H. G. Wells  

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H. G. Wells (1866 - 1946) was an English writer perhaps best-known today for his novel The War of the Worlds (1898), which caused a panic when it was adapted for radio by Orson Welles.

Overview

A futurist, he wrote a number of utopian works and foresaw the advent of aircraft, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite television and something resembling the World Wide Web. His science fiction imagined time travel, alien invasion, invisibility, and biological engineering. Brian Aldiss referred to Wells as the "Shakespeare of science fiction".

Wells rendered his works convincing by instilling commonplace detail alongside a single extraordinary assumption – dubbed “Wells's law” – leading Joseph Conrad to hail him in 1898 as "O Realist of the Fantastic!" (Conrad addressing Wells in a letter of 4 December 1898). His most notable science fiction works include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898) and the military science fiction The War in the Air (1907).

Wells's earliest specialised training was in biology, and his thinking on ethical matters took place in a specifically and fundamentally Darwinian context. He was also an outspoken Socialist from a young age, often (but not always, as at the beginning of the First World War) sympathising with pacifist views. His later works became increasingly political and didactic, and he wrote little science fiction, while he sometimes indicated on official documents that his profession was that of journalist. Novels such as Kipps and The History of Mr Polly, which describe lower-middle-class life, led to the suggestion that he was a worthy successor to Charles Dickens, but Wells described a range of social strata and even attempted, in Tono-Bungay (1909), a diagnosis of English society as a whole.

Novels

• The Time Machine (1895)
• The Wonderful Visit (1895)
• The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896)
• The Wheels of Chance (1896)
• The Invisible Man (1897)
• The War of the Worlds (1898)
• When the Sleeper Wakes (1899)
• Love and Mr Lewisham (1900)
• The First Men in the Moon (1901)
• The Sea Lady (1902)
• The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth (1904)
• Kipps (1905)
• A Modern Utopia (1905)
• In the Days of the Comet (1906)
• The War in the Air (1908)
• Tono-Bungay (1909)
• Ann Veronica (1909)
• The History of Mr Polly (1910)
• The Sleeper Awakes (1910) – revised edition of When the Sleeper Wakes (1899)
• The New Machiavelli (1911)
• Marriage (1912)
• The Passionate Friends (1913)
• The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (1914)
• The World Set Free (1914)
• Bealby: A Holiday (1915)
• The Research Magnificent (1915)
• Mr Britling Sees It Through (1916)
• The Soul of a Bishop (1917)
• Joan and Peter: A Story of an Education (1918)
• The Undying Fire (1919)
• The Secret Places of the Heart (1922)
• Men Like Gods (1923)
• The Dream (1924)
• Christina Alberta's Father (1925)
• The World of William Clissold (1926)
• Meanwhile (1927)
• Mr Blettsworthy on Rampole Island (1928)
• The Autocracy of Mr Parham (1930)
• The Bulpington of Blup (1932)
• The Shape of Things to Come (1933)
• The Croquet Player (1936)
• Brynhild (1937)
• Star Begotten (1937)
• The Camford Visitation (1937)
• Apropos of Dolores (1938)
• The Brothers (1938)
• The Holy Terror (1939)
• Babes in the Darkling Wood (1940)
• All Aboard for Ararat (1940)
• You Can't Be Too Careful (1941)

Non-fiction

Collections of articles

• The War That Will End War (1914)
• An Englishman Looks at the World (1914); US title: Social Forces in England and America
• The Elements of Reconstruction (1916) – published under the pseudonym D. P.
• God the Invisible King (1917)
• Russia in the Shadows (1920)
• A Year of Prophesying (1925)
• The Way the World is Going (1928)
• The New America: The New World (1935)

Autobiographies

• Experiment in Autobiography (1934)

Biographies

• Frank Swinnerton (1920) – with Arnold Bennett, Grant Overton
• The Story of a Great Schoolmaster: Being a Plain Account of the Life and Ideas of Sanderson of Oundle (1924) – a biography of Frederick William Sanderson

