The World of William Clissold Vol. 2

(Paperback, Main)

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The World of William Clissold Though this novel was first published in 1926, with a preface strenuously denying that it was anything but a work of fiction, William Clissold is nevertheless a character whose thought and background is so thoroughly documented in the work that the reader cannot help identifying him to some extent with Wells himself (so much so that Wellss agent feared a libel case on its original publication). This is not such a fault in an author as interesting as H. G. Wells, as Conrad Aiken remarked: As a survey of the modern world from a liberal point of view The World of William Clissold is impressive. The range of Mr Wellss mind is encyclopaedic. He covers everything, he leaves nothing out his novel is a liberal education in itself. Wells later admitted in An Experiment in Autobiography that the book was indeed a self-dramatization. The protagonist intends to make a fresh start for himself, and also for the world. And in his intentions we see Wells, the great socialist utopians own ideal of progress, as he conceived it at this point in his developing thought. This is H. G. Wellss most monumental effort in novel-writing and appears in Faber Finds in three volumes.

Author Bio

Born Herbert George Wells in Kent in 1866, H. G. Wells was an outspoken socialist and pacifist, whose works caused some controversy. He is more widely known as a science fiction writer for the novels that he published between 1895 and 1901: The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, When the Sleeper Wakes and The First Men in the Moon. All, except for When the Sleeper Wakes, have been made into films. Along with Jules Verne, H. G. Wells is also known as 'the Father of Science Fiction'. His later novels were more realistic and he wrote many genres, including contemporary novels, history and social commentary. H. G. Wells died in 1946.