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http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/2540183

This is a massive collection and hence somewhat unwieldy, but what a treasury of influential works! Each of Wells’ novels is given a short anonymous introduction, which gives some of the context of the times, as well as a few illustrations, mainly images of first editions.

“The Time Machine” - A curious novella with two unnamed first person narrators. One bookends the other. The former has too little time to make an impression whilst he tells the reader the tale related to him, the latter, who relates his time travelling adventure to the former narrator, is deeply unsympathetic. The author’s imagination was grounded in the cutting edge science of the time (1895), but his social extrapolations reflect the prejudices of the time. An important seminal novel, but a merely adequate read. 3/5.

“The Wonderful Visit”

“The Island of Doctor Moreau”

“The Wheels of Chance”

“The Invisible Man” - I have separately read and commented on this novel.

“The War Of The Worlds” - What an iconic opening! This novel is very much of its time (serialised in 1897), but also strikingly modern in its unflinching and highly realistic description of chaos, which makes it a thrilling read to this day. It anticipates robotic machinery, mechanised warfare, chemical weapons, total war, and displaced populations. Such scenes are suggestive of the horrors of the first and second world wars, but imagined far beforehand. It establishes the trope of aliens as hideous predators and farmers of human cattle, and anticipates all post apocalyptic fiction published since with its plans for resistance and survival. It’s really interesting how the author comments on how slowly the realisation of the attack spreads in a Britain without modern communications (in remarkable contrast with every radio, film, and television adaptation since). Clearly he is aware this lack of communication is humanity’s greatest weakness at the time, and contrasts it with Martian telepathy. A work of genius. 5/5.

Forse avrei dovuto leggere questi racconti sessant’anni fa, quando da ragazzina trangugiavo d’un fiato, con occhi sgranati dalla meraviglia, i romanzi di Verne. A un’età un po’ più smaliziata e a un palato più sofistico, fatto salvo il rispetto dovuto all’età delle opere (ultimo decennio dell’Ottocento), me ne resta soprattutto una sensazione di fastidio per la trama approssimativa, la narrazione confusa, la psicologia piatta, il sensazionalismo, l’odore di sangue, la brutalità.
Le parti che danno una verniciatura di scientificità o di teorizzazione socio-filosofica sono le migliori, ma anche mortalmente noiose. Si tratta sempre di una scienza del tutto amorale, e qui è il sonno dell’etica che genera mostri - veri mostri, come il popolo sotterraneo della “Macchina del tempo” o gli ibridi del dott. Moreau, descritti con un senso di superiorità e un ribrezzo che sconfinano nel razzismo. Siamo agli antipodi del rispetto per le razze diverse, anche quando siano nemiche o brutali o crudeli, che si trova in Tolkien o nella Rowlings, abilissimi, loro sì, a creare interi mondi, mentre i mondi fantascientifici di Wells sono fondali di cartapesta - brutali e apocalittici, ma irrimediabilmente finti.
Si salvano il ritmo farsesco della prima parte dell’”Uomo invisibile”, e la seconda parte della “Guerra dei mondi”, con il suo sguardo pessimista e disincantato sulla natura umana.

All must reads, especially the Island of Dr. Moreau and the War of the Worlds. You all know the stories, but don't you want to know the thoughts?

Halfway through this one.

La sua mente è la macchina del tempo Herbert George Wells, (1866-1946) detto H.G. Wells, è il quarto figlio di una modesta famiglia inglese. Attribuisce il proprio successo a tre incidenti. Il primo a 7 anni, quando si rompe una tibia e, costretto a letto, viene folgorato dal mondo magnifico della lettura. Il secondo tre anni dopo: una seconda gamba rotta, questa volta di suo padre, che obbliga tutta la famiglia in affanno a trovare un’occupazione e sottrae il ragazzo agli obblighi domestici. Il terzo e ultimo nel 1893, dopo la laurea al Royal College of Science and Technology di Londra: una grave emorragia, probabilmente tubercolosi, spaventa Wells, tanto da fargli rivedere le proprie priorità. Decide di dedicarsi totalmente alla scrittura: non vuole morire prima di essere diventato famoso, di aver lasciato traccia di sé.

