What novel is not Wells's? Biography of Herbert Wells

WELLS, HERBERT GEORGE(Wells, Herbert George) (1866–1946), English writer. Born September 21, 1866 in Bromley, a suburb of London. His father was a shopkeeper and professional cricketer, his mother a housekeeper. Educated in classical school Midhurst and King's College, University of London. After an apprenticeship with a textile merchant and work in a pharmacy, he was a school teacher, a teacher of exact sciences and an assistant to T.H. Huxley, and in 1893 he became a professional journalist.

Throughout creative life(from 1895) Wells wrote ca. 40 novels and many volumes of stories, more than a dozen polemical works on philosophical issues and about the same number of works on the restructuring of society, two world stories, about 30 volumes with political and social forecasts, more than 30 brochures on topics about the Fabian Society, weapons, nationalism, world peace, etc., 3 books for children and an autobiography.

His first attempt at fiction was a novel Time machine (The Time Machine, 1895) – about an inventor’s journey into the distant future. Then followed Island of Doctor Moreau (The Island of Dr. Moreau, 1896), The Invisible Man (The Invisible Man, 1897), War of the Worlds (The War of the Worlds, 1898), First people on the moon (The First Men in the Moon, 1901), which told, respectively, about the transplantation of human organs into wild animals, about invisibility, the invasion of Martians on earth and travel to the moon. These novels provided the writer with the fame of the most significant experimenter in the genre. science fiction and showed his ability to make the most daring fiction believable. Subsequently, in works of this kind, for example in the novel World liberated (The World Set Free, 1914), he combined scientific certainty with political predictions about the coming world state. The thesis about a science capable of creating a world state in which man can wisely use his inventions is repeated with enthusiasm in all of Wells’s books, but his optimism, until then boundless, was crushed by the Second World War, after which he gave vent to despair in the book The mind is on the edge of its tight rein (Mind at the End of Its Tether, 1945) predicted the extinction of mankind.

In his more “literary” works, the writer demonstrates extraordinary talent in the depiction of characters and the construction of the plot, peppers the narrative with humor, but sometimes the plot is replaced by discussions about science, lectures on all conceivable and inconceivable subjects, responses to topical events, so that, in his own assessment, only some of his works contain components that guarantee them durability; among them Love and Mr. Louisham (Love and Mr. Lewisham, 1900), Kipps (Kipps, 1905), Ann-Veronica (Ann Veronica, 1909), Tono-Bangay (Tono-Bungay, 1909), Mister Polly's story (The History of Mr. Polly, 1910), New Machiavelli (The New Machiavelli, 1911), Sought after splendor (The Research Magnificent, 1915), Mr. Britling's insight (Mr. Britling Sees It Through, 1916), Joan and Peter (Joan and Peter, 1918), The World of William Clissold (The World of William Clissold, 1926) - all of them are autobiographical to one degree or another. Wells admitted that the only book in which the most significant ideas of his life were stated was What are we doing with our lives? (What Are We to Do With Our Lives? 1931), and considered his most important work Labor, wealth and happiness of the human race (The Work, Wealth, and Happiness of Mankind, 1932). However, to the broad reading circles he made it through the book Sketch of history (The Outline of History, 1920), for many years remained on the bestseller lists.

Wells lived in London and on the Riviera, often gave lectures and traveled widely, and was married twice.

English writer

Born September 21, 1866 in Bromley, a suburb of London. His father was a shopkeeper and professional cricketer, his mother a housekeeper.

1880-1883 - lives in Windsor and South Sea.

1884-1888 - Wells studies at South Kensington College, University of London.

1888 - Wells publishes the short story The Chronic Argonauts, the first draft of the novel The Time Machine.

1888-1891 - Wells works as a teacher in private schools.

1891 - receives two academic titles in biology. In the same year he moved to London, where he married his cousin Isabel.

1891-1893 - continues his career as a teacher at the College of Correspondence.

1893 - Wells's textbooks on biology and physiography are published. Soon he leaves his job at college and begins to engage in journalism professionally - he regularly writes newspaper essays, later collected in the book “Select Conversations with an Uncle” (Select conversation of an uncle, 1895).

