Read complete books and articles on: H. G. Wells

Wells, H. G. - (Herbert George Wells), 1866–1946, English author. Although he is probably best remembered for his works of science fiction, he was also an imaginative social thinker, working assiduously to remove all vestiges of Victorian social, moral, and religious attitudes from 20th-century life. He was apprenticed to a draper at 14 and was later able through grants and scholarships to attend the Univ. of London (grad. 1888). Inspired by the teaching of T. H. Huxley, Wells taught biology until 1893, when he began his career as a novelist. His early books, full of fantasy and fascinating pseudoscientific speculations, exemplify the political and social beliefs of his time. They include The Time Machine (1895), The Wonderful Visit (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).

In the novels of his middle period Wells turned from the fantastic to the realistic, delineating with great energy and color the world he lived in. These books, considered his finest achievement, include Kipps (1905), Tono-Bungay (1909), and The History of Mr. Polly (1910). His later books are primarily novels of ideas in which he sets forth his view of the plans and concessions individuals must make in order to survive. Included among these final works, which became increasingly pessimistic as Wells aged, are The World of William Clissold (1926), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), World Brain (1938), and Mind at the End of Its Tether (1945). His other works include the immensely popular Outline of History (1920) and The Science of Life (1929), which was written in collaboration with his son G. P. Wells and Julian Huxley.

See his Experiment in Autobiography (1934); biographies by L. Dickson (1969) and N. and J. MacKenzie (1973); studies by F. McConnell (1981), J. Huntington (1982), J. R. Hammond (1988), and D. Smith (1988).

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15 of the Best Books and Articles on: H. G. Wells

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

The Critical Response to H. G. Wells » Read Now
by William J. Scheick. 194 pgs.

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H. G. Wells is best know as the author of enduring classics of science fiction, such as The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds. His tale of space flight, The First Men in the Moon, was written at the turn of the century and anticipated modern space travel. He was also the author of The Outline...
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H. G. Wells is best know as the author of enduring classics of science fiction, such as The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds. His tale of space flight, The First Men in the Moon, was written at the turn of the century and anticipated modern space travel. He was also the author of The Outline of World History, an ambitious chronicle of the world from antiquity to the beginning of the 20th century. Through essays and reviews, this book records his critical reception.
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2.

H. G. Wells: The Critical Heritage » Read Now
by Patrick Parrinder. 352 pgs.

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This set comprises 40 volumes covering 19th and 20th century European and American authors. These volumes will be available as a complete set, mini boxed sets (by theme) or as individual volumes. This second set complements the first 68 volume set of Critical Heritage published by Routledge in October 1995.
3.

The Natural History of H. G. Wells » Read Now
by John R. Reed. 294 pgs.

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4.

The Man Who Dreamed the Future: The Imagination, Prognostications, and Politics of H. G. Wells, in World and I » Read Now
by Ed Morrow. 12 pgs.

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5.

The War of the Worlds » Read Now
by H. G. Wells. 216 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

"No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own." Thus begins one of the most terrifying and morally prescient science fiction novels ever penned. Beginning...
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"No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own." Thus begins one of the most terrifying and morally prescient science fiction novels ever penned. Beginning with a series of strange flashes in the distant night sky, the Martian attack initially causes little concern on Earth. Then the destruction erupts-ten massive aliens roam England and destroy with heat rays everything in their path. Very soon mankind finds itself on the brink of extinction. Wells raises questions of mortality, man's place in nature, and the evil lurking in the technological future-questions that remain urgently relevant in the twenty-first century.
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6.

Learning from Other Worlds: Estrangement, Cognition and the Politics of Science Fiction and Utopia ("Estranged Invaders: The War of the Worlds" begins on p. 127) » Read Now
by Patrick Parrinder. 312 pgs.

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With an outspoken and penetrating afterword by Darko Suvin, the contributors to this study convey the essence of cognitive estrangement in relation to science fiction and utopia. All the contributors have been influenced by Suvin's ideas and beliefs.
7.

The Road to Armageddon: The Martial Spirit in English Popular Literature, 1870-1914 (Chap. 3 "The Colliding Worlds of H. G. Wells") » Read Now
by Cecil D. Eby. 288 pgs.

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8.

