The Brothers. A Story

Herbert George Wells

The Brothers A Story. Herbert George Wells was a prolific English writer who wrote in a variety of genres, including the novel, politics, history, and social commentary. Wells returned to a literary genre in which he had always excelled: the satire written in the form of an allegory. In a land torn apart by civil war, Bolaris was fiercely loyal to the Strong Men. So when Number Four informed him that Ratzel, leader of the enemy, had been captured, it was naturally a cause for celebration that was until Bolaris actually met his great opponent? The likeness between Bolaris and Ratzel was so remarkable that Bolaris was left in no doubt that they were related brothers, or perhaps even twins. As sworn enemies, and now as his captor, Bolaris had to work out a way to discover the truth of his identity and do so without sacrificing his loyalty.

The Bulpington of Blup

Herbert George Wells

The Bulpington of Blup, a 1932 novel by H. G. Wells, is a character study analyzing the psychological sources of resistance to Wellsian ideology, and was influenced by Wellss acquaintance with Carl Gustav Jung and his ideas. Theodore Bulpington is a very ordinary man with a very vivid imagination. Ill at ease with himself, he sees a way to recreate his identity by adding layer upon layer of deception. This he does with such panache that eventually he becomes an impostor, a liar and a cheat. But with so many different masks to hold in place, his carefully woven deception soon spirals out of control and heads towards the chaos of mental torment. The novel is also of interest for its extended analysis of psychological responses to World War I.

The Camford Visitation

Herbert George Wells

Wellss treatise on education is set in the region of Camford (Cambridge/Oxford), and tells of a visitor who proves that education can save the world from destruction. The story centres around a Utopian ventriloquist who subjects human life and in particular its treatment by the University of Camford to sympathetic but quite unsparing scrutiny. At its core, it was a warning to the educational world of imminent war and of its lack of action, as well as an exploration of the place of education in society. Contents include: Mr Trumbers Experience, In the Cramb Meadows, Mr Preeders Pigeon-holes, The Communist Party is Annoyed in its Turn, Congregation Day, and The Healing Touch in History. In this short tale of 75 pages Wells summarises many of his current preoccupations in the form of a parable which is noteworthy for its careful building up of atmosphere and its lively and biting characterisations.

The Chronic Argonauts

Herbert George Wells

This story was the first work of fiction in which an explorer traverses time through the use of a man-made device a time machine rather than through magic, divine intervention, or a natural phenomenon such as sleep. HG Wellss The Chronic Argonauts, written seven years before his much more famous time travel work, The Time Machine. The mysterious Dr. Moses Nebogipfel arrives in a small Welsh town in 1887. The apprehensions of the simple rural folk eventually cause them to storm the inventors workshop in an effort to avenge perceived witchery. Nobody knows who he is or how he arrived, but his manner and his appearance soon make Dr. Nebogipfels name dreaded in the village. Nebogipfel escapes with one other person, the sympathetic Reverend Elijah Ulysses Cook, in what is later revealed to be a time machine. After having been missing for three weeks, Cook returns, aged many years older.

The Croquet Player

Herbert George Wells

A soul-corrupting evil invades the remote English village of Cainsmarsh, infesting the minds of the local residents. Dark events are plaguing its people. An elderly woman stiffens in dread at her own shadow; a terrified farmer murders a scarecrow; food prepared by others is eyed with suspicion; family pets are bludgeoned to death; loving couples are devoured by rage and violence. People are becoming suspicious of every move each other makes. Children are coming to school with marks on them. A spirit-corrupting evil pervades the land, infesting the minds of those who call Cainsmarsh home... Is this vision real, or a paranoid fantasy? And is the call to resist the danger itself a danger? These are questions that disturb the calm of an indolent croquet player who happens to hear the tale of the unlucky village. H. G. Wellss ambiguous story of horror is a modern classic, a prophetic, disturbing glimpse of the primitive distrust and violence that gnaw at the heart of the modern world.