1895 - the novel “The Time Machine” is published - about an inventor’s journey into the distant future. This novel begins the history of science fiction of the 20th century. Unlike Jules Verne, who sought to put people in unusual situations ordinary people and in no way deviate from the truth of the fact, Wells creates fantastic images Morlocks, Eloi, and later Martians, Selenites, etc. If Jules Verne depicts apparatus and machines built on the basis of already known Newtonian principles, then Wells relies on new natural science concepts and introduces Darwinian biology into the use of fiction, which has noticeably supplanted the exclusively technical fiction of Jules Verne. Scientific source Wells was inspired by the works of T.H. Huxley, non-Euclidean geometry, some physical hypotheses, and literary sources- J. Swift, Voltaire, American and German romantics. In the same year, Wells, leaving his wife, married one of his students, Amy Catherine.

1896 - a novel about the transplantation of human organs into wild animals, “The Island of Dr. Moreau” and the novel “Wheels of Chance”.

1897 - the novel “The Invisible Man”, addressed simultaneously against the bourgeois inertia and against the Nietzschean “superman”, tells the story of a scientist who used his discovery to establish a personal dictatorship.

1898 - novel about the Martian invasion of earth, “The War of the Worlds.”

1899 - novel “When the Sleeper Wakes” - scenes of revolution in the 21st century.

1900 - novel “Love and Mr. Lewisham” about the collapse of the hopes of a young scientist forced to sacrifice science for the sake of a better life.

1901 - a novel about a journey to the moon, The First Men in the Moon, which satirically depicts the Selenite society, built on an extreme division of labor.

1904 - novel The Food of the Gods, which expresses the hope that the colossal intellectual and spiritual growth of mankind will increase the scale of human affairs.

1905 - “Kipps” - a novel about the morals of English philistinism and the essay “A Modern Utopia” - a project for reorganizing the world.

1906 - the novel “In the Days of the Comet,” which tells about the moral transformation of the world under the influence of the gas left in the earth’s atmosphere by the tail of a passing comet. This is a domestic novel with some fantasy elements.

1908 - novel “The War in the Air”, written in the spirit of Jules Verne.

1909 - a novel dedicated to the issue of women's emancipation - "Ann Veronica" (Ann Veronica) and the most significant of the non-fiction novels "Tono-Bungay" - an attempt to restore in relation to England the 20th century. traditions of Balzac; Wells here chronicles the rise and fall of the nouveau riche, attempting to provide a "cross-section" of English society as a whole.

1910 - “The History of Mr. Polly” - a humorous picture of the mores of English society.

1911 - “The New Machiavell”.

1914 - The World Set Free is published, in which Wells combines scientific accuracy with political predictions about the coming world state. He believes in science capable of creating a world state in which man can wisely use his inventions, which is repeated with enthusiasm in all of Wells's books. The novel is devoid of a fantastic element.

In the same year, Wells visited Russia for the first time.

1915 - “The Requested Magnificence” (The Research Magnificent).

1916 - anti-war novel Mr. Britling Sees It Through.

1918 - “Joan and Peter” (Joan and Peter).

1920 - The Outline of History is published, remaining on the bestseller lists for many years. Wells visits Russia for the second time and meets with V. Lenin. The result is the book “Russia in Shadows”.

1923 - educational utopia in the form of the novel Men like Gods.

1926 - novel-treatise “The World of William Clissold”.

1927 - the novel “On the Eve” (Meanwhile) is published, from which Wells takes an active anti-fascist position.

1930 - The Autocracy of Mr. Parham, a novel about an imagined fascist coup in England.

1931 - the only book, according to Wells, is published in which the most significant ideas of his life are stated - “What are we doing with our lives?” (What Are We to Do With Our Lives?) and “The Work, Wealth, and Happiness of Mankind.”

1933 - Wells is elected president of the PEN Club.

1936 - the story “The Croquet Player” is published, directed against the policy of non-intervention in the war in Spain.

1945 - the book Mind at the End of Its Tether, in which Wells predicts the extinction of mankind.

