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H G Wells
Author biography
Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley, Kent in 1866, the son of a professional cricketer. In early life he worked as an apprentice to a draper and in 1884 he won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science in South Kensington under the tutorage of T H Huxley. His time there was to have a lasting influence on his life and subsequent writing.
H G Wells first found literary acclaim with The Time Machine which appeared in 1895 and was the first novel to introduce the concept of time travel. This was followed by The Wonderful Visit, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man and The Way of the Worlds. These books alone were enough to establish an entirely new genre – that of science fiction.
Although it is for these works of science fiction that he is best remembered, H G Wells was in fact a prolific and extremely versatile writer. He was the author of a number of tracts, social and political satires, and stern warnings about the future of civilisation. A remarkably accurate prophet, he foresaw both World Wars and the atomic bomb, and the realization of these visions accounted for much of the pessimism in his later works. In 1934 he published his autobiography, An Experiment In Autobiography, which serves as an invaluable reflection of the people and cultures of his times.
‘one of the outstanding contemporary literary figures’
The New York Times
Titles
available All HB 9.99 (135 x 185mm)
Fiction
Ann
Veronica
Apropos
of Delores
The
Autocracy of Mr Parham
Babes
in Darkling Wood
Bealby
Brynhild
The
Brothers & The Croquet Player
The
Bulpington of Blup
Conquest Of Time & Happy Turning: A Dream of Life
The Dream
The First Men In the Moon
The Food of the Gods
The History of Mr Polly
The Holy Terror
Mr Britling Sees It Through
A Modern Utopia
The New Machiavelli
The Passionate Friends
The Shape of Things To Come
The Time Machine
The Sleeper Awakes/When the Sleeper Awakes
Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul
The Island of Dr Moreau
The Invisible Man
In the Days of the Comet
Love
and Mr Lewisham
Marriage
Meanwhile
Men
Like Gods
The
Sea Lady
The
Wonderful Visit
The
Wheels of Chance
The World of
William Clissold (£12.99)
The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman
The War of the Worlds
The War in the Air
The Undying Fire
Tono Bungay
Non-fiction
The Open Conspiracy and Other Writings
Experiment in Autobiography £10.99
Selling points
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All titles will be in small hardback format
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Wells’ work is an essential addition to any book department
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Many of the titles have long been out of print and are eagerly sought
after
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Acknowledged inventor of the modern Science Fiction genre
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Extremely versatile writer – satire (Kipps, The History of Mr.Polly),
Feminist novel (Ann Veronica), Political novel (The New Machiavelli) and of
course S.F. (The Time Machine, War of the Worlds etc.)
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Many of the novels have been made into classic films – Spielberg is
about to remake The Time Machine sometime in 2002
Headstrong, reckless and fiercely independent, Ann Veronica Stanley is determined to be a ‘Person’, to work, love and, above all, to live. Walking away from her devoted father and the social conventions and obligations of her time, she embarks upon a course of study and encounters an unknown world of suffragettes, Fabians and free love. But it is only when she meets the charismatic Capes that she truly confronts the meaning of her new found freedom.
Ann Veronica caused a sensation, damned in the press and preached against from the pulpits when it was first published in 1909 due to Wells’ groundbreaking treatment of female sexuality.
Stephen Wilbeck leads a carefree life. Flitting between Paris and London, New York and Torquèstol, he has plenty of time to enjoy the finer things of life, and to observe the people that pass him by. His only tie is to the lovely Dolores – a woman that occupies more of his thoughts that he would care to admit. But Stephen’s stubbornness is to take him on the well-trodden path of loneliness and solitude.
Mr Parnham is in a quandary. Sir Bussy Woodcock has invited him to a séance and Mr Parnham is more than a little keen to keep the acquaintance going – after all, the great financier might just be his ticket to fame and fortune. But to a séance? Damned silly nonsense all this medium business! Just at the point of giving up Sir Bussy once and for all, Mr Parnham has one final change of mind and decides to go along after all. And so he does – with some very interesting results.