The Dream

Herbert George Wells

The Dream by H.G Wells follows the character, Sarnac, who lives a whole other life as Harry Mortimer Smith. Sarnac is at the height of his career as a scientist by discovering new research. Sarnac goes with his friends including his girlfriend, Sunray to escape for the holidays. Little does Sarnac know that he would be dreaming a whole new life as a different person. His dream world is peculiar rules and what is socially acceptable than reality. The roles of each member in this society is more conservative, yet relaxed at other situations. However, he finds that his dreams and the reality he has lived have become so entangled that he is no longer able to distinguish between them. The Dream is a 1924 novel by H. G. Wells about a man from a Utopian future who dreams the entire life of an Englishman from the Victorian and Edwardian eras, Harry Mortimer Smith.

The First Men in the Moon

Herbert George Wells

Another H.G. Wells classic sci fi. The novel tells the story of a journey to the moon by the impecunious businessman Mr. Bedford and the brilliant but eccentric scientist Dr. Cavor. Bedford bankrupt businessman who is making a comeback by writing a play, through a series of circumstances, teams up with Professor Cavor a recluse scientist who does not realize his own potential. Together they build a contraption, sphere, that can cut off gravity waves. Once on the moon Bedford and Cavor find that they are not alone. After a few adventures they are detained by the Moonies referred to mostly in this story as Selenites. Will they be able to make it back to Earth and warn the people of the strange creatures? Or will they be caught and who knows what may happen to them in the long run. The novel can also be read as a critique of prevailing political opinions from the turn of the century, particularly of imperialism.

The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth

Herbert George Wells

What happens when science tampers with nature? Mr. Bensington and Mr. Redwood create a new food material, Herakleophorbia, later called Boomfood, they hope will have beneficial uses to mankind. They come up with a substance that causes flora, fauna, and people to become giants. At first, there are giant nettles, mushrooms but then it ramps up, with giant rats that can take down and eat horses and wasps so large one could hear them half a mile off. In the end it becomes a tragedy: several hundred children around the world had been given this food of the gods and grow to a height of around forty feet. The first giant babies are revealed and for the first time humanity has to contend with the existence of a new race of giant people. How humanity deals with this shocking new creation is revealed in The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth.

The History of Mr Polly

Herbert George Wells

An intriguing HG Wells work, not of the sci-fi variety, which details a mans struggle to find himself and get along with his world. Published in 1910, this novel is the story of Alfred Polly, a generally non-descript member of the English lower middle class. The story begins when he is thirty-five years old, miserably unhappy with his life, both his circumstances and himself. In other words, he is a man with a badly muddled sense of reality who, sick of the life that he leads, burns down the outfitters shop that he has come to hate, gives his wife half of the insurance money, and disappears, exchanging his acceptable life as a shopkeeper for that of a wanderer. Unexpected events, however, conspire at the last moment to lead the bewildered Mr. Polly to a bright new future after he saves a life, fakes his death, and escapes to a life of heroism, hope and ultimate happiness.

The Holy Terror

Herbert George Wells

A fictional biography of Rudolf Rud Whitlow, who builds a political party that slowly becomes a world dominant dictatorship. Wells wrote the work just before World War II as Hitler was consolidating his power in Germany. Rud, is a baby boy, and later, grew to be a young man who had a remarkable talent of oratory: the gift of gab. He is eventually encouraged to perform public speaking, lecturing and finally, revolutionary speeches. Through this character, Wells creates a platform for long discourses of his usual themes of social engineering. Rud eventually gets involved in socialist activism, and a group strategizing for world revolution. The revolution fails, revealing the cowardice underlying Ruds aggressiveness. The ability of new weapons to decapitate the command structure of any regional power becomes the plot device that allows Rud to make himself world leader, destroying parts of the world which do not submit to the most destructive superpower.

The Invisible Man. A Grotesque Romance

Herbert George Wells

Depicting one mans transformation and descent into brutality, H.G. Wellss The Invisible Man is a riveting exploration of sciences power to corrupt. In this tale of psychological terror, a young scientist must live in the personal hell created by his own experiments. Using himself as the subject, the scientist discovers the key to invisibility; yet, he is unable to reverse the results. He successfully carries out this procedure on himself, but begins to become mentally unstable as a result... Wells had created a gripping masterpiece on the destructive effects the invisibility has on the scientist and the insane and murderous chaos left in his malicious wake. Notable for its sheer invention, suspense, and psychological nuance, The Invisible Man continues to enthrall science-fiction fans today as it did the reading public nearly 100 years ago.

