Selected Stories of H.G. Wells

by H.G. Wells, Ursula K. Le Guin (Editor/Introduction)

Ursula K. Le Guin’s selection of twenty-six stories showcases H. G. Wells’s genius and reintroduces readers to his singular talent for making the unbelievable seem utterly plausible.

He envisioned a sky filled with airplanes before Orville Wright ever left the ground. He described the spectacle of space travel decades before men set foot on the moon. H. G. Wells was a visionary, a man of science with an enduring literary touch, and his originality and inventiveness are fully on display in this essential collection.

Including these stories:

“A Slip Under the Microscope”
“The Remarkable Case of Davidson’s Eyes”
“The Plattner Story”
“Under the Knife”
“The Crystal Egg”
“The New Accelerator”
“The Stolen Body”
“The Argonauts of the Air”
“In the Abyss”
“The Star”
“The Land Ironclads”
“A Dream of Armageddon”
“The Lord of the Dynamos”
“The Valley of Spiders”
“The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham”
“The Man Who Could Work Miracles”
“The Magic Shop”
“Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland”
“The Door in the Wall”
“The Presence by the Fire”
“A Vision of Judgment”
“The Story of the Last Trump”
“The Wild Asses of the Devil”
“Answer to Prayer”
“The Queer Story of Brownlow’s Newspaper”
“The Country of the Blind”

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Classics, Fiction, 20th Century, Fantasy, Short Story Collection

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1927

About the author

Herbert 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

Reviews

[Sandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this collection four stars because it's H.G. Wells. Honestly, his style hasn't aged very well. With the exception of a few stories, the tales are all told second-hand. The first-person narrator knows someone or meets someone who has an extraordinary tale to tell and passes it on to him. The narrator then tells the reader the story--just as it was told to him. A straight third-person POV would have worked much better.

As edited by Ursula K. LeGuin (with commentary), this collection is broken down into six categories:

I. Visionary Science Fiction
II. Technological and Predictive Science Fiction
III. Horror
IV. Fantasies
V. Fables
VI. Psycho-Social Science Fiction

I was really surprised at how poorly the science fiction short stories in the first two sections worked. Not only were most of the stories set up in that third-hand reporting style, but they bogged down in scientific explanation. Now, I have read quite a few of Wells' SF novels, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds and The Island of Dr. Moreau are really wonderful examples of Wells' talent at taking science and combining it with an exciting story that both entertains and educates. The problem with the short stories is that the packs the same amount of science into them as he does into a novel and the story gets lost in the details. In the first two sections, only Under the Knife and The Star stand out as being really good stories.

Once we leave the first two sections and move on to the Horror, Fantasy and Fable sections, Well's storytelling gets to shine through. He's not trying to make science comprehensible to the masses anymore and can focus on just telling a story. Here again, he relies heavily on the third-hand narration technique, but it's not quite as annoying. Many of the stories in this section reminded me very much of The Twilight Zone. In fact, I suspect quite a few stories in that classic TV series were inspired by the short stories of Mr. Wells. The fables were particularly interesting because they are so unlike any of Wells' other work. In these sections, my favorite stories were The Magic Shop, The Door in the Wall and The Wild Asses of the Devil.

The last section had only two stories. One, The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper was written rather late in Wells' career and is a fine story about a man who gets a copy of a newspaper published 40 years in the future. The final story in the collection, The Country of the Blind, was originally published in 1904 and re-published in 1939 with a different ending. LeGuin says that this is the best of Wells' short stories, but I personally liked The Magic Shop better. The story is printed here with both endings and I do believe the 1939 ending is far better.

I think one of the problems I had with this collection is that all of the stories seemed so familiar. However, I believe that is because Wells was a great inspiration to future generations of science fiction. His stories are the originals and the newer ones are just copies. This collection is well worth reading if you are a science fiction aficionado because it will give you insight into the origins of the genre.

[Wayne Barrett · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read 4 of H.G.'s novels and enjoyed them all. Because of that I was looking forward to this collection of short stories but unfortunately I was disappointed. That isn't to say that the writing isn't good or that others may not like the stories, but for me, they were for the most part, very boring.

[Marcus Pacenza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read about 200 pages before I gave up. Some interesting ideas, but gets pretty repetitive. Old Sci Fi is hard to get into more then a hundred years later.

