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.

The Sea Lady

Herbert George Wells

This charming, little-known fantasy by the author of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds is also a sharply satirical look at the mores and moral of Edwardian England. During a family outing at the beach a family sees a young woman struggling further out in the water. Its only when they rescue her that they see that shes a mermaid. They quickly take her into the beach house, still unaware that the mermaid has planned the whole incident in order to meet a young man. Her motives are not quite clear; nor are her intentions of what she plans to do with the young man after she gets him, since she lives beneath the sea. On occasion she drops her guard and lets it be known she is death underwater. Will she be stopped in time from committing this dastardly deed? The Sea Lady takes a pretty good subject mermaid turned siren in proper British society and totally drops the ball.

The Secret Places of the Heart

Herbert George Wells

H.G. Wells is best remembered as a central figure in the development of the science fiction genre. However, much of his literary output was more conventional in nature, and he published a number of novels dealing with interpersonal relationships and social themes. H.G. Wells was so charmed by Margaret Sanger that he based The Secret Places of the Heart on his time with her. The novel is a thinly-veiled autobiography that depicts an English gentleman, Sir Richard Hardy, who is attempting to sort out his marital problems while he travels the English countryside in the company of a psychiatrist and much brilliant discussion ranging over the past and future topics of world-wide significance. The Secret Places of the Heart was, in many ways, a love letter from Wells to Sanger... Many critics regard The Secret Places of the Heart as a heavily autobiographical account of one of Wells failed love affairs.

The Shape of Things to Come

Herbert George Wells

The Shape of Things to Come is one of the great classics of science fiction. Originally written in 1929, this masterly work of science fiction has already confirmed H G Wells status as a remarkable soothsayer, and provides glimpses of what is perhaps yet to come. The book is written as a sort of historical account. It tells of how a world state could be considered an answer to Earths problems. After a large plague wipes out much of humanity, a dictatorship takes over, taking away all religion and uniting the world. If someone opposes the dictatorship, they are given a choice to commit suicide in an environment of their choice. However, the dictatorship is later overthrown and the world state dissolves. Spanning the years from 1929 to 2105, it describes future generations and predicts the advent of wars, advancing technology and sweeping cultural changes.

The Sleeper Awakes

Herbert George Wells

This is a short novel about a nineteen century Englishman who falls in a deep sleep only to awake over two hundred years later. The World has changed beyond recognition, and The Sleeper finds himself in a remarkable predicament he has become the owner of the entire planet. However, his awakening profoundly shakes this state of affairs, and he suddenly finds himself at the very center of revolutionary social upheavals and a struggle for the ultimate power. But when he comes out of his trance he is horrified to discover that the money accumulated in his name is being used to maintain a hierarchal society in which most are poor, and more than a third of all people are enslaved. This struggle is the main focus of the larger part of the novel. The novel proposes that whatever is done officially for the good of society, individual ambition is unlikely to address the failure of capitalist structures to create a good standard of living for those whose work supports the system.

The Soul of a Bishop

Herbert George Wells

H.G. Wells is an English author best known as a sci-fi writer, though he is also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, but in this 1917 novel, H. G. Wells weaves a more intuitive tale, about a bishop haunted by strange dreams and visions that challenge his faith. Lyrical, poetic, and verging on stream-of-consciousness in places, this little-read work of one of the most enduringly popular writers of modern literature is like found treasure, offering a captivating and unexpected insight into Wells psyche. The Soul of a Bishop tells the story of a spiritual crisis that leads Edward Scrope, Lord Bishop of Princhester, to give up his diocese in Englands industrial heartland and leave the Anglican Church.

The Time Machine

Herbert George Wells

Decades ahead of his time, H.G. Wells leaps beyond the bounds of conventional imagination to tell the story of the Time Traveler. A seminal and hugely imaginative work of early science fiction, H.G. Wellss The Time Machine is the first and greatest modern portrayal of time-travel and definitely a spiritual ancestor of every time travel story since. The book introduces a scientist who uses a Time Machine to be transferred into the age of a slowly dying earth. Humans have been separated by time, genetics, wars and change of their habitats into two different races, the Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks. After narrowly escaping from the Morlocks, the Time Traveller undertakes another journey even further into the future where he finds the earth growing bitterly cold as the heat and energy of the sun wane. Horrified, he returns to the present, but soon departs again on his final journey. The Time Machine examines the age-old questions of humankinds ultimate destiny and the role we play in shaping it.

The Undying Fire. A Contemporary Novel

Herbert George Wells

Dedicated to all schoolmasters and schoolmistresses and every teacher in the world, this re-interpretation of the Book of Job is one of the authors finest discussion novels. Written in 1918, this is the story of Job Huss, the headmaster of a progressive school. It is saturated with the ideas of educational reform and of the teaching of world history as the basis for a common civilization and is one of his most ambitious dialogue narratives. Essentially it is a modernized parody of the book of Job, a prose poem which Wells greatly admired, though not particularly religious, as can be seen from his logical Science Fiction writing. In The Undying Fire, Wells give us an updated Book of Job, focusing on the tribulations of an actual descendant of the biblical Job. The various characters from the Biblical narrative are all there, in updated form.

The War in the Air

Herbert George Wells

Bert Smallways is the unlikely protagonist, a kind of Edwardian Mod, not interested in a steady career, always looking for a good time, riding his proto-scooter down to Brighton at the weekends. When Bert is accidentally scooped up by a German fleet, on its way to launch a surprise attack on the United States, he finds himself with a front row seat to the greatest war that has ever been the war in the air! This new war is to be a different sort of war than all the wars that came before it, unprecedented in its ferocity and destructiveness. The art of war has completely changed with the coming of airplanes, which the author very eloquently brings out. The War in the Air is a story of the awful devastation following a conflict between two first-class powers with the resources of the air at their command. It is one of the most brilliant and successful of Mr. Wellss studies in futurity.