Herbert George Wells, along with Jules VERNE, was
one of the major early writers of science fiction. He
is probably the single most influential writer, inventing or popularizing many of the major plot devices and themes of the genre before it even had a
name. Indeed, Wells thought of himself simply as a
writer, and his scientific romances were only a fraction of the fiction he produced. However, most of
his novels of contemporary society are now virtually forgotten, and he is remembered primarily for
his stories of time travel, Martian invasion, and invisible madmen.
Unlike Verne, who primarily was interested in
telling a good story and who used technological
wonders such as submarines and advanced aircraft
as part of the setting for his adventures, Wells usually addressed technological change as an element
in the plot, and in terms of its social implications.
The experimenters in “The NEW ACCELERATOR”
are changed by their ability to operate outside of
normal time. The inventor in The INVISIBLE MAN
(1897) is driven mad by his new power.
Wells wrote several speculative essays about
the future of humanity before turning to fiction—
short stories—during the 1890s, quickly moving on
to writing novels. The TIME MACHINE (1895) was
his first novel, telling the story of a man who travels to the very distant future and discovers that humanity has split into two distinct species, one
preying cannibalistically on the other. The next
five years would see Wells’s best novels appear in
rapid succession. The WAR OF THE WORLDS (1898)
is the most effective of these works. Martians invade the Earth, reject all attempts at friendly contact, and are destroyed only because of their own
failings, rather than through the efforts of humanity to oppose them.
The relative insignificance of the human race
and its works recurs as a theme in Wells’s work,
and scientists who aspire to greater control, as in
The INVISIBLE MAN or The ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU
(1896), are doomed to fail because of their excessive pride. In the latter, a reclusive scientist abrogates to himself the power of God, operating on
various animals to provide them with a primitive
intelligence. For his sins, he is ultimately punished.
Edgar Rice BURROUGHS would later write his
own version, incorporating elements from Mary
Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN, as The Monster Men
(1929), whose more appropriate magazine title was
A Man Without a Soul.
Wells was a confirmed socialist, and that outlook influenced his visions of the future. A man
awakens from suspended animation in When the
Sleeper Wakes (1899, also published as The Sleeper
Wakes) and becomes the rallying point for a socialist revolution. The highly organized, insectlike society in the caverns of the Moon in The FIRST
MEN IN THE MOON (1901) also employ a form of
socialism, but Wells seems more ambivalent this
time. Although further contact is prohibited to
avoid contamination of lunar values by human
visitors, the author does not appear to admire the
Selenites’ closed and overrestrictive culture either.
After the turn of the century, Wells’s novels became increasingly didactic and less interesting literarily. A Modern Utopia (1905) is an almost
unreadable utopian tour, and the later Men Like
Gods (1923) is only marginally more interesting.
Both assume that human civilization will evolve
into a socialist state benignly administered by an
enlightened few. In the Days of the Comet (1906)
presumes somewhat depressingly that the only way
for humans to achieve true enlightenment is by
the intervention of outside forces, in this case the
beneficent effects of the near passage of a comet.
A similar theme, even less effectively done, provides the plot in Star Begotten (1937); this time
the source of change is invisible rays from Mars.
The best of the author’s later novels is The Food of
the Gods (1904), in which a new discovery leads to
spectacularly fecund crops and animal growth.
The War in the Air (1908) predicts with some accuracy the devastating effects of aerial bombardment in a future war.
Speculative content grew increasingly rare in
Wells’s late work. The World Set Free (1914, also
published as The Last War) raises questions about
the role of science in developing ever more destructive weapons. The Autocracy of Mr. Parham
(1930) is a marginal future political satire. The
Dream (1924) is a retrospective look at contemporary mores from the viewpoint of the distant future. The Camford Visitation (1937) involves a visit
to Earth by a disembodied alien intelligence, but
the book is more of an extended satiric essay than
a novel. The Shape of Things to Come (1935) is another extended speculation disguised as a novel.
The Holy Terror (1939) is a marginal dystopian
satire. Many of his other late novels were allegories
that contained at least peripheral fantastic content, sometimes involving the intervention of God
or a reinterpretation of biblical passages.
Wells was also a prolific short story writer, and
his works have been collected and cross-collected
so many times that it would be pointless to attempt
to list them all. The Complete Science Fiction of
H. G. Wells (1978) is not complete, but contains
most of his better work; The Complete Stories of
H. G. Wells (1998) is also an excellent selection.
Several of his shorts are particularly memorable.
“The Star” is a concise disaster story, the partial
descendant of a long tradition of British disaster
novels. “The Sea Raiders” describes the depredations of a new form of sea life inimical to humans.
A scientist discovers a way to speed up subjective
time in “The New Accelerator,” and an orchid
collector encounters a very peculiar new variation
in “The FLOWERING OF THE STRANGE ORCHID.”
“The Land Ironclads” predicts the development of
tank warfare with surprising accuracy, and “The
Argonauts of the Air” theorizes about the future of
air warfare. “A Dream of Armageddon” also expresses concern about the destructive potential of
scientific advances; “A Story of the Days to Come”
is an interesting general contemplation of one possible future. Other significant tales include “The
Stolen Bacillus,” “The Plattner Story,” and “The
Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham.” “The Country of
the Blind” is possibly his best single short story, a
lost race tale that disproves the statement that
possession of limited sight among a society of the
blind would make one superior. “The Man Who
Could Work Miracles,” although a fantasy rather
than science fiction, is also among his best.
Many writers have acknowledged their debt to
H. G. Wells, sometimes using him as a character in
their own work. The most notable examples of
the latter are Time After Time (1979) by Karl
Alexander, in which a young Wells uses a time machine to pursue Jack the Ripper into the modern
world; The Space Machine (1976) by Christopher
PRIEST, and THE SALIVA TREE (1965) by Brian W.
ALDISS, a novella written to commemorate the
centenary anniversary of Wells’s birth. Alexander’s
novel was adapted for a surprisingly good motion
picture. Almost all of Wells’s novels have been
filmed, usually multiple times, or have provided inspiration for others with similar concepts. The influence of H. G. Wells on other science fiction
writers is immeasurable. His work is widely known
far beyond the boundaries of the genre, and to a
great extent the creators of all novels and films of
alien invasions, time travel, or invisibility are at
least partly in his debt.