The H.G. Wells Reader: A Complete Anthology from Science Fiction to Social Satire

by John Huntington

Overview

This collection, the first of its kind, indicates the full breadth of Well's visionary views and social commentary.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780585482804
Publisher:	Taylor Trade Publishing
Publication date:	06/09/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	496
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

John Huntington is a professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the author of the award-winning Logic of Fantasy: H. G. Wells and Science Fiction and other books.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	vii
	Chronology	xvii
1	"The Stolen Bacillus" (1894)	1
2	"The Triumphs of a Taxidermist" (1894)	6
3	"AEpornis Island" (1894)	9
4	from The Time Machine (from chapters 4, 14, 15 and the epilogue) (1895)	18
5	from The Wheels of Chance (chapters 28-29) (1895)	28
6	from The Island of Doctor Moreau (from chapters 12 and 16) (1896)	37
7	from The Invisible Man (chapters 5-7) (1897)	45
8	from The War of the Worlds (book 1, chapters 1, 2, 5, 13, and 17; book 2, chapter 8) (1898)	55
9	from The First Men in the Moon (chapter 6 to the end) (1901)	77
10	from The Food of the Gods (from chapters 2 and 3) (1904)	176
11	"The Country of the Blind" (1904)	187
12	from In the Days of the Comet (book 1; book 2, from chapters 1 and 3; book 3, from chapters 1 and 3, and the epilogue) (1906)	206
13	from Tono-Bungay (book 2, chapter 2; book 4, chapter 3) (1909)	321
14	The History of Mr. Polly (1910)	337
	A Note on Sources	477
	Bibliography	478

Editorial Reviews

The H.G. Wells Reader: A Complete Anthology from Science Fiction to Social Satire, edited by John Huntington, gathers early stories ("Aepornis Island"), extracts from novels (The Food of the Gods) and The History of Mr. Polly complete. In his introduction, Huntington argues for Wells's importance as a thinker today. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Huntington (English, Univ. of Illinois), author of The Logic and Fantasy of H.G. Wells and Science Fiction and editor of Critical Essays on H. G. Wells, revisits familiar territory by compiling early work by Wells. The result is a mixed bag of carefully selected short stories, excerpts from his novels (including The Time Machine, In the Days of the Comet, and The Food of the Gods), and the complete text of his comic novel The History of Mr. Polly. After contributing a biographical sketch of Wells at the beginning, Huntington prefaces each piece with a brief critical comment. On the whole, the anthology serves as a good introduction to Wells's writing. It also gives a solid overview of his social criticism, his Darwinism and Utopianism, his insights into technology and the possibilities of the future, and the complexity of his writing. Since Wells is widely regarded as the father of the sf genre, particularly "scientific romance," his views on technology and the future of humankind may be especially noteworthy now. For larger libraries.-Aparna Zambare, Central Michigan Univ. Libs., Mount Pleasant Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Surveys Wells as a writer and thinker.

Cleveland Plain Dealer - Karen Sandstrom