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Revision as of 20:29, 14 March 2001
Herbert George Wells (1866-1946)
English writer
In his early novels, described at the time as `scientific romances' he invented a number of themes that have been elaborated on by later science fiction writers, and have entered popular culture, with such works as The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds
In a long writing career, he wrote novels covering a wide range of subjects, such as the excesses of Edwardian advertising, in `Tono-Bungay', books depicting various Utopian societies, such as "In the days of the comet" and even wrote the screenplay for the Alexander Korda film, Things to Come, (1937?) which depicted, all too accurately, the impending World War, with cities being destroyed by aerial bombardment.
He grew increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for humanity in his later years, as the title of his last book, "Mind at the end of its tether" suggests. His growing pessimism led to his later books tending rather to preach than tell a story, and they didn't have the energy and inventiveness of his earlier science fiction novels - as the science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon aptly put it "he sold his birthright for a pot of message"
A partial listing of his novels, with dates of publication where I know them:
- The War of the Worlds
- The Time Machine (1896)
- The Invisible Man (1897)
- Kipps (1905)
- Ann Veronica (1909
- Tono-Bungay (1909)
- The New Machiavelli (1911)
- Marriage (1912)
- The Shape of Things to Come (1933)
- The Island of Dr. Moreau
- The history of Mr Polly
- A Modern Utopia
- Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island
- The World of William Clissold
- In the Days of the Comet
- The World Set Free