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Four Masterworks (1895‒1898) #1, 2, 4
The Time Machine / The War of the Worlds / The Island of Dr. Moreau
The Time Machine
When a Victorian scientist propels himself into the year a.d. 802,701, he is initially delighted to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty, contentment, and peace. Entranced at first by the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man, he soon realizes that these beautiful people are simply remnants of a once-great culture--now weak and childishly afraid of the dark. They have every reason to be afraid: in deep tunnels beneath their paradise lurks another race descended from humanity--the sinister Morlocks. And when the scientist's time machine vanishes, it becomes clear he must search these tunnels if he is ever to return to his own era.
The War of the Worlds
The night after a shooting star is seen streaking through the sky from Mars, a cylinder is discovered on Horsell Common in London. At first, naive locals approach the cylinder armed just with a white flag only to be quickly killed by an all-destroying heat-ray, as terrifying tentacled invaders emerge. Soon the whole of human civilisation is under threat, as powerful Martians build gigantic killing machines, destroy all in their path with black gas and burning rays, and feast on the warm blood of trapped, still-living human prey. The forces of the Earth, however, may prove harder to beat than they at first appear.
The Island of Dr Moreau
A shipwreck in the South Seas, a palm-tree paradise where a mad doctor conducts vile experiments, animals that become human and then "beastly" in ways they never were before -- it's the stuff of high adventure. It's also a parable about Darwinian theory, a social satire in the vein of Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels), and a bloody tale of horror.
As H. G. Wells himself wrote about this story, "The Island of Dr. Moreau is an exercise in youthful blasphemy. Now and then, though I rarely admit it, the universe projects itself towards me in a hideous grimace. It grimaced that time, and I did my best to express my vision of the aimless torture in creation."
When a Victorian scientist propels himself into the year a.d. 802,701, he is initially delighted to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty, contentment, and peace. Entranced at first by the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man, he soon realizes that these beautiful people are simply remnants of a once-great culture--now weak and childishly afraid of the dark. They have every reason to be afraid: in deep tunnels beneath their paradise lurks another race descended from humanity--the sinister Morlocks. And when the scientist's time machine vanishes, it becomes clear he must search these tunnels if he is ever to return to his own era.
The War of the Worlds
The night after a shooting star is seen streaking through the sky from Mars, a cylinder is discovered on Horsell Common in London. At first, naive locals approach the cylinder armed just with a white flag only to be quickly killed by an all-destroying heat-ray, as terrifying tentacled invaders emerge. Soon the whole of human civilisation is under threat, as powerful Martians build gigantic killing machines, destroy all in their path with black gas and burning rays, and feast on the warm blood of trapped, still-living human prey. The forces of the Earth, however, may prove harder to beat than they at first appear.
The Island of Dr Moreau
A shipwreck in the South Seas, a palm-tree paradise where a mad doctor conducts vile experiments, animals that become human and then "beastly" in ways they never were before -- it's the stuff of high adventure. It's also a parable about Darwinian theory, a social satire in the vein of Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels), and a bloody tale of horror.
As H. G. Wells himself wrote about this story, "The Island of Dr. Moreau is an exercise in youthful blasphemy. Now and then, though I rarely admit it, the universe projects itself towards me in a hideous grimace. It grimaced that time, and I did my best to express my vision of the aimless torture in creation."
484 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2002
13 people are currently reading
122 people want to read
About the author
H.G. Wells
5,336 books11.1k followersHerbert George Wells was born to a working class family in Kent, England. Young Wells received a spotty education, interrupted by several illnesses and family difficulties, and became a draper's apprentice as a teenager. The headmaster of Midhurst Grammar School, where he had spent a year, arranged for him to return as an "usher," or student teacher. Wells earned a government scholarship in 1884, to study biology under Thomas Henry Huxley at the Normal School of Science. Wells earned his bachelor of science and doctor of science degrees at the University of London. After marrying his cousin, Isabel, Wells began to supplement his teaching salary with short stories and freelance articles, then books, including The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).
Wells created a mild scandal when he divorced his cousin to marry one of his best students, Amy Catherine Robbins. Although his second marriage was lasting and produced two sons, Wells was an unabashed advocate of free (as opposed to "indiscriminate") love. He continued to openly have extra-marital liaisons, most famously with Margaret Sanger, and a ten-year relationship with the author Rebecca West, who had one of his two out-of-wedlock children. A one-time member of the Fabian Society, Wells sought active change. His 100 books included many novels, as well as nonfiction, such as A Modern Utopia (1905), The Outline of History (1920), A Short History of the World (1922), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1932). One of his booklets was Crux Ansata, An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church. Although Wells toyed briefly with the idea of a "divine will" in his book, God the Invisible King (1917), it was a temporary aberration. Wells used his international fame to promote his favorite causes, including the prevention of war, and was received by government officials around the world. He is best-remembered as an early writer of science fiction and futurism.