Stella has it all – looks, intelligence and an undergraduate place at Cambridge, not to mention Gemini, her fervent admirer at Oxford. Stella and Gemini, the two babes of the story, come increasingly under the influence of a rather impressive psycho-therapeutist whose groundbreaking theories capture their imaginations. But when tragedy strikes they are soon to learn that intellectualism brings cold comfort.
Babes in Darkling Wood is not only a powerful story of changing fortunes, but also provides an exacting dialogue of the advances in psychoanalytical theory.
Young Bealby was determined he would not be a servant. So opposed was he to the very idea that he ranted and rallied against his mother and quite wore her down with his protests. Tantrums aside, the young boy had to accept his lot in life – at least for the time being. And so he was sent to Shonts, the big country house, to work as a steward’s boy. But Bealby hadn’t accounted for a host of guests arriving for the weekend, and certainly nothing in his short life had prepared him for the arrival of the eloquent, but totally eccentric Lord Chancellor. This was to be a position that Bealby would not soon forget.
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.
Georgie was a very sensitive man, what some would, and did, call a sissy. Of course Georgie would never dream of blaming his somewhat effeminate nature on the over-possessive and overbearing aunt who brought him up – although others weren’t quite so reticent with their opinions. Georgie had one reason at least to thank his aunt – she had led him into the career he so shone at. It didn’t matter to Georgie that playing croquet wasn’t exactly the most glamorous thing he could do, because it was on the croquet lawn that he met some of the most intriguing people.
Rowland Palace was a success story – an outstanding scholar, he had gained renown for his worthy opinions even before he came down from Cambridge. It was only a matter of time before his first book was published, and then on to bigger and better things. It seemed that nothing could stop his meteoric rise – except perhaps those photographs…
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.
Conquest Of Time and Happy Turning: A Dream of Life ISBN 0755103971
Time is the one thing that governs our very being – whether young or old, at the end of our days or just starting out in life, time is a fixed quantity. Measurable and exact, it orders our days and instructs our activity with a rigid and monotonous regularity.
But what if time were to become fluid? If the hands on the sundial could be altered to speed on to the next day, or to revert to our yesterdays? Wouldn’t this have immeasurable implications on every aspect of our lives? And if time becomes transient, the concept of death must surely take on a very different flavour. Once the controlling force of time has been usurped, a whole host of philosophical questions come into play – questions that H G Wells ponders with remarkable dexterity.
‘The fantasies of dreamland go an immeasurable way beyond what is now conceivable and practical.’
As an escape from the horrors of the final days of the Second World War, H G Wells turns his thoughts to the dream world – a world unbound by the logic and reason of earthly matter and a world where he can come face to face with deities and supernatural beings. The fantasy he conceives is intelligent, exotic and thoroughly entertaining.
Sarnac may have become a successful scientist, a leading light in the research of chemical reactions of cells, but he would never forget the dream. It was a dream he had had as a young child, a dream that was both beautiful and terrifying; frighteningly real and marvellously imaginary. And as Sarnafc looks back on his childhood, he finds the world of his dreams and the reality he has lived have become so magically entwined that he can no longer distinguish between them. H G Wells’ The Dream is a powerful and enchanting childhood romance.
Experiment In Autobiography ISBN 0755104005, 0755111435
Known as the ‘Father of Science Fiction’, H G Wells was responsible for an entirely new genre of writing. It was his bold, daring and hugely innovative books that first introduced readers to the concepts of time travel, invisibility, genetic experimentation and interstellar invasion – ideas that have gone on to inspire future generations and given rise to the entire science fiction industry.
Experiment in Autobiography is Wells’ own unique look at his life and work. Critical and painstakingly honest, he paints an enduring portrait of the people, places and cultures he encountered, and reveals his inspiration for his groundbreaking books.
‘Of course I ought to have expected that, only I didn’t. It came to me as an absolute, for a moment an overwhelming shock. It seemed as though it wasn’t a face, as though it must needs be a mask, a horror, a deformity, that would presently be disavowed or explained. There was no nose, and the thing had dull bulging eyes at the sides – in the silhouette I had supposed they were ears. There were no ears… I have tried to draw one of those head but I cannot. There was a mouth, downwardly curved, like a human mouth in a face that stares ferociously…
There the thing was, looking at us!”