The Island of Doctor Moreau

Herbert George Wells

On a deceivingly beautiful island in the South Seas exists the sinister kingdom of Doctor Moreau. Edward Prendick is shipwrecked in the Pacific. Rescued by Doctor Moreaus assistant he is taken to the doctors island home where he discovers the doctor has been experimenting on the animal inhabitants of the island, creating bizarre proto-humans...The main plot, a shunned biologist, Dr. Moreau, attempting to create a new species of animals by combining biological elements of the original animal with human and other animal bloods and cells, is handled in both a dramatic, yet accessible sicentific manner. The Island of Doctor Moreau portrays the consequences of Science without ethics. In this case it is early twentieth century vivesection.

The King Who Was a King. The Book of a Film

Herbert George Wells

Herbert George Wells is a huge name in the world of literature. He is known as the king of Science Fiction stories. He was an accomplished teacher, a best-selling novelist, a historian and a journalist, however, he established his name in the world through his passion for writing and will be remembered forever as Father of Science Fiction. The King Who Was a King The Book of a Film is a fascinating treatise on the development of film written by H. G. Wells and first published in 1929. Writing at the when cinema was beginning to explode, Wells explores the emerging industrys history, future, and the elements of contemporary film. H. G. Wellss conception of a great film, as much a novel as it is a film scenario. Poses the issue Is one man justified in shedding the blood of another, in order to avert the greater catastrophe of war?

The New Machiavelli

Herbert George Wells

About a political idealist who changes his colours and engages in a sexual adventure. A successful author and Liberal MP Richard Remington appears to be a man to envy. But underneath his superficial contentment, he is far from happy with either his marriage or the politics of his party. The New Machiavelli describes the disarray into which his life is thrown when he meets the young and beautiful Isabel Rivers and becomes tormented by desire. At first, he struggles to resist and remain focused upon his familiar political, personal and social life. But as he soon learns, it is harder than he could have imagined to turn his back on love. In the character of Richard Remington, Wells created a damning portrait of an insufferable, egoistic, pontificating windbag whose attempts to set an agenda to improve society whether to uphold the British Empire or allow women to play a greater part in social life pays no attention to the effects on the people he is supposed to represent.

The Passionate Friends. A Novel

Herbert George Wells

Although most famous for his sci-fi, Wells best work often deals with ordinary people having big thoughts in picturesque settings. The Passionate Friends is a fine representative example of this. Wells uses the changing relationships among childhood friends as the media for his thoughts on human relations on personal and global scales, and of what it all means. On the death of his father, Stephen Stratton writes a long and deeply personal letter to his son, hoping that, as his son becomes a man, he can benefit from Stephens experience and wisdom. As Stephen sets down his lifes history, he tells the remarkable story of his former lover, Lady Mary. With a lust for freedom and a fierce desire not to be owned by a man, she is a woman living ahead of her time until marriage threatens to ruin her. First published in 1913, The Passionate Friends is an inspiring love story between father and son, and man and woman.

The Research Magnificent

Herbert George Wells

Mr. Wells builds novels out of ideas as other men build them of imagery and emotions. H. G. Wells takes us on a very entertaining and profound journey via a character named William who insists on living life nobly and thoroughly. Starting in his boyhood, and throughout his life, it produced profound adventures, yet also make him ridiculous, and even inspiring. It is a passion for courage, for personal nobility, for service to others, for self-sacrificing, all for the social betterment of the whole world. William gets into all sorts of hilarious trouble for living up to his ideals with a lot of it being ironic. The very people he seeks to defend or sacrifice himself for are the ones who take advantage of him, and often he finds himself subject to the logical consequences of adhering to his particular ideal. No matter what happens, he keeps pushing forward and sticking with his principles.