[Phillip Marsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 A little repetitive in form. However, favourites:

•The Crystal Egg
•Into the Abyss
•The Plattner Story
•The Door in the Wall
•A Vision of Judgement
•The Story of the Last Trump
•The Wild Asses of the Devil
•The Country of the Blind

[Suzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars. Some of the stories were great, a few were ho-hum, and some I skipped because they didn't interest me. The introductions by Ursula Le Guin were very interesting and helpful

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sought out this specific collection of H.G. Wells’s short stories because they were gathered, ordered, and edited by Ursula K. Le Guin. I had read a few of Wells’s longer stories (War of the Worlds, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Time Machine), but I read them as entertainment, not as literature. I don’t mean that with any kind of judgment. Wells writes entertainingly and to entertain, and to read a story to hear a good yarn is a perfectly legitimate enterprise. I just mean that I hadn’t paid any attention to Wells as an artist, making artistic decisions. Coming to these stories in this collection through the eyes of Le Guin is like taking a small course on Wells as a writer, or seeing his works through the eyes of friend. It shaped the way I see and understand Wells’s writing.

Instead of presenting the 26 short stories, spanning 40 years of Wells’s life, in chronological order, from the first written to the last, Le Guin has grouped the stories by genre: “Because almost all Wells’s stories are genre stories and because I value them as such, I arranged them, not chronologically, but in sections by kind. Each section has a brief introduction, discussing what kind of stories they are, where this kind of story came from and what it may have led to” (xii). It is a clever way to group an artist’s work, and it makes you conscious of how each story relates to the other stories within its grouping, and of course, how blurry and artificial those lines are in the end. Her first grouping is not by any larger-recognized genre that I’m familiar with: “In one way or another all the stories in this section have to do with what somebody sees” (italics in original, 3). And while these first 7 stories are built around gifted vision, Le Guin uses the category to set the larger theme that she sees running through all of Wells’s work: his incredible ability to bring a scene, a landscape, a person, a world to life. It was a joy to slow down and see how effectively and efficiently Wells could describe a thing, especially in a world that predates big cinema. So often when I read 21st century novels, I can feel the writer writing for the big screen, or even for the prestigious small screen. Wells had no such experience with cinematic scenes of war or romantic lighting or catastrophic destruction, and yet his descriptions bring those very things to life. Here’s a small taste, from “A Dream of Armageddon” (grouped by Le Guin in “Technological and Predictive Science Fiction”). In it, a man and woman are feeling a war-torn part of the world. They are resting for a moment when war planes fly over-head, firing indiscriminately (and this was written before World War I, even before the Wright Brothers had been to Kitty Hawk): “Overhead in the sky flashed something and burst, and all about us I heard the bullets making a noise like a handful of peas suddenly thrown. They chipped the stones about us, and whirled fragments from the bricks and passed . . .” (194). You can hear and see it like it were on a screen before you, and yet it is all a part of his finely-tuned imagination.

I was struck by how modern Wells’s language felt, especially given that some pieces were nearly 125 years old. Both the general sentences and the dialogue are vibrant and present, alive and human. I realized that one of the reasons he reads so quickly and easily is that his language is unobtrusive. His words give you the image, create the feeling, propel you forward, and then disappear. The world is alive and the people understandable and the situations both human and intriguing.

There are a few stories that I found hard to stomach for their racism. Le Guin tries to smooth over the issue by noting that “the writer’s sympathy is with the black man,” but that is an unfortunately facile way to apologize for the problems at its root. She suggests that the problem with “The Lord of the Dynamos” is essentially the use of the N-word, but the problems are much deeper. Even if Wells expresses sympathy for Azuma-zi, there is a world of racist assumptions and stereotypes propping Azuma-zi up.

