H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells

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Title: H. G. Wells
Author: J. D. Beresford
Release Date: March 13, 2005 [EBook #15351]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Illustration: H.G. WELLS]

H.G. WELLS By J.D. BERESFORD

[Illustration]
NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

First Published in 1915

CONTENTS
PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION 9 II. THE ROMANCES 17 III. THE NOVELS 58
IV. SOCIOLOGY 97 BIBLIOGRAPHY 117 AMERICAN
BIBLIOGRAPHY 121 INDEX 125

[Transcriber's Notes for e-book:
The spelling and punctuation are consistent with the original scans with
the following exceptions. If you are using this book for research, please
verify any spelling or punctuation with another source.
I added ["] at end of phrase: "to recover the full-bodied self-satisfaction
of his early days."
In the following sentence, I changed 'succeded' to 'succeeded': And
Bensington, the other experimenter, succeeded in separating a food that
produced regular instead of intermittent growth.]

TO R.A.A.B. THIS ESSAY IS FRATERNALLY DEDICATED

I
INTRODUCTION

THE NORMALITY OF MR WELLS
In his Preface to the Unpleasant Plays, Mr Shaw boasts his possession
of "normal sight." The adjective is the oculist's, and the application of it
is Mr Shaw's, but while the phrase is misleading until it is explained to
suit a particular purpose, it has a pleasing adaptability, and I can find
none better as a key to the works of Mr H.G. Wells.
We need not bungle over the word "normal," in any attempt to meet the
academic objection that it implies conformity to type. In this
connection, the gifted possessor of normal sight is differentiated from
his million neighbours by the fact that he wears no glasses; and if a few
happy people still exist here and there who have no need for the mere
physical assistance, the number of those whose mental outlook is
undistorted by tradition, prejudice or some form of bias is so small that
we regard them as inspired or criminal according to the inclination of
our own beloved predilection. And no spectacles will correct the mental
astigmatism of the multitude, a fact that is often a cause of considerable
annoyance to the possessors of normal sight. That defect of vision,
whether congenital or induced by the confinements of early training,
persists and increases throughout life, like other forms of myopia. The
man who sees a ball as slightly flattened, like a tangerine orange too
tightly packed (an "oblate spheroid" would be the physicist's brief
description), seeks the society of other men who share his illusion; and
the company of them take arms against the opposing faction, which is
confirmed in the belief that the ball is egg-shaped, that the bulge, in
fact, is not "oblate" but "prolate."
I will not elaborate the parable; it is sufficient to indicate that in my
reading of Mr Wells, I have seen him as regarding all life from a
reasonable distance. By good fortune he avoided the influences of his
early training, which was too ineffectual to leave any permanent mark
upon him. His readers may infer, from certain descriptions in Kipps,
and The History of Mr Polly, that Wells himself sincerely regrets the
inadequacies of that "private school of dingy aspect and still dingier
pretensions, where there were no object lessons, and the studies of
book-keeping and French were pursued (but never effectually

overtaken) under the guidance of an elderly gentleman, who wore a
nondescript gown and took snuff, wrote copperplate, explained nothing,
and used a cane with remarkable dexterity and gusto." But, properly
considered, that inadequate elderly gentleman may be regarded as our
benefactor. If he had been more apt in his methods, he might have
influenced the blessed normality of his pupil, and bound upon him the
spectacles of his own order. Worse still, Mr Wells might have been
born into the leisured classes, and sent to Eton and Christchurch, and if
his genius had found any expression after that awful experience, he
would probably, at the best, have written polite essays or a history of
Napoleon, during the intervals of his leisured activity as a member of
the Upper House.
Happily, Fate provided a scheme for preserving his eyesight, and
pitched him into the care of Mr and Mrs Joseph Wells on the 21st
September 1866; behind or above a small general shop in Bromley.
Mrs Wells was the