William Godwin (Mary Shelley's father) wrote a novel called Caleb Williams which I remember as a very early dystopian thriller - not in the alternate-world sense, but in the "innocent man hounded by sinister agents" style a la Enemy of the State (or North by Northwest for that matter) and tons of other modern things. Pretty cool to have one foot in the 18th century and the other a good 200 years into the future.