I found “The Country of the Blind,” the story that concludes the collection, to be fascinating in that it seems to make an argument unintended by the author and unrecognized by the editor. The story involves an isolated people in a small valley of the Ecuadorean Andes. For whatever reason, the environment his led to all the inhabitants, for generation after generation, to become or be born blind. One day, a mountain climber from Bogota accidentally finds himself stranded in the valley. He initially thinks his gift of sight will make his superior to, and a natural leader of, the blind people, but he finds that the world and life they have built favors blindness and he is outmatched by them. Because he talks of things they cannot comprehend, they consider him a lunatic, heretical, and an idiot. He is dependent on them for survival, living entirely in their world, and he submits himself to their ways. The story is supposed to be about how a visionary is stifled and dismissed among the ignorance of the masses who are unable to even understand the language of the visionary. And to that end, the story is effective. But Wells undercuts this idea by having the seeing man be such an arrogant fool. First, Bogota (the name the blind people give him) is a rich mountain climber, indulging in his own abilities, not trying to improve the world in any way. Second, the near-immediate thought that Bogota has once he discovers where he is, is the refrain “In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” And his expectation is not to serve or help anybody, but the rule over them. He comes into the village like an empirical force, learning nothing of the local culture or their ways and assumes they are childish and ignorant and in need of his wisdom and experience. My sympathies were entirely with the blind folk. Wells showed that if the world were set up with differing abilities in mind, that there is no actual handicap to blindness, that in fact there are advantages and special gifts that come with it. It is living in a seeing world that refuses to accommodate blindness that disadvantages the blind person.

Like all of us, Wells is blind to his own assumptions, and when they stick out so apparently to me as they do in these last two stories I describe, it is a little painful. But I have discussed only the two stories that are problematic, so please don’t let those two stories dissuade you from reading the other 24 presented in this collection. In fact, I would definitely recommend “The Country of the Blind” because there is a lot of thought in it, and even when it has sour tastes, there is a lot to relish.

Wells has a lot of interesting approaches to interesting topics. Some tales are like Twilight Zone episodes, and some are unlike anything I’ve read before, artful and contemplative and unexpected. “Under the Knife” and “The Star” are two that come to mind. H.G. Wells touches upon nearly everything that will be the stuff of science fiction throughout the 20th century. Strange magic shops (“The Magic Shop”), body switching (“The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham”), seeing through time and space (“The Crystal Eggs”), new technology making war more horrifying still (“The Land Ironclads”), oversized beasts (“The Valley of the Spiders”), underwater discoveries (“In the Abyss”), the nature of the soul and out of body experiences (“The Stolen Body”), and so much more. All told from interesting, human perspective with thoughtful explorations of what these things mean for the world.

This collection is a delight, and having Le Guin’s guiding voice to move through them is a treat.

[Charles Sheard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always been very fond of some of Well's novels, but most of these short stories left me unimpressed. They were less actual stories, than just "what if" sorts of ideas. As in, what if I could mentally project my soul across town. Or what if an explosion blew a man into another dimension. Or what if you could look into an object here and see out of a similar object in another place. These are all concepts, to which no enjoyable story surrounds. One better work, however, was the final story, "The Country of the Blind", which started with the idea of an isolated community afflicted by some environmental condition that made them all blind, and then explored how they as humans would react to that over time, and how they would react after generations of blindness to a sighted individual finding his way into their community. Here Wells was able to tap into the true value of SciFi - that of using the different environment to expose or explore certain aspects of our own humanity.

Mostly, though, the author's style from much of his career has not aged well, especially the framing of nearly every single story as being written by a third-party who gathered the facts, or talked to the protagonist, and merely presents this fantastical story to the reader to make up her own mind as to its veracity. It astounds me that a single author could repeat that device over so many stories (and see the same device used by so many other authors of the period), and yet not notice how stale and unconvincing it gets after such repetition.

[Julian Meynell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of H. G. Wells is edited by Ursula K. Le Gin and as one would expect it is a great collection and her introductions to the book and its selections are very insightful. The stories themselves are excellent. What surprised me was how many of the stories have vision as a motif. Well's is obsessed with the act of looking and in particular in looking in a new way that reveals the world as it really is. However, his stories thoroughly explore the good and bad points of this, until they climax in what is probably the best story of the collection: The Country of the Blind. It has two endings, the first which is good and a later very different and even better ending.

Many of the stories are actually quite predictive. Other stories in a few pages introduce ideas that have been explored over and over again. Yet other stories remind me of Lovecraft shorn of his cosmic horror. Perhaps that's because Wells writes over and over again from a quasi journalistic rational reasonable stance.

Overall, the collection is constantly fascinating and his genius is on continuous display. Well's is for me the greatest of all Science Fiction writers. Wells is vastly inventive, interested in problematic situations and ideas, able to write a good character and good dialogue. He is to me, the greatest of the science fiction authors and as a good as claim as anyone to inventing the genre. This collection just reconfirms that opinion.

