Wells, Herbert George. (1866 - 1946).
W o r k
S c i e n c e - f i c t i o n :
- contrasts the advantages of a scientifically planned future x the anti-humanist aspects of scientific progress
The Time Machine (1895)
The Island of Dr Moreau (1896)
The War of the Worlds (1898)
The Shape of Things to Come (1936)
S o c i a l F i c t i o n :
- argues for socialism and criticizes the capital x but: employs a questioning socialism, remains unpersuaded by its English version
Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul (1905):
- employs sympathetic socialist characters x but: also a vision of the nation and the society ruled by Stupidity which no ideals can pierce
Tono Bungay (1909):
- contrasts the defunct world of the country house x the narrow perspective of a draper’s shop x the world of market capitalism and invention
Ann Veronica (1909):
- argues for women’s rights, advocates the ‘free and fearless’ participation of women ‘in the collective purpose of mankind’
The History of Mr Polly (1910):
- a fantasy escape from society into a rural idyll
The New Machiavelli (1911):
- portrays the parliamentary life in the early years of 20th century from the point of view of a pragmatic Member of Parliament
Quote
"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."
The opening ofThe War of the Worlds (1898).
Basics
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons).
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Author
Herbert George Wells. (1866 - 1946). British. -
Work
Novelist. Author of The Time Machine (1895). -
Genres
Political and social novel. Science-fiction.
Literature
Abrams, Meyer Howard, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W. W. Norton, 1993.
Barnard, Robert. Stručné dějiny anglické literatury. Praha: Brána, 1997.
Baugh, Albert C. ed. A Literary History of England. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1967.
Coote, Stephen. The Penguin Short History of English Literature. London: Penguin, 1993.
Sampson, George. The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1946.
Sanders, Andrew. The Short Oxford History of English Literature. New York: Clarendon Press, 1994.