H. G. Wells

"As I sit down to write here amidst the shadows of vine-leaves under the blue sky of southern Italy, it comes to me with a certain quality of astonishment that my participation in these amazing adventures of Mr. Cavor was, after all, the outcome of the purest accident. It might have been any one. I fell into these things at a time when I thought myself removed from the slightest possibility of disturbing experiences. I had gone to Lympne because I...

The History of Mr. Polly is a 1910 comic novel by H. G. Wells. The protagonist of The History of Mr. Polly is an antihero inspired by H. G. Wells's early experiences in the drapery trade: Alfred Polly, born circa 1870, a timid and directionless young man living in Edwardian England, who despite his own bumbling achieves contented serenity with little help from those around him. Mr. Polly's most striking characteristic is his "innate sense of epithet",...

The Island of Doctor Moreau is a classic work of early science fiction and one of H. G. Wells' most visionary novels. It recounts the harrowing ordeal of Edward Prendick, an Englishman who survives a shipwreck in the southern Pacific Ocean. Rescued by a man named Montgomery, Prendick finds himself on an island belonging to Dr. Moreau, formerly an eminent physiologist in London who was expelled from his homeland for his cruel vivisection experiments. Prendick...

Un joven científico, para asombro e incredulidad de sus colegas y otros expertos, ha desarrollado una máquina que le permite hacer realidad uno de los sueños más antiguos de la humanidad: vivir en una época distinta a la suya. H. G. Wells logra con su libro La máquina del tiempo, el primer relato, y el más acabado, de viajes en el tiempo. En los momentos fundacionales de la ciencia ficción aborda con maestría uno de los temas más recurrentes...

Thirty-three science fiction and fantasy stories from the celebrated author of such classics as The War of the Worlds, The Times Machine, and The Invisible Man. Venture to strange worlds from the imagination of H. G. Wells with this collection of tales of science fiction and fantasy. Witness the darker side of humanity in "The Jilting of Jane" and "The Cone." Learn what a man does when he faces fear itself in a haunted house in "The Red Room." Travel...

H. G. Wells' prophetic The War in the Air foretold the use of airplanes in warfare and the coming of World War I. First serialized in 1907 and published in book form in 1908, the novel tells the story of the forward-thinking tinkerer Bert Smallways. Alfred Butteridge is said to be the only English aviator to know the "secret of the flying machine." When Bert Smallways accidentally falls into Butteridge's hot air balloon, he soon finds himself

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The World Set Free is a novel written in 1913 and published in 1914 by H. G. Wells. The book is based on a prediction of nuclear weapons of a more destructive and uncontrollable sort than the world has yet seen. It had appeared first in serialised form with a different ending as A Prophetic Trilogy, consisting of three books: A Trap to Catch the Sun, The Last War in the World and The World Set Free. A frequent theme of Wells's work, as in his 1901...

A profound and very human account of the early years of the war, told from the perspective of a father rather than combatants, but no less revealing. Mr Britling lives in the quintessentially English town of Matching's Easy in Essex. He is a great thinker, an essayist, but most of all an optimist. When war arrives he is forced to reassess many of the things he had been so sure of. The war brings great change - Belgian refugees come with dreadful stories...

'The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents' is a collection of short stories written by H. G. Wells, first published in 1895. Containing 15 intriguing tales by the master of the short story form, this collection constitutes a must-read for fans of H. G. Wells' work and classic science fiction alike. The stories include: 'The Stolen Bacillus', 'The Flowering Of The Strange Orchid', 'In The Avu Observatory', 'The Triumphs Of A Taxidermist', 'A Deal In...

Having coined the phrase "the war that will end war," H. G. Wells was disillusioned by the World War I peace settlement. Convinced that humanity needed to awaken to the instability of the world order and remember lessons from the past, the author of numerous science fiction classics set out to write about history. Wells hoped to remind mankind of its common past, provide it with a basis for international patriotism, and guide it to renounce war. The...