Mr Bensington and Professor Redwood were amongst that new breed of men – or ‘scientists’ as they had become known. And in the mid-nineteenth century, being a ‘scientist’ was not something one cared to admit to. But Bensington and Redwood were rather more interested in their new discovery than the nomenclature of pedants, especially when their new discovery was none other than Herakleophorbia. The first three variants were rather unremarkable, but Herakleophorbia IV – Herakleophorbia IV was the very food of gods…
Mr Polly is one of literature’s most enduring and universal creations. An ordinary man, trapped in an ordinary life, Mr Polly makes a series of ill-advised choices that bring him to the very brink of financial ruin. Determined not to become the latest victim of the economic retrenchment of the Edwardian age, he rebels in magnificent style and takes control of his life once and for all.
Who would have thought a baby could scream quite so murderously? And blue murder at that? Cook prayed he’d grow out of it, but the child only seemed to get worse. And then the kicking came, and the smashing – his mother despaired, wishing she’d had a daughter instead.
It wasn’t an auspicious beginning. But perhaps it was a sign of what was to come.
Revenge was all Leadford could think off as he set out to find the unfaithful Nettie and her adulterous lover. But this was all to change when a new comet entered the earth’s orbit and totally reversed the natural order of things. The Great Change had occurred and any previous emotions, thoughts, ambitions, hopes and fears had all been removed. Free love, pacifism and equality were now the name of the game. But how would Leadford fare in this most utopian of societies.
On a cold wintry day in the depths of February a stranger appeared in The Coach and Horses requesting a room. So strange was this man’s appearance, dressed from head to foot with layer upon layer of clothing, bandages and the most enormous glasses that the owner, Mrs Hall, quite wondered what accident could have befallen him. She didn’t know then that he was invisible – but the rumours soon began to spread…
H G Wells’ masterpiece The Invisible Man is a classic science fiction thriller showing the perils of scientific advancement.
A shipwreck in the South Seas brings a doctor to an island paradise. Far from seeing this as the end of his life, Dr Moreau seizes the opportunity to play God and infiltrate a reign of terror in this new kingdom. Endless cruel and perverse experiments ensue and see a series of new creations – the ‘Beast People’ – all of which must bow before the deified doctor.
Originally a Swiftian satire on the dangers of authority and submission, Wells’ The Island Of Dr Moreau can now just as well be read as a prophetic tale of genetic modification and mutability.
Mr Kipps was a simple man. An assistant in Shalford’s drapery establishment, his was a straightforward, uncomplicated life. But to this, he added layer upon layer of pretence until he had become an entirely new creation – and one that could rightly rise to the next social echelon. Unfortunately for Kipps, the people he meets there are also mere social constructs, yet rather more sophisticated than he and it is all he can do prevent his mask from sliding. Until the day he meets Ann Pornick and discovers the real priorities in life.
In his youth Mr Lewisham thought little of love and much of greatness. A worthy scholar he concerned himself with the works of Shakespeare and Emerson, Confucius and Carlyle. But that was before he accompanied the boys to church one Sunday and found that the Frobishers’ pew was occupied by an unknown lady. For Mr Lewisham, knowing little of love and its far from smooth path, this was to be the beginning of a deep inner conflict.
Marjorie Pope was an extremely pretty young lady - a young lady who had found her own mind despite her father’s insistence that she was still a child and had much to learn. It came as rather a shock to Mr Pope then to discover that Marjorie was all set to wed. But in their domestic set up, marriage was not the ‘happy ever after’ Marjorie had been led to believe; instead it was the very beginning of a drama that would see her wrestle with social convention and domesticity in the light of her new found passion and ambition.
On first publication, Marriage elicited an enraged response from feminists and traditionalists alike for its treatment of the complex interplay between sex and society.
‘an entertaining book mixing argument with comedy, and the business of amusing with that of provoking thought in Mr Wells’ ever skilful manner’ – Times Literary Supplement
Away from England’s political unrest and the harsh realities of the General Strike, life in Italy’s Casa Terragena seemed positively balmy. Nothing like a little sun to see the best in life. Yet for Cynthia Rylands, this simply wasn’t enough – she would never be satisfied until she had found the answers to her most perplexing questions. Turning to her companions for some erudition and guidance, she unearths a host of enlightened and downright entertaining worldviews. For in her companions are some of H G Wells most sublime creations.