Diventa il padre della fantascienza: immagina dimensioni alternative, viaggi nel tempo, spedizioni sulla Luna; e ancora, uomini invisibili, scienziati pazzi e senza scrupoli, alieni e mostri dalle teste giganti, marziani che invadono la Terra. Visioni distopiche di cosa accadrebbe se tutti gli esseri umani si evolvessero in geni, creature dall’intelligenza superiore: una diffusione incontrollata della follia. H.G. sostiene che tutte le passioni siano una forma di pazzia, compresa la sua.La macchina del tempo, primo grande successo del 1895, e i successivi romanzi sono accolti con grande successo di pubblico e di critica.

Sposa l’allieva Amy Catherine Robbins, detta Jane, che gli concede di divertirsi anche con altre donne: sembra esserci una curiosa correlazione tra le scappatelle di Wells e la sua creatività. Con l’inizio del nuovo secolo, si concentra sulla produzione di saggi di natura sociale e politica. I suoi scritti sono riflessioni sul difficile rapporto tra scienza e società. Propone la compilazione di un’enciclopedia mondiale, in cui racchiudere la saggezza collettiva dei migliori professionisti, un «cervello mondiale». Una profezia che si realizzerà qualche decennio più tardi.

Il 13 agosto 1946, quasi ottantenne, Wells muore a Londra, consapevole di aver lasciato l’impronta indelebile che sognava di imprimere nel mondo: nelle moderne opere letterarie e cinematografiche di fantascienza, il confronto con menti superdotate è tuttora la minaccia più grande e i personaggi hanno ancora sembianze molto simili a quelle dei suoi romanzi. È la mente di Wells la vera macchina del tempo che ha permesso all’umanità di viaggiare nei mondi della sua immaginazione.

(Almamatto. Un matto al giorno)

La macchina del tempo - 5/5
L'uomo invisibile - 3/5
La guerra dei mondi - 5/5
L'isola del dottor Moreau - 5/5

The best!

This book contained four of H.G. Wells classic works (The Time Machine , The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The Island of Dr. Moreau )

It's a really good catch especially if you haven't read any of H.G. Wells' works before or if you were recently into classic sci-fi.

Ma cosa ho letto? Assurdo. Immenso. Quattro storie con l'umanità come protagonista. Una raccolta che fa da lievito madre ad un sacco di filosofia esistenziale secondo me, sulla vita terrena e quella dello spazio. Wells i love u.

Soundtrack Tips:
Purtroppo non ho ascoltato nulla durante la lettura delle prime tre storie. Per la quarta, invece, "La Guerra dei Mondi", consiglio l'album Timewave Zero dei Blood Incantation.

2.5 ⭐ My first experience with H.G. Wells

*booo, no thugnotes*

*Spoilers, spoilers everywhere*

n   War Of The Worlds n

Okay, so this is officially my first reading of H.G. Wells. Its got that terrible classic lit passive voice and overly wordy language, so newts to that. You have to take classics with that particularly bitter grain of salt. The language/style reminded me of HP Lovecraft, but Wells came first—I think Wells is a much better writer.

The great achievement of WotW, is the ability to minimize the grandiose complexity of humanity to a hill of ants. Great stuff. I found the aliens themselves a bit absurd, but I come from top shelf scifi, and Wells paved the way for that world.

All and all, it was a little funny and meta in that the ending was so benign and boring, it almost could’ve been true, then that jarred me.

Me in the kitchen: What if this really happened and HG Wells wrote a true account of an alien attack in London, and he was allowed to publish it, but then later on the gov’t realized the panic of neighboring nations and decided to classify it, but now Wells’ memoire is everywhere, there’s no concealing it, the prose is rich, engaging, descriptive, and one of the best first-hand accounts on record, in fact, the only one to rise to such fame and notoriety. They now demand he write more science fiction so they can disguise his memoire as just another notch of fiction in a writer’s long stream of spooky works. He has no choice but to accept. ‘Write fiction, or we make you disappear.’

Me in the kitchen: O_O

*Another moment during this reading*

Me: *cooking*
Audiobook: “His landlady came to the door, loosely wrapped in dressing gown and shawl; her husband followed ejaculating.”
Me: *Snickering*
My husband from the living room: "Goodnight everybody."

All and all, 3.0⭐ A little dull and wordy, but some great concepts, a few eerie moments, massive influence, and best of all, terse.

n   The Invisible Man n

Boy I hate this story.