H.G. Wells born 1866 in Bromley, Kent. Wells's career may have been determined by an accident - as a child he broke both legs, and spent all his time at home, thanks to which he read a lot. Then Wells graduated from school and received further education at Teachers College, London. It was at Teachers College that Wells studied with famous biologist Thomas Huxley, who influenced him strong influence. Wells's "science fiction" (though he never called it that) was clearly influenced by his studies at Teachers College and the interests he developed in biology.

Welles became famous with his first work, The Time Machine, in 1895. Shortly after the publication of this book, Wells wrote the following: The Island of Doctor Moreau (1895); "The Invisible Man" (1897), and his most famous work: "The War of the Worlds" (1898).

Over the years, Wells began to worry about his fate human society in a world where technology and scientific development are moving very quickly. During this period he was a member of the Fabian Society (a group of social philosophers in London who advocated caution and gradualism in politics, science and public life). Wells now wrote less science fiction, and more work in Social Critical Analysis.

After the First World War, Wells published several scientific works, among them " Brief history of the World" (1920), "The Science of Living" (1929-39), written in collaboration with Sir Julian Huxley and George Philip Wells, and "Experiments in Autobiography" (1934). Into this Wells time became a popular celebrity, and continued to write prolifically. In 1917 he was a member of the Study Committee of the League of Nations and published several books on world organization. Although Wells had many doubts about Soviet system, he understood the broad goals of the Russian revolution, and in 1920 had quite have a nice meeting with Lenin. In the early 1920s, Wells was a Labor candidate for Parliament. Between 1924 and 1933 Welles lived mainly in France. From 1934 to 1946 he was international president of PEN. In 1934 he had conversations with Stalin, who disappointed him; and Roosevelt, trying, however, unsuccessfully, to offer him his scheme for preserving peace. Wells was convinced that Western socialists could not compromise with communism, and that the best hope for the future lay in Washington. In The Holy Terror (1939), Wells described psychological development modern dictator, illustrated by the careers of Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler.

Wells lived throughout the Second World War in his Regent's Park, refusing to leave London, even during the bombing. His last book"A Mind on the Edge" (1945), expressed pessimism about the future prospects of humanity. Wells died in London on August 13, 1946.

Country: United Kingdom
Was born: September 21, 1866
Died: August 13, 1946

Herbert George Wells- English writer and publicist. Born September 21, 1866 in Bromley, Kent, UK. Author of famous science fiction novels “The Time Machine”, “The Invisible Man”, “War of the Worlds”, etc. Representative critical realism. Supporter of Fabian socialism. He visited Russia three times, where he met with Lenin and Stalin.

His father, Joseph Wells, and mother, Sarah Neal, worked in the past as a gardener and maid on a wealthy estate, and later became the owners of a small china shop. However, trade brought in almost no income, and basically the family lived on the money that the father, being professional player cricket, earned money by playing. Wells's career may have been determined by an accident - as a child, at the age of eight, he broke both legs, and spent all his time at home, thanks to which he read a lot.

At the same age, H.G. Wells entered Mr. Thomas Morley's Commercial Academy, which was supposed to prepare him for the profession of a merchant. However, when Herbert turned thirteen, his father broke his hip and cricket was over; Herbert had to start an independent life.

He was educated at King's College, University of London, graduating in 1888. By 1891 he received two academic titles in biology, and since 1942 he has been a doctor of biology.

Wells lived in London and the Riviera, gave frequent lectures and traveled widely.

He was married twice: from 1891 to 1895. to Isabella Mary Wells (divorced), and from 1895 to 1928. - on Amy Katherine (nicknamed Jane) Wells (nee Robbins, died of cancer), about whom he himself wrote: “I can’t imagine what I would be without her.” The second marriage produced two sons: George Philip Wells and Frank Richard.

In 1920, Wells met Maria Ignatievna Zakrevskaya-Budberg (there is reason to consider her an NKVD agent), who became his mistress. The connection was renewed in 1933 in London, where she emigrated after breaking up with Gorky. M. Budberg's close relationship with Wells continued until the writer's death; he asked her to marry him, but she decisively rejected this proposal.

