The Young H. G. Wells: Changing the World

Tomalin's H. G. Wells does not disappoint in thorough research and composition. The end product does not, however, make one want to read Wells. His life was a sad unravelling to everyone but himself.

Like most people, I've read Wells classics, like The War of the Worlds and the Time Machine, and was aware of the broad outlines of his life--enormous early success with his pre-1914 novels followed by a long period during which much of his writing centered on politics and was less successful. I had no idea of how impoverished he had been growing up or how he managed to overcome poor health to achieve his success as a novelist and short story writer.Clair Tomaline has written a well-researched account of Wells's life up through about age 40, by which time most of his most successful novels and stories had been published. The book moves at a good pace and readers who admire Wells's writings or are interested in developments in the socialist movement in early twentieth century Britain, in which Wells was heavily involved, should enjoy it.

A distinguished British author gives us a nice, compact entry book that covers the early life and works of H.G. Wells. It should spur general readers to search out other books on any number of the interesting facets of the world that was Wells. Such as on the Fabians; about the Webbs; the books themselves authored by H.G. Wells; his many friends from Churchill to Shaw; to how it was he juggled as many mistresses as he did; etc.Claire Tomalin is a fine writer and a wise judge of human behavior.As an aside, I enjoyed the several drawings executed by David Gentleman that accompany the text.

H G Wells hugely influenced me as a young man and it was delightful now (at 91) to be given the whole story so well told by Tomalin. Wells had his imperfections (who doesn't?) yet he was a genius and started the world of science fiction writing. A fascinating read!

Very interesting portrait of a visionary writer. H. G. Wells is best remembered as futurist writer, predicting many of the inventions and struggles of the 20th and 21st century. Claire Tomalin is one of the premier biographers of writers and she doesn’t disappoint in this new work. Her subject led a fascinating life and seemed to be on a first name basis with almost every other great writers of his era. The story about his years with the Fabian Society was particularly interesting and well presented. Would recommend to anyone with an interest in the author, my only wish was that it would have covered his whole life instead of just the first forty years.

What sort of person is behind the creative and far-flung sci-fi and fantasy of such classics as The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, and The War of the Worlds? I was curious, too, so I eagerly took up this latest of Claire Tomalin’s biographies to read about the early life of a man who is one of literature’s greatest.Herbert George Wells nicknamed Buss and also Bertie was the third and last child and was born into a family that struggled with their shop in Bromley. By the time he came along, his father who lived for Cricket and time down at the pub and a tired out religious mother who wanted a girl baby didn’t have much interest in their children though it was never abusive and Buss loved both parents to their deaths. His older brothers were apprenticed off as drapers and young Buss attended the local school. He was encouraged to see himself as middle class by his mother and to look down on the poor kids though in truth the family was barely making it. A serious injury that laid him up for a long time was the big start to his interest in books and he wrote and finished a book when he was eleven. This first tale showed the promise of his later talent and the witty and creative mind behind it.Further changes including deeper poverty for the family was to come, but HG Wells had a brilliant mind and that enabled him to keep going with school on scholarships and encounter influential and wealthy people. Meanwhile, he had decided his mother’s fervent admiration of Queen Victoria and the royal family as well as her strong religious bent were not for him. He also seemed to early on show a sexual interest in the opposite sex that would color the rest of his life when he married twice, but was always having an affair. His view of literature as a job that he loved rather than lofty art set him against several of his fellow contemporary authors and his political views earned him just as many heated encounters. Scholarly text books and histories along with philosophical society membership would show him to be a legit mind and able to become someone one who rubbed elbows with the big and influential names of the day, but was himself classless in the eyes of others.So atheist, republican, hedonist, and socialist were tags he wears and all the while he is brilliant and one of the most influential writers of the late Victorian and early Edwardian ages. His futuristic sci-fi and fantasies were often scarily right on the nose and it was only after the Great War and the years leading into the second World War that he lost a bit of something in his writing though he was still prolific to his death.I confess that I knew next to nothing about HG Wells when I picked up this book. I was equal parts interested in getting his story to see who came up with those amazing stories that came out of the Victorian period as well as finally try Claire Tomalin’s books. I’ve heard so much about other biographies she has done and want to delve into her backlist at some point.But, HG Wells… he was a surprise. Not sure what I was expecting, but he was a daring one and didn’t conform to the social mores of his time. I guess someone who is willing to crossover lines and be open like that is exactly the sort who could write about airplanes before they existed, time travel, shape shifting, and aliens.The biographic style of writing was straight forward and drew on several sources to give a well-rounded picture of HG Wells. I did bog down a bit in the philosophical stuff and preferred the life narrative. It doesn’t delineate his entire life and only detailed it out into his forties though the last chapter does sum up his later years and mostly his engagements and correspondence with famous fellow writers and his quirky love affairs. He seems to have really respected and loved his second wife though he couldn’t stop wanting and taking other women. Friend or foe, those who knew him admitted to his brilliance with the pen and his strong personality.So, I have a much better picture of such a great classic writer and that his life was often as exciting as his books. This didn’t read swiftly and I had to stop for breaks now and then, but it was enlightening as well as had me eager to reach for an HG Wells book. I recommend the author for a well-written literary bio and I recommend this one if the reader wants a deep background of HG Wells.

Claire Tomalin’s biography of the ‘young’ Wells offers a complicated man. His rich imagination gave us iconic novels. He developed his own political and social philosophy and lifestyle. He was a man who tried to do too much, curtailing his work from perfection, and he was a man I often did not like.He had my sympathy when reading of his early years, the problems in his family and his struggles with ill health. Like so many of his generation, he took up socialism as a vehicle for reform, and also ideas of equality and free love. And there is where I did not care for him, his seeking personal sexual satisfaction without responsibility to his mistresses (and resulting children). Yet, he seemed to be irresistible to women of intelligence and social standing, attracted to his fame or personal charisma.Unlike other biographies I have recently read, I did not feel the author demonstrated an attachment to her subject. His life is competently laid out, the details of his writing and publishing life, his relationships with family, fellow writers, and women, his internal life and thoughts are all there. I did not feel the love and respect some writers allow to show about their subject.I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Though it’s called the young HG wells it does go as far as his death. His relationship with Rebecca west is very sketchily treated , as is the son from that relationship.Other relationships and friendships are described in a more satisfactory way