Mr Barnstaple was ever such a careful driver, careful to indicate before every manoeuvre and very much in favour of slowing down at the slightest hint of difficulty. So however could he have got the car into a skid on a bend on the Maidenhead road?
When he recovered himself he was more than a little relieved to see the two cars that he had been following still merrily motoring along in front of him. It seemed that all was well – except that the scenery had changed, rather a lot. It was then that the awful truth dawned: Mr Barnstaple had been hurled into another world altogether.
How would he ever survive in this supposed Utopia, and more importantly, how would he ever get back?
Dissatisfied with the world around him, H G Wells seeks to attain a system of living and state of affairs rather more desirable – in short the ideal. But as he argues for sociological reform and an advance of the philosophical model, he finds that he has left the realms of the possible and entered the world of his imagination. For H G Wells, creator of time travel and a host of new and exotic societies, his ideal is a fusion of the philosophical and the imaginative.
For Mr Britling, eccentric and vivacious writer, the summer of 1914 consisted of long, hot days and luxurious house parties with a host of international guests to entertain him. And when he tired of this, he hopped across the channel where his devoted mistress was patiently waiting. But all this was about to change as Germany began marching into Belgium and Europe no longer provided the easy diversion he had so enjoyed. Mr Britling soon came to realise that this war was more than simply an inconvenience, and was a dangerous threat to those he loved. But all he could do was sit at home and wait.
As H G Wells sat down to write, he realized with almost shuddering accuracy that he had reached the exact same age as Machiavelli was when he fell from politics and wrote of the restlessness of his spirit. And it was this same restless passion that compelled H G Wells to write a similar book. Thinking further he unearthed yet more striking parallels of his life and that of Machiavelli and this served as a unique inspiration for The New Machiavelli. The result is an inspired and remarkable work of sex, politics and sheer creative genius.
‘The world is undergoing immense changes… We have been carried along – with no means of measuring the increasing swiftness in the succession of events. We are only now beginning to realize the force and strength of the storm of change that has come upon us.’
Although writing some seventy years ago, H G Wells could easily have been describing recent events, so eternal and perceptive are his observations. In this series of inspired essays, he considers philosophy, religion, human life – and most alarming of all, the strange and undeniable power of propaganda, or as he sees is, a very open conspiracy.
As Stephen Stratton sat by the body of his recently departed father, he longed with his whole being that his father had left him some thought, some idea of the philosophies and beliefs that had motivated him during his life. This longing soon turns into determination not to let history repeat itself in the next generation. The result is a long and deeply personal letter to his son, for reading not in his boyhood but when he too becomes a man. For when he becomes a man, his son might one day understand the great passion he shared with the aristocratic Lady Mary – a woman separated from him by class and money.
The Passionate Friends is a great love story – of the love between father and son and between man and woman.
The Sea Lady ISBN 0755104196
For the fashionable and affluent Randolph Buntings, it was just another day at the beach – that was until Fred spotted a mysterious lady in a red dress and Phrygian bathing-cap getting into difficulties far out at sea. Embarking on a brave and daring rescue attempt, Fred waded in and brought her safely to shore. The family applauded warmly – after all not every day had such excitement. It was only later that they spotted that this lady wasn’t quite ‘normal’ – in fact, to be precise, she had a tail. For it seemed the Randolph Buntings had been visited by a mermaid.
The Shape Of Things To Come ISBN 075510420X
The Shape of Things to Come is one of the great classics of science fiction. Spanning the years from 1929 to 2105, it describes future generations and predicts the advent of wars, advancing technology and sweeping cultural changes. 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 year: AD 802701.
The opponents: the Eloi and the Morlocks.
The battle: fierce and relentless.
The witness: The Traveller, (a.k.a. a Victorian scientist).
His secret: The Time Machine.
H G Wells’ famed creation of a future society that has lost every trace of civilisation as we know it has been the inspiration for countless tales of science fiction. And with the weak, ineffectual Eloi and the powerful, machine-operating Morlocks he has presented a chilling prophesy of science gone mad. The Time Machine holds that unrivalled position in literary history – it is the original work of time travel.