Essays

• Certain Personal Matters (1897)
• The Peace of the World (1915)
• In the Fourth Year (1918)
• Washington and the Hope of Peace (a.k.a. "Washington and the Riddle of Peace") (1922)
• World Brain (1938)
• Travels of a Republican Radical in Search of Hot Water (1939)

History

• What is Coming? (1916)
• War and the Future (a.k.a. Italy, France and Britain at War) (1917)
• The Idea of a League of Nations (1919) – with Viscount Edward Grey, Lionel Curtis, William Archer, H. Wickham Steed, A. E. Zimmern, J. A. Spender, Viscount Bryce and Gilbert Murray
• The Way to the League of Nations (1919) – with Viscount Edward Grey, Lionel Curtis, William Archer, H. Wickham Steed, A. E. Zimmern, J. A. Spender, Viscount Bryce and Gilbert Murray
• The New Teaching of History: with a reply to some recent criticisms of the Outline of History (H. G. Wells) (1921)
• A Short History of the World (1922) (New and Rev Ed. 1946)
• A Short History of Mankind (1925)
• Mr. Belloc Objects to "The Outline of History" (1926)
• The Common Sense of War and Peace (1940)
• The Pocket History of the World (1941)
• Crux Ansata: An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church (1943)

Politics

• This Misery of Boots (1907)
• Will Socialism Destroy the Home? (1907)
• New Worlds for Old (1908)
• The Great State (1912)
• The War and Socialism (1915)
• The Outline of History series:
  1. The Outline of History (1920)
  2. The Science of Life (1930) – with Julian S. Huxley and G. P. Wells
  3. The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1931)
• The Salvaging of Civilization (1921)
• Socialism and the Scientific Motive (1923)
• Wells' Social Anticipations (1927)
• The Open Conspiracy (a.k.a. What Are We To Do With Our Lives?) (1928)
• The New Russia (1931)
• What Should be Done—Now: A Memorandum on the World Situation, John Day (1932)
• After Democracy (1932)
• Marxism vs Liberalism (1934) – with J. V. Stalin
• The New World Order (1939)
• The Rights of Man (1940)
• Guide to the New World (1941)
• Modern Russian and English Revolutionaries (1942) – with Lev Uspensky
• Phoenix: A Summary of the Inescapable Conditions of World Reorganization (1942)

Science

• Text-Book of Biology (1893)
• Honours Physiography (1893) – with R. A. Gregory
• Anticipations series:
  1. Anticipations of the Reactions of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought (1901)
  2. Mankind in the Making (1903)

Sociology

• Great Thoughts From H. G. Wells (1912)
• Thoughts From H. G. Wells (1912)
• Divorce as I See It (1930)
• The Anatomy of Frustration (1936)
• The Fate of Homo Sapiens (a.k.a. The Fate of Man) (1939)
• The Outlook for Homo Sapiens (1942)
• The Conquest of Time (1942)
• '42 to '44: A Contemporary Memoir (1944)
• Reshaping Man's Heritage (1944) – with J. B. S. Haldane, Julian S. Huxley
• The Happy Turning (1945)
• Mind at the End of Its Tether (1945)

Others

• The Future in America (1906), travels
• First and Last Things (1908), philosophy
• Floor Games (1911), guide
• Little Wars (1913), guide
• God the Invisible King (1917), religion
• Introduction to Nocturne (1917)
• Points of View (1930)
• Selections From the Early Prose Works of H. G. Wells (1931)
• H.G. Wells: Early Writings in Science and Science Fiction (1975)

