The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer is a 1995 science-fiction coming-of-age novel by Neal Stephenson. Stephenson’s body of work has proven influential in contemporary discussions about technology and power. The novel is an important example of cyberpunk (work that imagines a dystopian future created by technology), while Stephenson’s allusions to Victorian literature and culture also make it an example of steampunk, despite the future setting. This guide is based on the 1995 Bantam Spectra print edition.

Content Warning: The source novel includes sexual abuse and violence, misogynistic slurs as characterization, and physical violence.

Plot Summary

The Diamond Age takes place in Shanghai and off the Eastern coast of China. Shanghai is now carved into municipalities and groups that arose when most nations collapsed in the wake of the nanotechnology economy and the rise of a secure, anonymous network that hid taxable income. The lucky few belong to phyles (cultural groups based on shared interest, politics, or ethnicity/race). New Atlantis’s neo-Victorians are one of the most powerful phyles due to their control of nanotechnology delivered by the Feed, a centralized system that delivers subsistence-level food and goods to the have-nots (thetes) and a high standard of living to elites.