Lecture 17 herbert George wells

1866—1946

Herbert George Wells is an outstanding representative of the late English critical realism at the end of the 19^th and the beginning of the 20^th century. He was born not far from London, in Bromley, a small town in those days. His father had been a gardener, and his mother had been a maid to a family of rich people. Later his parents bought a little shop which brought almost no profit to them, so the family lived on the money that his father earned as a professional cricket player.

Herbert Wells was a boy of fourteen when his father broke his leg and could not play any longer. In those years Wells changed several professions. He worked as a chemist, gave lessons, was an assistant in a shop, then a teacher in a primary school. For some time he studied very hard and was able to pass examinations at Scholarship Level to an educational college which trained teachers of science and natural science.

When he was twenty-three he got his first academic degree in biology. In 1895 his first science-fiction novel "The Time Machine" was published and then a collection of short stories "The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents". These books made the young writer famous.

His following works were "The Island of Dr. Moreau" (1896), "The Invisible Man'" (1897) and "The War of the Worlds" (1898). From that time he became a popular writer. Wells wrote about forty novels, some filmscripts and several collections of short stories. Wells was interested in social problems and always called himself a socialist, but his ideas of socialism were very individual. [45] He understood that the world had to be changed, and he came to the Utopian conclusion that only scientists and engineers could solve the problem. According to Wells it was not revolution, but evolution which by some reforms could change the world. And only science and technique could do it. After World War 1 Wells understood that he was wrong. The world cannot be changed by peaceful progress.

In the autumn of 1920 Wells visited Moscow and was received by V. I. Lenin, this interview made a great impression on the English writer. He saw the difficulties that Russia was going through and understood the role of the Communist Party which was doing its best for the good of all the people.

Wells could not believe what Lenin told him about the great plans of the building of socialism, and in his book "Russia in the Shadows" he expressed his doubts. But he saw that important historical events were taking place in Russia.

When Wells visited the Soviet Union the second time in 1934, he saw the great achievements of that socialist country.

Wells' best works are his science fiction. They give the reader from the very beginning a forward-looking habit, and that is exactly what the writer aimed at. He believed in the great liberation science could bring to man, but he blamed the bourgeois system because it used scientific achievements for evil ends. His criticism goes along two lines:

1. Scientific progress is more advanced than the cultural level of the people and their moral understanding of how to make use of it. Such being the case, science will sooner be used for destruction than for the good of mankind.

2. The enormous economic breach between the upper classes and the working class is widened by scientific progress. If this process goes on, it will lead to the degeneration of the human race.

The works of Herbert Wells are rather satirical than Utopian. They are pessimistic on the whole and can be characterised as anti -Utopian.

Check yourself

1. When and where was H. G. Wells born and what were his parents?

2. When did the boy begin to work and what were his professions?

3. Why did he pass examinations at Scholarship Level? [46]

4. What profession did H. G. Wells get after graduation from the college?

5. When did the writer get academic degree?

6. When was his first novel published?

7. How many novels did Wells write and what are his best novels?

8. When did Wells visit the USSR and what did he see in 1934?

9. What did the writer believe in and who did he blame?

10. What two lines does Herbert Wells criticism go along?

11. What kind of works are the novels of H. Wells? [47]