HERBERT GEORGE WELLS

(1866 — 1946)

The main current of fiction in the 20th century reflected the influence of science on popular thinking. People in general wanted to learn the truth. Scientific facts formed a wonderland, which was introduced into fiction as a fresh source of interest. This direct influence of science is illustrated in the writing of Herbert George Wells.

Herbert George Wells is often called the great English writer who looked into the future. He devoted more than fifty years of his life to literary work. He was the author of more than forty novels and many short stories, articles and social tracts. His novels are of three types: science fiction, realistic novels on contemporary problems and social tracts.

Wells belonged to the world of science. Science played an important part in his best works, but the principal theme, even in these works is not science but the social problems of the day. His creative work is divided into two periods:

The first period begins in 1895 and lasts up to the outbreak of World War I. His famous works of this period are: 'The Time Machine', 'The Invisible Man', 'The War of the Worlds', 'The First Men on the Moon'.

The second period comprises works written from 1914 up to the end of World War II. His most important works of the period are: 'The War That Will End War', 'Russia in the Shadows', 'The World of William Glissold', 'Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island', 'Experiment in Autobiography'.

Well's best works are his science fiction. They give the reader from the very beginning a forward-looking habit and that is exactly what the writer aimed at. He believed in the great liberation science could bring to man, but he blamed the

existing system because it used scientific achievements for evil aims. His criticism goes along two lines:

1. Scientific progress is more advanced than the cultural level of the people and their moral understanding of how to make use of it. Such being the case, science will sooner be used for destruction than for the good of mankind.

2. The enormous economic breach between the upper classes and the working classes is widened by scientific progress. If this process goes on, it will lead to the degeneration of the human race. In the novels of the second period Wells combines the criticism of society as a whole with the life of an individual. Thus Wells keeps up the traditions of the Critical Realism in the English novel.

'The War of the Worlds'

'The War of the World's' is H. G. Wells' fourth science fiction novel. It was published in 1897. The events in the novel supposedly take place at the beginning of the 20th century in London and its suburbs. The story of the war is told by a professor. He says that he was writing an article, when the first cylinder from Mars came down like a falling star onto the southern part of Britain. The inhabitants of the place were attracted by the unusual phenomena and watched the cylinder open. They saw a Martian came out, then another and another. Their bulky bodies, the size of a bear, moved very clumsily, because the gravity of the Earth had increased their weight three times. The public did not understand the danger until the Martians used their heat-ray, killing many people and burning down houses and woods.

The government decided to fight the Martians. When the second cylinder landed, government troops arrived. They hoped to destroy it by gun-fire before it opened. But the gun-fire was nothing for Martians. Eight more cylinders came down from Mars one after another. The Martians had monstrous fighting machines. These machines moved over the ground smashing everything on their way.

When the fifth cylinder landed, the people were already in a state of panic. The Martian fighting machines advanced on London, and in a few days Society, the State and Civilization disappeared. The people were frightened and became violent. They trampled one another in panic. Those who could not escape from the city hid like rats under the ruins of houses so as not to be killed by the Martians.

Wells ends the novel with the defeat of the Martians. They are infected by bacteria against which their constitution is helpless. The writer makes the people of the Earth win, because he loves them and wants them to be strong and better civilized. He does not portray the Martians as a better race. He believes in man and his better future.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 2168