Stories

• "A Family Elopement" (1884)
• "A Tale of the Twentieth Century" (1887)
• "A Talk with Gryllotalpa" (1887) – published under the pseudonym Septimus Browne
• "A Vision of the Past" (1887)
• "The Chronic Argonauts" (1888)
• "The Devotee of Art" (1888)
• "The Flying Man" (aka "The Advent of the Flying Man") (1893)
• "Æpyornis Island" (1894)
• "A Deal in Ostriches" (1894)
• "The Diamond Maker" (1894)
• "The Final Men" (1894)
• "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid" (aka "The Strange Orchid") (1894)
• "The Hammerpond Park Burglary" (1894)
• "The Lord of the Dynamos" (1894)
• "How Gabriel Became Thompson" (1894)
• "In the Avu Observatory" (1894)
• "In the Modern Vein: An Unsympathetic Love Story" (aka "A Bardlet's Romance") (1894)
• "The Jilting of Jane" (1894)
• "The Lord of the Dynamos" (1894)
• "The Man With a Nose" (1894)
• "A Misunderstood Artist" (1894)
• "Mr. Ledbetter's Vacation" (1894)
• "The Stolen Bacillus" (1894)
• "The Thing in No. 7" (1894)
• "Through a Window" (aka "At a Window") (1894)
• "The Thumbmark" (1894)
• "The Treasure in the Forest" (1894)
• "The Triumphs of a Taxidermist" (1894)
• "The Argonauts of the Air" (1895)
• "A Catastrophe" (1895)
• "The Cone" (1895)
• "How Pingwell Was Routed" (1895)
• "Le Mari Terrible" (1895)
• "The Moth" (aka "A Moth – Genus Novo") (1895)
• "Our Little Neighbour" (1895)
• "Pollock and the Porroh Man" (1895)
• "The Reconciliation" (aka "The Bulla") (1895)
• "The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes" (aka "The Story of Davidson's Eyes") (1895)
• "The Temptation of Harringay" (1895)
• "Wayde's Essence" (1895)
• "The Apple" (1896)
• "In the Abyss" (1896)
• "The Plattner Story" (1896)
• "The Purple Pileus" (1896)
• "The Rajah's Treasure" (1896)
• "The Red Room" (1896)
• "The Sea Raiders" (1896)
• "A Slip Under the Microscope" (1896)
• "The Story of the Late Mr Elvesham" (1896)
• "Under the Knife" (aka "Slip Under the Knife") (1896)
• "The Crystal Egg" (1897)
• "Le Mari Terrible" (1897)
• "The Ghost of Fear" (1897)
• "The Lost Inheritance" (1897)
• "Mr Marshall's Doppelganger" (1897)
• "A Perfect Gentleman on Wheels" (1897)
• "The Presence by the Fire" (1897)
• "The Star" (1897)
• "A Story of the Days To Come" (1897)
• "A Story of the Stone Age" (aka "Stories of the Stone Age") (1897)
• "Jimmy Goggles the God" (1898)
• "The Man Who Could Work Miracles" (1898)
• "Miss Winchelsea's Heart" (1898)
• "Mr. Leadbetter's Vacation" (1898)
• "The Stolen Body" (1898)
• "Walcote" (1898)
• "Mr Brisher's Treasure" (1899)
• "A Vision of Judgment" (1899)
• "A Dream of Armageddon" (1901)
• "Filmer" (1901)
• "Mr Skelmersdale in Fairyland" (1901)
• "The New Accelerator" (1901)
• "The Inexperienced Ghost" (aka "The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost") (1902)
• "The Loyalty of Esau Common" (1902)
• "The Land Ironclads" (1903)
• "Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland" (1903)
• "The Magic Shop" (1903)
• "The Truth About Pyecraft" (1903)
• "The Valley of the Spiders" (1903)
• "The Country of the Blind" (1904)
• "The Empire of the Ants" (1905)
• "The Door in the Wall" (1906)
• "The Beautiful Suit" (aka "A Moonlight Fable") (1909)
• "Little Mother Up the Morderberg" (1910)
• "My First Aeroplane" (1910)
• "The Obliterated Man" (1911)
• "The Sad Story of a Dramatic Critic" (1915)
• "The Story of the Last Trump" (1915)
• "The Wild Asses of the Devil" (1915)
• "Peter Learns Arithmetic" (1918)
• "The Grisly Folk" (1921)
• "The Pearl of Love" (1924)
• "The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper" (1932)
• "Answer to Prayer" (1937)
• "The Country of the Blind (revised)" (1939)