Welles became famous with his first work, The Time Machine, in 1895. Shortly after the publication of this book, Wells wrote the following: The Island of Doctor Moreau (1895); "The Invisible Man" (1897), and his most famous work: "The War of the Worlds" (1898).

Over the years, Wells began to worry about the fate of human society in a world where technology and scientific development were advancing very quickly. During this period he was a member of the Fabian Society (a group of social philosophers in London who advocated caution and gradualism in politics, science and public life). Wells now wrote less science fiction and more works of social criticism.

After the First World War, Wells published several scientific works, among them A Short History of the World (1920), The Science of Living (1929–39), written in collaboration with Sir Julian Huxley and George Philip Wells, and Experiments in Autobiography ( 1934). During this time, Welles became a popular celebrity, and continued to write prolifically. In 1917 he was a member of the Study Committee of the League of Nations and published several books on world organization. Although Wells had many doubts about the Soviet system, he understood the broad goals of the Russian Revolution, and had a rather pleasant meeting with Lenin in 1920. In the early 1920s, Wells was a Labor candidate for Parliament. Between 1924 and 1933 Wells lived
way in France. From 1934 to 1946 he was international president of PEN. In 1934 he had conversations with Stalin, who disappointed him; and Roosevelt, trying, however, unsuccessfully, to offer him his scheme for preserving peace. Wells was convinced that Western socialists could not compromise with communism, and that the best hope for the future lay in Washington. In The Holy Terror (1939), Wells described the psychological development of the modern dictator, illustrated by the careers of Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler.

Wells lived through the Second World War in his Regent's Park, refusing to leave London, even during the bombings. His last book, A Mind on the Edge (1945), expressed pessimism about the future prospects of humanity. Wells died in London on August 13, 1946.

A short film from Youtube.com about the life and work of H.G. Wells

Bibliography

Herbert Wells. Cycles of works

Anticipations and Mankind in the Making
The future. Technology and science in the future of humanity / Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Human Progress upon Human Life and Thought [= Anticipations about the impact of the progress of mechanics and science on human life and thought; A Foresight Concerning the Effect of Technological and Humanitarian Progress on Human Life and the Development of Thought] (1901)
Mankind in the Making (1903)

Herbert Wells. Novels

Herbert Wells. Stories

1888 The Chronic Argonauts
1897 It Was in the Stone Age / A Story of the Stone Age [= Stories of the Stone Age; 50 thousand years ago. A tale from the stone age; 50 thousand years ago. Tales of the Stone Age; In the Stone Age; Stone Age; At the dawn of humanity; A story about the Stone Age; Stone Age Tale]
1899 A Story of the Days to Come [= Days to Come; From times to come; Under the power of love; A story from times to come]
1936 The Croquet Player [= Fear Possession on Cain's Marsh]
1937 The Camford Visit
1938 The Brothers
1940 All Aboard for Ararat
1945 The Happy Turning: a Dream of Life

(Born 21 September 1866, Bromley, UK - 13 August 1946, London, UK) - English writer and essayist. Author of famous science fiction novels "", "The Invisible Man", "" and others. Representative of critical realism. Supporter of Fabianism.

He visited Russia three times, where he met with Lenin and Stalin.

His father, Joseph Wells, and mother, Sarah Neal, were former gardeners and maids on a wealthy estate, and later owned a small china shop. However, the trade brought in almost no income, and basically the family lived on the money that the father, being a professional cricketer, earned from playing. When the boy was eight years old, he was “lucky,” as he himself put it, to break his leg. It was then that he became addicted to reading. At the same age, H.G. Wells entered Mr. Thomas Morley's Commercial Academy, which was supposed to prepare him for the profession of a merchant. However, when Herbert turned thirteen, his father broke his hip and cricket was over. The training was considered completed, and Herbert had to begin an independent life.

He was educated at King's College, University of London, graduating in 1888. By 1891 he received two academic titles in biology, and since 1942 he has been a doctor of biology.

After an apprenticeship with a textile merchant and work in a pharmacy, he became a school teacher, a teacher of exact sciences, and an assistant to Thomas Huxley. In 1893 he became a professional journalist.

From 1903 to 1909, Wells was a member of the Fabian Society, which advocated caution and gradualism in politics, science and public life.