I also hate having to give credence to its influence on science fiction and horror over the ages, but here I am. Great scientific language and explanation, the highest achievement of the book in my opinion. HG Wells is teaching the scifi writers of tomorrow how to use known sciences to influence impossible stories, and it’s still effective/marvelous. Great influence for future anti-hero narratives.

Otherwise, what a GROAN.

HG, baby, why did you SPOIL THE ENTIRE FIRST ACT WITH THE TITLE OF THE BOOK. Why. Why.

W H Y ?

I trudged through long, lengthy narratives of a townspeople trying to understand this grand, mysterious visitor, and could not participate in the mystery at all. Townspeople: *speculate* Me: He’s invisible. Townspeople: *notice a clue* Me: He’s invisible. Townspeople: *Discuss possibilities* Me: He IS IN-VIS-A-BLE. Bored out of my mind over here.

The second act of the book is a too-long and boring account of a character I don’t like.

Alternative title: The Invisible self-serving, pretentious douche that goes on multiple long-winded monologues where you mentally check out in the first 30 seconds.

2.0⭐, and that’s generous. That’s for the literary influence alone.

n   The Island of Doctor Moreaun

I have been patient. I have been giving due credit. Now I’m being punished. I don’t know if it’s just the pacing of the other stories that led me into a bad attitude or if the story is just bad. It’s 120 years old, again, for what it informs and how it has remained accessible for this long, it’s probably genius.

For Chrysten in the year 2019, sloooog.

There’s some commentary on societal structure, law, and morality, but all and all, this is a mad-scientist story ultimately warning the reader not to play god.

The problem is, I just didn’t see the follow through. None of the characters are relatable or interesting, there doesn’t seem to be any point to what anyone is doing. The mad scientist doesn’t have an agenda, he’s just vivisecting for the fun of it. Montgomery is just, idk, weirdly enabling?

Prendick seems to oppose the behavior but has no problem reinforcing their indoctrinations after the other humans are killed. He takes up with a humanoid Saint Bernard which seemed like a thin man’s best friend joke, it didn’t serve the story much except to confuse aim/motivations.

The initial concept is creepy, but I was left bored and confused of what the point even was.

I just saw there was a movie version starring Marlon Brando, Fairuza Balk, Val Kilmer, and in a hilarious twist of irony, Remus Lupin. I don’t even know what to do with that. Wild. That sounds like the sort of movie I need to do a shot for every time something happens. Maybe every time someone does something meant to be serious, but is actually just comical. The trailer cracked me up. I might honestly watch anything with Fairuza Balk, but the lord is testing me on this one.

I scanned the 1 star reviews, and reader/author Pauline J. Alama brilliantly articulates my feelings, if you’re enjoying this HG Wells disdain-train, Check out her super short review here, she makes some great points and brought the receipts to back it up.

1.0⭐ thanks i hate it :

n   The Time Machine n

HG Wells, the combo breaker. I actually sort of liked this one. I guess I can concede that my hang-up may be an auditory issue, but I'm not sure.

The first three had one narrator, this one had another. Maybe that helped? IDK, may never know. I just did better with this story. Still kinda clunky, but much better pacing.

I felt like the scientist in this one was just...a little dumb? Also pretentious. Dude just rolled into a new time and immediately started to make judgements. IDK, feels like a real scientist might have a more open mind. He was wrong, but just keeps making conjectures, I’m not even entirely sure I trust him as a narrator. Seems like a sloppy guy.

Your one and only means to get back to your plain of existence, and you leave the thing unattended? B R U H.

“Yet, for one thing I felt assured: unless some other age had produced its exact duplicate, the machine could not have moved in time. The attachment of the levers—I will show you the method later—prevented anyone from tampering with it in that way when they were removed.”

That’s why he was chillin’, he had the club.

  

Kinda hate the needless death of Weena. Otherwise, a cool story with good world building.

4.0⭐—2 stars for its timing and influence, 1 for plot/story/character, 1 for fluidity of prose, which is a huge problem in the other three stories. Minus 1 for killing Weena in a cheap, baseless fashion.

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These four books are the definition of seminal science fiction, written by HG Wells. More like a proof of concept than full blown story, each book introduces an ethical question along with its fantastical premise.