"Lord of the World" is a 1907 dystopian science fiction novel by Benson that centers upon the reign of the Antichrist and the end of the world. The novel imagines a socialist and humanist world where religion has been suppressed or ignored. People have no history or hope, so they often turn to euthanasia, a legal and widespread practice. This world has a "one-world" government that uses Esperanto for its language and ultimately becomes a servant of the anti-Christ. In brief: The Catholic Church has been suppressed by the rest of the world, which has turned to the religion of humanity modeled on that of Auguste Comte.