This eclectic collection brings together a range of essays on H. G. Wells (1866-1946). While he is best known for his early ‘scientific romances’, which are generally acknowledged as the precursors of modern science fiction, Wells was a polymath whose varied and prolific writings included science textbooks, journalism, social novels, utopias and short stories. H. G. Wells: Interdisciplinary Essays brings together a collection of mostly new essays from both established scholars and younger researchers and incorporates various aspects of Wells’s position as one of the most important writers of the late nineteenth century and early years of the twentieth century.
The volume features essays examining well-known works such as The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau and The War of the Worlds in the context of the sustained recent interest in the interconnections between literature and science. Yet it also includes intriguing evaluations of novels that have received very little attention in academic criticism, such as The Wheels of Chance and Mr Blettsworthy on Rampole Island. Wells’s philosophical outlook and his political impact are assessed in essays that include an investigation of his relationship to the American philosopher William James and his intellectual influence on Winston Churchill.