He was also an outspoken socialist. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Fathers of Science Fiction". D. 1946.
More: http://philosopedia.org/index.php/H._...
http://www.online-literature.com/well...
http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells
Wells created a mild scandal when he divorced his cousin to marry one of his best students, Amy Catherine Robbins. Although his second marriage was lasting and produced two sons, Wells was an unabashed advocate of free (as opposed to "indiscriminate") love. He continued to openly have extra-marital liaisons, most famously with Margaret Sanger, and a ten-year relationship with the author Rebecca West, who had one of his two out-of-wedlock children. A one-time member of the Fabian Society, Wells sought active change. His 100 books included many novels, as well as nonfiction, such as A Modern Utopia (1905), The Outline of History (1920), A Short History of the World (1922), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1932). One of his booklets was Crux Ansata, An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church. Although Wells toyed briefly with the idea of a "divine will" in his book, God the Invisible King (1917), it was a temporary aberration. Wells used his international fame to promote his favorite causes, including the prevention of war, and was received by government officials around the world. He is best-remembered as an early writer of science fiction and futurism.
He was also an outspoken socialist. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Fathers of Science Fiction". D. 1946.
More: http://philosopedia.org/index.php/H._...
http://www.online-literature.com/well...
http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 13, 2012
HG Wells' fiction was heavily influenced by his fervent belief in Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Wells background helps us understand why he embraced Darwinism so readily and used it as an ongoing subtext in his work.
Wells was born in 1866, in the middle of the raging debate on evolution, with scientists advocating for this explanation of the origin of life and the Church very much against. In view of his working class roots, however, Wells would not likely have been exposed to this discussion until 1883, when he entered the environment of higher education after several failed apprenticeships. Even at this time, acceptance of Darwin's theory was hardly mainstream: the bishops of the predominant Church of England only relented their opposition in 1890.
Wells excelled in his new environment, self-admittedly due to his teacher, Thomas Huxley, who first introduced him to Darwinism. So influenced was he by Huxley and evolutionary theory that, in his autobiography, Wells wrote: "Darwin and Huxley... belong to the same aristocracy as Plato and Aristotle and Galileo..."
After dabbling in short stories, Wells began his writing career in earnest in 1895, with the publication of his first novel, The Time Machine, referring to evolutionary theory when he described the Eloi and the Morlocks. He returned to Darwin's theory over again in other books, including The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), when Moreau boasted he could do "better than evolution," and The Country of the Blind (1904), with native adaptation "over 14 generations" to life in darkness. The theory of natural selection is the star of the ending in "The War of the Worlds."
For Wells, evolution was not only a theory of life, it provided a scientific rationale for the socialist ideal he embraced, where people like him--marred by the accident of lowly birth--could succeed. Even in his last book, A Mind At the End of Its Tether (1945), Wells referred to evolution when he postulated that humanity will be rejected by nature and replaced by another species. In fact, it is entirely fitting that Darwin's theory should feature in the bookends of this extraordinary writer.
Wells was born in 1866, in the middle of the raging debate on evolution, with scientists advocating for this explanation of the origin of life and the Church very much against. In view of his working class roots, however, Wells would not likely have been exposed to this discussion until 1883, when he entered the environment of higher education after several failed apprenticeships. Even at this time, acceptance of Darwin's theory was hardly mainstream: the bishops of the predominant Church of England only relented their opposition in 1890.
Wells excelled in his new environment, self-admittedly due to his teacher, Thomas Huxley, who first introduced him to Darwinism. So influenced was he by Huxley and evolutionary theory that, in his autobiography, Wells wrote: "Darwin and Huxley... belong to the same aristocracy as Plato and Aristotle and Galileo..."
After dabbling in short stories, Wells began his writing career in earnest in 1895, with the publication of his first novel, The Time Machine, referring to evolutionary theory when he described the Eloi and the Morlocks. He returned to Darwin's theory over again in other books, including The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), when Moreau boasted he could do "better than evolution," and The Country of the Blind (1904), with native adaptation "over 14 generations" to life in darkness. The theory of natural selection is the star of the ending in "The War of the Worlds."
For Wells, evolution was not only a theory of life, it provided a scientific rationale for the socialist ideal he embraced, where people like him--marred by the accident of lowly birth--could succeed. Even in his last book, A Mind At the End of Its Tether (1945), Wells referred to evolution when he postulated that humanity will be rejected by nature and replaced by another species. In fact, it is entirely fitting that Darwin's theory should feature in the bookends of this extraordinary writer.
July 6, 2008
Three great Wells stories, the reader can imaginatively travel to the future, be attacked by martians and meet a really mad doctor who's turning animals to people.
March 9, 2012
Amazing imagination... read all three at various times and still find myself astonished at Wells vision.
January 18, 2013
Wow, this was definitely a H. G. Wells book. Very science fiction!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews