NP: H.G. Wells

[Mark Kohut]

I like Lodge too....in the too-much literary journalism I've read, Tono-Bungay pops up as very worth reading but I haven't.
Nor anything else of Wells---except I tried to learn some history from his Outline back in my ambitious but self-defeating autodidact
in hisgh school years but was quickly lost/bored in the details....


________________________________
From: James Kyllo <jkyllo at gmail.com>
To: kelber at mindspring.com 
Cc: p-list <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 4:01 PM
Subject: Re: NP: H.G. Wells


No more significant reason than it being the one I picked up in a 2nd hand store. 

There is a description of the urbanisation of a plot of southeast London at the beginning which is very interesting, and well done.  Thereafter we follow the protagonist's political development and the spanners thrown into same by his love life.  It's probably more interesting from a social history than a literary point of view - which isn't to say that H.G. didn't know how to use the language.




On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 9:28 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

Semi-autobiographical and much concerned with political policies seems to be a valid description of most of his lesser-known novels.  How did you come to read that one in particular? 
>
>
>LK
>
>-----Original Message----- 
>>From: James Kyllo 
>>Sent: Dec 20, 2012 4:22 PM 
>>To: kelber at mindspring.com 
>>Cc: p-list 
>>Subject: Re: NP: H.G. Wells 
>>
>>
>>I thought The New Machiavelli was worthwhile, although I enjoyed the first half rather more than the second - which isn't a good trajectory.  It's semi-autobiographical, and much concerned with political policies. 
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>>
>>J 
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>>
>>On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 8:08 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>>
>>Just finished a fantastic biographical novel about HG Wells - A Man of Parts, by David Lodge.  I'd read Nice Work by Lodge, and really enjoyed it, which is what drew me to this book.  Part narrative, and partly using the device of a scathing self-inteview by Wells as he approaches death, the book teases out all of the inherent hypocrisies in Wells' stance on Free Love and utopian socialism, but gives Wells a fair chance to defend himself.  There are extensive quotes from Wells' books and personal correspondence.
>>>
>>>Although hypocritically jealous and possessive of the women in his life, one can at least praise Wells for being attracted to their intellect as much as their physical attributes. The book interweaves his complicated personal and political life with the content of his many (now largely unread) novels.  I've only read his science fiction novels.  The sense I got of his later novels is that they're preachy tracts on the issues he was passionate about: utopian socialism, Free Love, international government, and world peace.  Writing about some of this took tremendous guts on his part - even the tepid hints about spouse-swapping at the end of In The Days of the Comet, had a huge backlash on him.
>>>
>>>Question: Has anyone here read any of Wells' social issue novels?  Are they worth reading?
>>>
>>>Laura
>>>
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>>
>>
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