CHRISTINA ALBERTA FTHR

By H.G. Wells

Book Overview

In the months following his wife's death, Mr. Preemby, a retired laundryman, becomes convinced that he is the incarnation of Sargon, the ancient king of Sumeria, returned to save a world upturned by... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0701205792
• ISBN13: 9780701205799
• Release Date: November 1987
• Publisher: Random House UK
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Touching, Emotion-stirring Novel

I'm probably the only person under 30 whose read as much of the non-science fiction novels of H.G. Wells as anyone since the 1920s. [After all, he was considered a titan by such authors as Somerset-Maugham, Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald--and not for his early sci-fi stuff. But for his commanding literary novels. This is largely forgotten today in the amnesia brought about by hack literature professors or lacking Fiction courses.] Nevertheless, anyone who stumbles upon his literary works realizes what a disservice is done him by the unthinking who have unfairly marginalized him and relegated him to sci-fi purgatory. Among his best literary novels [and ones that actually were best-sellers at the time] are "Ann Veronica," "The Passionate Friends," "Love and Mr. Lewisham" and "Tono Bungay". As for myself, I am becoming quite a connoisseur of Wells' work. As such, I was curious to see what he was doing in his later years. "Christina Alberta's Father" was written in the exhaustion following his famous non-fiction work "Brief Outline of History". It was a major international bestseller. So "Christina Alberta" was a quiet return to novels. At first I was leery. [After all, it's about a girl whose father starts to wonder if he's not the reincarnation of Sumerian king, Sargon the Great.] It seemed too comic, too flippant, too . . . in a word: humorous. But I kept reading. By the end of the novel--such was its depth and range of emotion--that I found myself weeping. [I won't spoil the end for you--even though I *will* confide that it's sad.] Suffice it to say: It was so human, so touching, so well-crafted that I came away from it feeling enriched that I'd been brought so close to these characters. Novels aren't written like this anymore: So complex and filled with a range of complicated emotions.