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Wells: The Scientific Romances and Beyond.

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Wells: The Scientific Romances and Beyond. John S. Partington, ed. H. G. Wells s [sic] Fin-de-Siecle: Twenty-first Century Reflections on the Early H. G. Wells. Selections from The Wellsian. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2007. 150 pp. $46.95 pbk.

This little anthology consists often essays from the journal of the H. G. Wells Society. The first four are on specific, individual scientific romances: The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and The War of (he Worlds. The middle three treat other single texts: The Wheels of Chance, Tono-Bungay, and The History of Mr. Polly, all major works which need attention. Two of the final three open issues of Wells' relation to other writers around the turn of the century. The final essay, referring widely to Wells and the history of criticism, argues for rethinking how to read Wells.

I find it encouraging that less than half the collection is devoted to the early scientific romances which, after all, constitute only a small fraction of Wells' work, and early work at that. The common concentration on the scientific romances has distorted our understanding of Wells' broader accomplishment, which in turn has lead to a distortion of the place and meaning of the scientific romances, which in turn has...

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