual who is familiar with various primitive spiritual
   rituals—and his mother are introduced to this ostensible utopia, only
   to learn of its euthanasia practices as well as to suffer from the
   fatal effects of a pain-relieving happiness-creating drug called soma.
   What ensues is an unadulterated tragedy, in which the novel’s author
   deftly displays the toll of ubiquitous conformity on the human, feeling
   spirit.
   Atlas Shrugged (1957), by Ayn Rand
   Ayn Rand, in her magnum opus Atlas Shrugged, creates a dystopia in the
   not-so-distant future where collective governing, ruled by overly
   bureaucratic and outright corrupt moochers, has led the United States
   to the brink of economic collapse. Rand’s protagonist—Dagny Taggart, a
   prodigious railroad tycoon—and her business are continually thwarted by
   government regulations, leaving her to choose between endlessly
   battling alone the rampant corruption in order to keep her business
   alive or abandoning the company that she has worked tirelessly for
   since she was of age and joining Galt’s Gulch, a secretive utopia where
   all productive and creative members of society (namely scientists,
   artists, and industrialists) fled so that they could create a world in
   which rationality and self-determination reign supreme. Thus, this
   dystopian novel has become celebrated by Rand followers as being the
   mouthpiece for Objectivism, Rand’s personal philosophy.
   A Clockwork Orange (1962), by Anthony Burgess
   A Clockwork Orange, known for its unrelenting depictions of
   “ultra-violence” in a futuristic dystopia where incorrigible gangs of
   youths threaten the mind-numbing monotony of the state-ruled society,
   is relayed to readers through a violent youth named Alex, who employs
   an idiolect derived from English, American, and Russian slang. Burgess
   follows his antihero as he, along with his “droogs” commits desultory
   acts of violence against normal citizens, culminating in a savage
   beating that turns fatal, after which Alex is abandoned by his
   subordinates to be charged for the murder of an old lady. He is then
   confined by police and subjected to state-sponsored intensive
   psychotherapy, in which he is drugged and forced to watch heinous acts
   of violence until he is no longer his former, aberrant self. In this
   unique dystopian universe, Burgess is able to masterfully display
   contradictions formed from the opposing minds of human nature, from its
   perfectibility to its outright depravity, and the extreme political
   systems upon which they are based.
   The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), by Margaret Atwood
   First edition dust jacket to Margaret Atwood's "The
   Handmaid's Tale" (1986)
   The Handmaid's Tale
   Between the Covers Rare Books, Inc., Merchantville, N.J.
   In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood envisions a future theocratic
   American country in which women are categorized in a hierarchy as
   wives, servants, breeders, and so on. The story is framed as a
   handwritten account of a handmaid (breeder) whose sole purpose in life
   is to supply babies for infertile wives who are higher in the social
   hierarchy. As Offred (the narrator’s given name in the new regime)
   becomes useful through the capabilities of her body, she becomes
   repulsed by herself and only finds relief in memories of her life,
   friends, and family before the theocratic ruling began. The Handmaid’s
   Tale serves as a powerful feminist text that effectively illustrates
   the horrors that women can face at the hands of overly conservative
   ideologies.
   The Children of Men (1992), by P.D. James
   Penned in 1992 and set in 2021, P.D. James’s The Children of Men
   envisions a foreseeable future in which the human population has become
   infertile and an authoritative Warden of England retains order where
   anarchy could easily come to dominate. With a dying population, the
   Warden of England has installed various regulations such as mass
   “voluntary” suicides by the elderly, rampant cruel treatment toward
   prisoners of the state, and mandatory sperm testing and female
   inspections. In this dystopian future, the reader finds the
   dispassionate college professor Dr. Theo Faron, a cousin of the Warden,
   as he joins a small cohort of subversives in opposition to the
   unelected dictator. The Children of Men not only conveys strong
   warnings for its readers but also tracks the journey of a man’s soul as
   the protagonist finds something to fight and live for, even when the
   odds are seemingly stacked against him.
   The Giver (1993), by Lois Lowry
   Jonas, an unusual pale-eyed 11-year-old boy turning 12, comes of age
   and is assigned the prestigious role of Receiver of pain and memories
   in an apparent utopia where war, fear, pain, and choices have ceased to
   exist. He meets with the Giver, a weary though benevolent grandfather
   figure, who bestows upon Jonas memories of the world and Elsewhere,
   when and where colors, passions, love, hate, and war exist. Growing
   discontent with the monotony of his society and enraged when he learns
   what it means to be “released,” Jonas, with the Giver, conspire to
   endow their society with what it has been missing in the dystopia
   created in Lois Lowry’s renowned novel The Giver.
   The Road (2006), by Cormac McCarthy
   As survivors in a gloomy postapocalyptic America, where anarchy
   dominates after an unspecified disaster, a father and son trek across
   the doom-ridden terrain with a pistol, scavenged food, and each other
   in Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning dystopian novel The Road.
   The father, committed entirely to keeping his son alive at whatever
   cost, and son stave off starvation at every corner and deal with
   occasional interlopers who have also survived, all while coping with
   the near impossible task of keeping memories of happiness and loved
   ones alive in a world that rains gray and wreaks desolation. In his
   deft prose, rife with morbid imagery, Cormac McCarthy spells out
   metaphors that offer bleak hope in the face of total devastation and
   provide wisdom beyond value, thus making The Road perhaps the most
   important dystopian novel of the early 21st century.

References

   1. https://www.britannica.com/list/10-devastating-dystopias