802,701 AD

I went to bed the other evening without enough to read, and lazily restricted my choice of extra material to those books which were within reach while remaining under the duvet.  This limited my choice to a small group of science books and novels from U – Z.  I chose, on a whim, H G Wells' The Time Machine, which in my ancient Penguin edition is collected together with a number of other shorter stories.  The Time Machine is by far the longest, and the other stories are very short by comparison – the most well-known being The Man Who Could Work Miracles. 

In his day, and even in my youth, H G Wells was a great figure and a great favourite with the boys in my school, though I suspect the girls found him much less interesting.  So, on this return, I was a little disappointed.  Like The War of the Worlds, which I read a few months ago, the imagination is tremendous, and the story is powerfully told and carried through with great force; but the language now seems very old fashioned, and the science, so powerfully imagined, now seems childish and vague, with lots of rather robotic social relations and rather clunky and didactic dialogue.

The hero of The Time Machine leaps forward thousands of years, to the date in the title of the post, where lots of rather sad eugenically inspired evolution stuff explains the physical and mental deterioration of the human race(s) – I would have been more interested if Wells had had a shot at what might have been 200 or 500 years into the future, although that would not have been so impressive a leap of the imagination, but it might have been more involving.  A great classic, but a little past its read-by date.

Some of the shorter stories are rather more fun – the story of The Man who could do Miracles, for example, is amusing and cleverly constructed, and The Hammerpond Park Burglary and The Stolen Bacillus are pithy, well constructed and amusing - and they remind us of Wells' range of voices and material, which was huge.

 

Comments

[glo]

To Dark Puss
My dear Dark Puss, although I know absolutely nothing about Mrs. Whipple I can tell you for sure that a Whippleite is a big fan and admirer of her books.
For example, the word "Powellite" has appeared several times on this weblog, as you may recall Mr Bagshaw is a self-confessed confirmed and enthusiastic Powellite. You might also have noticed that he is no less than a fanatic Janeite as well, being a great admirer of Jane Austen.

I love answering to this Cat's questions (if I can) although I don't know if I am entitled to do so, not being addressed personally, of course. Anyway, I do it since I don't like unanswered questions in general, and furthermore I enjoy having an occasional chat online with a cat but Dark Puss is not much e-miaowing to me lately - ah, cats' typical aloofness and ingratitude, I know, but they are still lovely.

[Dark Puss]

Boo Not Fair Lindsay and Cornflower! Who or what is a Whippleite? Just shows how much better read you guys are of course ...

Love the steampunky "chair" that illustrates this posting. I was in Oxford yesterday and after a research-related meeting I went off to this exhibition http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/steampunk/

Probably too small to be worth a special trip, but well worth seeing if you can find (and who cannot) other reasons to visit Oxford.

[Cornflower]

Ah, you closet Whippleite, you. Bet you've got the complete works, covers hidden under fake jackets to throw the 'serious reading police' off the scent, monograph coming out soon under a pseudonym, all the books on this site no more than a front for your true activities. I'm on to you, boy!

[Lindsay]

Wesley would have been a real and delightful possibility, or Wilde, Waugh, Winterson ... but my Whipple collection is kept elsewhere!

[Cornflower]

Having W within reach, you might have grabbed a Mary Wesley, but if you'd just had one of Mrs. Whipple's excellent novels on the shelf, think what a happy reading session you could have enjoyed!