H.G. Wells's World Reborn: The Outline of History and Its Companions » Read Now
by William T. Ross. 135 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
9.

A Modern Utopia » Read Now
by H. G. Wells. 432 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
10.

Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide ("H. G. Wells: A Modern Utopia (1905)" begins on p. 63) » Read Now
by M. Keith Booker. 428 pgs.

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Dystopian literature is a potent vehicle for criticizing existing social conditions or political systems, and for warning against the potential negative consequences of utopian thought. This reference is a guide to dystopian theory and literature. It discusses the work of key theorists and...
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Dystopian literature is a potent vehicle for criticizing existing social conditions or political systems, and for warning against the potential negative consequences of utopian thought. This reference is a guide to dystopian theory and literature. It discusses the work of key theorists and summarizes several important utopian works to provide a background. The rest of the book summarizes and analyzes numerous dystopian novels, plays, and films.
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11.

Narrating Utopia: Ideology, Gender, Form in Utopian Literature (Chap. 3 "Bellamy and Wells: The Dream of Order in the Modern World") » Read Now
by Chris Ferns. 268 pgs.

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Utopian societies exhibit a variety of ways of organizing the financial, political and emotional relationships between people. For all this diversity, however, one thing that exhibits far less variation is the story, the framing narrative that accounts for how the narrator reaches the more perfect...
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Utopian societies exhibit a variety of ways of organizing the financial, political and emotional relationships between people. For all this diversity, however, one thing that exhibits far less variation is the story, the framing narrative that accounts for how the narrator reaches the more perfect society and obtains the opportunity to witness its distinctive excellences. Narrating Utopia is about that story, the curious hybrid of the traveler�2s tale and the classical dialogue that emerges in the Renaissance, but whose outlines remain clearly apparent even in some of the most recent utopian writing. "�5 a well-written and worthy addition to the filed of utopian studies."--SFRA Review
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12.

Evolution and Poetic Belief: A Study in Some Victorian and Modern Writers (1956) ("Homo Sapiens in a Modern Utopia: H. G. Wells" begins on p. 402, and "Shaw and Wells--Summary and Comparison" begins on p. 447) » Read Now
by Georg Roppen. 478 pgs.

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...1921. The Executors of H. G. Wells, from The Sleeper Awakes and Men...Homo Sapiens in a Modern Utopia: H. G. Wells 402 3. Shaw and Wells...from Life , p. 236. 3 H. G. Wood...
13.

Tono-Bungay » Read Now
by H. G. Wells. 462 pgs.

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Tono-Bungay (1909) is widely regarded as Wells's finest novel, combining futuristic science fiction and contemporary social satire. In it, George Ponderovo is apprenticed to his Uncle Edward, a dynamic chemist who invents a bogus medicine, Tono-Bungay, and earns a vast fortune. But as he witnesses...
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Tono-Bungay (1909) is widely regarded as Wells's finest novel, combining futuristic science fiction and contemporary social satire. In it, George Ponderovo is apprenticed to his Uncle Edward, a dynamic chemist who invents a bogus medicine, Tono-Bungay, and earns a vast fortune. But as he witnesses Edward's spectacular rise, he also contemplates the corrupt English society that allows his uncle to wield so much power. No other writer has the breadth of Wells to encompass both George's personal breakdown and the full panorama of a degenerate imperial society.
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14.

No Place Else: Explorations in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction (Chap. 7 "The Shape of Things to Come: H. G. Wells and the Rhetoric of Proteus") » Read Now
by Eric S. Rabkin, Martin H. Greenberg, Joseph D. Olander. 280 pgs.

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...94 7. The Shape of Things to Come: H. G. Wells and the Rhetoric of Proteus Ken Davis 110...the publisher. The Executors of the Estate of H. G. Wells. H. G. Wells, The Shape...
15.

Henry James and H. G. Wells: A Record of Their Friendship, Their Debate on the Art of Fiction, and Their Quarrel » Read Now
by Leon Edel, Gordon N. Ray. 272 pgs.

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...HENRY JAMES AND H. G. WELLS -ii- HENRY JAMES, c. 1900 H. G. WELLS, 1901 HENRY JAMES AND H. G. WELLS A Record of their Friendship, their Debate on the Art of Fiction, and...