[Boris Gregoric · Rating 2 out of 5]

...always get mired in his dreadful clunky writing, but always have admired a welter of W's visionary ideas..

[Butch Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars feels fair for what is an excellent collection of short stories. They are old sci-if/fantasy stories; most of the collection is over a century old at this point. This means your mileage may vary depending on your own taste. However, it is interesting to see treatments of stock sci-fi ideas unburdened by precedent even if the writing style is not your speed.

It’s not a good library read. The similarities between the framing stories, which are nearly all “I knew a guy who said he had this bizarre experience and I couldn’t help but believe him despite how crazy it sounded”, gets repetitive if you read them all one after the other.

That said, I liked at least something in all of them. Highlights included :

“A Slip Under the Microscope” - not fantastical, but so human and so relatable
“The Star” - wonderful sense of inevitability for something so short
“The Story of the Last Trump” - I found this crushing on an existential level (in a good way)
“The Country of the Blind” - I agree with Le Guin, probably the best of the bunch

Lastly, I thought Le Guin did a good job highlighting why she picked what she did as well as Whaley she found interesting. I also appreciated the specificity in her introduction about what she likes in Wells. I feel like the temptation for talking about the big names is either hit piece or hagiography. It’s a solid collection.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.12⭐

Introduction "Wells's World by Ursula K. Le Guin 4⭐

PART ONE - VISIONARY SCIENCE FICTION
A Slip Under the Microscope 3.5⭐
The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes 4⭐
The Plattner Story 3.5⭐
Under the Knife 3.25⭐
The Crystal Egg 4.25⭐
The New Accelerator 5⭐
The Stolen Body 5⭐

PART TWO: TECHNOLOGICAL AND PREDICTIVE SCIENCE FICTION
The Argonauts of the Air 3⭐
In the Abyss 3.25⭐
The Star 5⭐
The Land Ironclads 3.25⭐
A Dream of Armageddon 4⭐

PART THREE: HORROR STORIES
The Lord of the Dyamos 4.25⭐
The Valley of Spiders 4.25⭐

PART FOUR: FANTASIES
The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham 5⭐
The Man Who Could Work Miracles 5⭐
The Magic Shop 3.5⭐
Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland 3.5⭐
The Door in the Wall 5⭐
The Presence by the Fire 5⭐

PART FIVE: FABLES
A Vision of Judgement 4.5⭐
The Story of the Last Trump 3.5⭐
The Wild Asses of the Devil 3.5⭐
Answer to Prayer 5⭐

PART SIX: PSYCHO-SOCIAL SCIENCE FICTION
The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper 4⭐
The Country of the Blind 5⭐

[Adam Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent selection of Wells' shorter fiction spanning most of his writing career, considering the inclusion of some of his stories from 1937. Some of these stories are amazing pieces of fiction and others are alright, giving a mix of Wells' talents and endeavors. My absolute favorite is "The Country of the Blind" with the expanded ending which plays on the phrase, "In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." A man slips on a mountain and tumbles into a valley cut off from the rest of the world and inhabited with people who are all blind from birth. They think him insane for claiming a sense they do not have and ostracize him fairly quickly. You could liken it to Plato's Cave where the philosopher tries to have you see the reality of projected images but people who cannot deviate their perception from the projections will doubt the original sources. We still see this today where intelligent people are rejected (or ejected) from social dialogues for demonstrating evidence that does not conform to people's preconceived opinions.

[Ergun Coruh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ursula K.Le Guin's delightfully selected best stories of H.G.Wells. There are 26 stories in the book. Le Guin notes she selected stories for excellence. It is impossible to admire a visionary who invented the word 'aeroplane', and who also predicted tank warfare and biological warfare. Interesting and very amusing to read. 5/5 stars. Nearly completed reading.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories I enjoyed very much but some were so pointless they were almost a waste of paper. Just because an author is famous doesn't mean you should ransack his office and print anything he ever wrote down.

I would say if you are planning on reading H.G. Wells sit down with one of his novels. They are very short books and a lot more satisfying.

[Courtney Stoker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wells' more famous work--The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, War of the Worlds--are not as tightly woven and smartly written as the wonderful short stories in this book. Ursula K. Le Guin chooses wisely, and each of these stories is a gem. Definitely Wells at his best.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cover is very inaccurate of his stories but the stories still hold up today rather well.