Story collections

• The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents (1895)
• Select Conversations With an Uncle (now extinct) (1895)
• The Red Room (1896)
• Thirty Strange Stories (1897)
• The Plattner Story and Others (1897)
• Tales of Space and Time (1899)
• A Cure For Love (1899)
• Twelve Stories and a Dream (1903)*
• The Country of the Blind and Other Stories (1911)
• The Door in the Wall and Other Stories (1911)
• The Star (1913)
• Boon, The Mind of the Race, The Wild Asses of the Devil, and The Last Trump (1915) – first edition published under the pseudonym Reginald Bliss
• Tales of the Unexpected (1922)
• Tales of Wonder (1923)
• Tales of Life and Adventure (1923)
• The Empire of the Ants and Other Stories (1925)
• The Short Stories of H. G. Wells (1927)
• Selected Short Stories (1927)
• The Adventures of Tommy (1929)
• The Valley of Spiders (1930)
• The Stolen Body and Other Tales of the Unexpected (1931)
• The Famous Short Stories of H. G. Wells (aka The Favorite Short Stories of H. G. Wells) (1937)
• Short Stories by H. G. Wells (1940)
• The Inexperienced Ghost (1943)
• The Land Ironclads (1943)
• The New Accelerator (1943)
• The Truth About Pyecraft and Other Short Stories (1943)
• Twenty-Eight Science Fiction Stories (1952)
• Seven Stories (1953)
• Three Prophetic Science Fiction Novels of H. G. Wells (1960)
• The Cone (1965)
• Best Science Fiction Stories of H. G. Wells (1966)
• The Complete Short Stories of H. G. Wells (1966)
• The Man with the Nose and Other Uncollected Stories of H. G. Wells (1984)
• The Red Room and Other Stories (1998)
• Selected Stories of H. G. Wells (2004)

Film stories

Published versions of film scripts and scenarios written by Wells

• The King Who Was a King: The Book of a Film (1929 - scenario for a film which was never made)
• Things to Come (1935 - adaptation of The Shape of Things to Come and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind)
• The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936)
• The New Faust (in Nash's Pall Magazine, December 1936 - adaptation of "The Story of the Late Mr Elvesham")

Articles

• "Zoological Retrogression" (1891)
• "The Rediscovery of the Unique" (1891)
• "Ancient Experiments in Co-Operation" (1892)
• "On Extinction" (1893)
• "The Man of the Year Million" (1893)
• "The Sun God and the Holy Stars" (1894)
• "Province of Pain" (1894)
• "Life in the Abyss" (1894)
• "Another Basis for Life" (1894)
• "The Rate of Change in Species" (1894)
• "The Biological Problem of To-day" (1894)
• "The 'Cyclic' Delusion" (1894)
• "Flat Earth Again" (1894)
• "Bio-Optimism" (1895)
• "Bye-Products in Evolution" (1895)
• "Death" (1895)
• "The Duration of Life" (1895)
• "The Visibility of Change in the Moon" (1895)
• "The Limits of Individual Plasticity" (1895)
• "Human Evolution, an Artificial Process" (1896)
• "Intelligence on Mars" (1896)
• "Concerning Skeletons" (1896)
• "The Possible Individuality of Atoms" (1896)
• "Morals and Civilisation" (1897)
• "On Comparative Theology" (1898)
• "The Discovery of the Future" (1902)
• "The Grisly Folk" (1921)
• "Mr. Wells and Mr. Vowles" (1926)
• "The Red Dust a Fact!" (1927)
• "Democracy Under Revision" (1927)
• "Wells Speaks Some Plain Words to us," New York Times, October 16, 1927
• "Common Sense of World Peace" (1929)
• "Foretelling the Future" (1938)