u003cpu003eThis is a sensitive study of Wellsu0026rsquo; imaginative development during his formative years. It comes at a time when interest in H.G. Wellsu0026rsquo; early writing is beginning to revive, owing, no doubt, to the current translation into reality of some aspects of science fiction.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eMr. Bergonzi examines Wellsu0026rsquo; early fiction, from surviving student writings of the late eighties to 1901 when he published u003cemu003eThe First Men in the Moonu003c/emu003e, his last significant scientific romance, and u003cemu003eAnticipationsu003c/emu003e, his first systematic non-fictional treatise. The main emphasis of his study falls on the scientific romances of the nineties, which are examined in detail. In addition to literary analysis, relevant source material and reviews, which show how contemporaries received Wellsu0026rsquo; work, are noted.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eWellsu0026rsquo; early attitude to science is shown to have been deeply ambivalent, as is apparent in his successive uses of the Frankenstein archetype. His intellectual attitudes tended towards scepticism and pessimism rather than to the u0026lsquo;utopianu0026rsquo; optimism associated with his later career.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eThese romances reflect in imaginative and non-discursive form some of the major preoccupations of late-Victorian England: the impact of Darwinism, of Socialism, and an increasing lack of national self-confidence. Mr. Bergonzi sees Wells as essentially a u003cemu003efin de siu0026egrave;cleu003c/emu003e myth-maker, and he argues that it is this aspect of Wellsu0026rsquo; work which most requires attention if he is to be remembered in the future. Two early pieces by Wells, now unobtainable elsewhere, are given in an Appendix. One, u003cemu003eThe Chronic Argonautsu003c/emu003e, a fragment of a fantastic novel written at the age of 21, is the earliest draft of u003cemu003eThe Time Machineu003c/emu003e.u003c/pu003e

Additional ISBNs:
9781442651845, 1442651849,9781442633551, 1442633557