In 1933 he was elected president of the PEN Club.

Creation

In 1895 Wells wrote his first work of art- the novel “The Time Machine” about an inventor’s journey into the distant future.

Wells is considered the author of many themes popular in science fiction in subsequent years. In 1895, 10 years before Einstein and Minkowski, he announced that our reality is four-dimensional space-time (“Time Machine”). In 1898, he predicted wars using poison gases, aviation and devices like lasers (“War of the Worlds”, a little later - “When the Sleeper Awakens”, “War in the Air”). In 1905 he described a civilization of intelligent ants (“The Kingdom of Ants”). In 1923, he was the first to introduce science fiction parallel worlds(“People are like gods”). Wells also discovered such ideas, later replicated by hundreds of authors, as antigravity, the invisible man, the accelerator of the pace of life and much more.

However, all these original ideas were not an end in themselves for Wells, but rather technical method, which had the goal of highlighting more clearly the main, social-critical side of his works. Already in The Time Machine, he warns that the continuation of an irreconcilable class struggle can lead to the complete degradation of society. IN last decades Wells's creativity completely moved away from science fiction, but his realistic works are less popular.

Visits to Russia

H.G. Wells visited Russia three times. The first time was in 1914, then he stayed at the St. Petersburg Astoria Hotel on Morskaya Street, 39. The second time, in September 1920, he had a meeting with Lenin. At this time, Wells lived in M. Gorky's apartment in apartment building E. K. Barsova at 23.

Wells wrote the book “Russia in the Dark” about his first visit to the Bolshevik state. In it, among other things, he described in detail his meeting with Lenin and the essence of the difference in their positions:

This topic led us to our main disagreement - the disagreement between the evolutionary collectivist and the Marxist, to the question of whether social revolution with all its extremes, is it necessary to completely destroy one economic system before another can be activated. I believe that as a result of great and persistent educational work, the current capitalist system can become “civilized” and turn into a worldwide collectivist system, while Lenin’s worldview has long been inseparably linked with the tenets of Marxism about the inevitability of class war, the need to overthrow the capitalist system in as a precondition for the restructuring of society, the dictatorship of the proletariat, etc.

On July 23, 1934, Wells visited the USSR again and was accepted Stalin. Wells wrote about this meeting:
I confess that I approached Stalin with some suspicion and prejudice. In my mind, an image was created of a very cautious, self-centered fanatic, despot, envious, suspicious monopolizer of power. I expected to meet a ruthless, cruel doctrinaire and self-righteous Georgian mountaineer, whose spirit had never completely escaped from his native mountain valleys...

All vague rumors, all suspicions ceased to exist for me forever after I talked with him for a few minutes. I have never met a more sincere, decent and honest person; there is nothing dark or sinister about him, and it is these qualities that should explain his enormous power in Russia.

Films based on the works of H.G. Wells

1919 - “The First Men on the Moon,” directed by Bruce Gordon
1932 - “Island lost souls", directed by Earl Canton
1933 - “The Invisible Man”, directed by James Whale
936 - The Shape of Things to Come, directed by William Cameron Menzies
953 - "War of the Worlds", directed by Byron Haskin
1960 - “The Time Machine”, directed by George Pal
1964 - “The First Men on the Moon,” directed by Nathan Juran
1976 - “Food of the Gods”
1977 - “The Island of Doctor Moreau”, directed by Don Taylor
1977 - “Empire of the Ants,” directed by Bert I. Gordon.
1979 - “Journey in the Time Machine,” directed by Nicholas Meyer
1984 - “The Invisible Man”, director Alexander Zakharov
1989 - “Food of the Gods 2”
1996 - “The Island of Doctor Moreau”, directed by John Frankenheimer and Richard Stanley
2001 - " Fantastic worlds H.G. Wells, directed by Robert Young
2002 - “The Time Machine”, directed by Simon Wells
2005 - “War of the Worlds”, directed by Steven Spielberg
2005 - “War of the Worlds”, directed by Timothy Hines
2005 - “War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells ( English)", directed by David Michael Latt
2010 - “The First Men on the Moon,” directed by Mark Gatiss