The Sleeper is just an ordinary man, no one special, just someone going about his everyday business. Until one day he awakes, and finds that the world around him has changed. No longer a nobody, he has been catapulted into the unenviable position of a pawn in a dangerous conspiracy where the stakes are high and the players shockingly intelligent. For this is not the world that the Sleeper knows, it is a new and terrifying mutation.
Want to be rich, successful and beautiful? Healthy and strong? Look no further than Tono-Bungay – a new and powerful medicine that can change your life forever.
Needless to say Tono Bungay was just another crackpot idea, a cheap bottle containing no more than an innocuous, and totally ineffectual liquid. But word of its powers had spread – and brought its entrepreneurial inventors the very wealth and fame it promised.
Sardonic and hugely derisory, Tono Bungay can be read as a biting satire on the follies of English sensibilities.
A game of chess in the heavenly realms, and God and Satan discourse on the nature of mankind. Reluctant to accept his inevitable defeat, Satan claims the battle is still raging – Job was not tested enough, his forbearance can no longer be used as a yardstick. Very well, said the Lord, seek out another man, see if he will honour me until the end. And so Satan makes his choice; whilst on earth, a man wonders why his life is dissolving around him.
Bert Smallways had always been fascinated by anything that moved. Bicycles were his latest fad – but that was before he discovered the thrilling possibilities of hot air balloons. Or rather they discovered him. Accidentally whisked away to Germany in one such contraption, he finds himself in possession of plans for a top-secret aeroplane. This is turn catapulted him into the very heart of Prince Karl Albert’s airship raid on New York – a step that caused the nations to take up arms and fight; a step that wad to result in world war.
Written in 1907, The War in the Air was conceived before the days of the flying machine and seven years prior to the outbreak of The First World War.
‘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…’
A series of strange atmospheric disturbances on the planet Mars may raise concern on Earth but it does little to prepare the inhabitants for imminent invasion. At first the odd-looking Martians seem to pose no threat for the intellectual powers of Victorian London, but it seems man’s superior confidence is disastrously misplaced. For the Martians are heading towards victory with terrifying velocity.
The War of The Worlds is an expertly crafted invasion story that can be read as a frenzied satire on the dangers of imperialism and occupation.
Mr Hoopdriver is an expert in his field – a perfect gentleman with exemplary manners and more than a little flair behind the drapers’ counter. Yet Mr Hoopdriver is growing tired of measuring out yards of gingham and selling endless reels of threads various. He yearns for new discoveries and new adventures, and above all a change of scenery. Determined to leave the humdrum behind him, he mounts his bicycle and heads off for places new.
Sir Isaac Harman was so set it his ways that he saw no need to change them now. His female employees, however, saw differently and had every sympathy with the suffragette movement he so opposed, and thought he too should do his bit for the women’s movement. To make matters worse, his wife agreed – so he locked her up. But Ellen Harman was not a woman to give up easily and soon word spread and she became quite the talk of the literary, social and feminist circles. By default, Sir Isaac had made his wife the very embodiment of women’s independence.
The Wonderful Visit ISBN 0755104293
Most of the inhabitants of Sidderton were asleep that night so they never knew what had happened. Some might have guessed from the howling wind of the previous day, one or two heard its noise, but no one actually saw it. If they had they might have been more prepared for what was to follow. At first they thought those who reported sightings of the Strange Bird the next morning had gone mad, or were drunk. But they soon got used to the idea – for since that night, Sidderton would never be the same again.
As William Clissold arrives at his fifty-ninth birthday, he considers that his lot in life must surely be nearing its end. With this in mind, he turns his thoughts to look back on his life, to remembrances of things past, and sees fit to put pen to paper. The result is a revealing tale of the philosophies, religions and social systems he encountered through his life, and a fascinating insight into the mind of this extraordinary, but very typical man. And reluctant to remain in the past, Clissold shares his own plans of bringing order to the heady chaos of the world around him. In William Clissold, H G Wells has created a man moulded by the sensibilities of his age.