Selected Stories of H. G. Wells

by H.G. Wells

Ursula K. Le Guin's selection of twenty-six stories showcases H. G. Wells's genius and reintroduces readers to his singular talent for making the unbelievable seem utterly plausible. He envisioned a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812970756
• ISBN13: 9780812970753
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: Penguin Random House LLC (No Starch)
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.2" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Sellected Stories of H. G. Wells

Wonderful edition of Wells's short prose; it should be in everyone's personal library. The short story entitled 'Under the Knife' is simply a masterpiece of world literature. If you start there you will have in Wells a companion for life.

Good selection.

This is a very good selection of H.G. Wells stories. I like the art and if youlove sci-fi this is a must have.

Back to the Future

Selected Stories of H. G. Wells (Modern Library Classics) Widely regarded as a founder of science fiction, H.G. Wells predicted, among other things, nuclear and biological warfare ("The War of the World" and "The Island of Dr. Moreau." His longer works are well known, but his short stories deserve critical acclaim as well. In "The Land Ironclads," Wells also accurately predicted the use of tanks in battle, although they did not appear until years later. His description of the gunsights and navigational systems are incredibly accurate... his gunners use a sort of "heads-up display" and a kind of laser sighting. "The sighting was ingeniously contrived. The rifleman stood at the table with a thing like an elaboration of a draughtsman's dividers in his hand, and he opened and closed those dividers, so that they were always at the apparent height --- of it was an ordinary sized man... of the man he wanted to kill." "Changes in the clearness of the atmosphere, due to changes of moisture, were met by an ingenious use of the meteorologically sensitive substance, catgut and when the land ironclad moved forward the sights got a compensatory deflection in the direction of its motion." His prediction of technology using thermal imaging, laser sighting and gyro-controlled stabilization is amazing. But it isn't technological innovation, but social analysis that makes his short stories worth reading. Technology is a double-edged sword: it improves man's ability to deal with the environment but diminishes his quality of life.

Master Storyteller--Prophetic Insight

This is one of the most exciting volumes of Wells' work I've ever come across, not only for the works themselves, but for Le Guin's brilliant introduction, commentary, and overall selection. She truly acts as a guide throughout the volume, and I can think of no greater heir to Wells' vision than the brilliant author of The Dispossessed, Left Hand of Darkness, Lathe of Heaven, etc. Unlike other editors/critics, she is uninterested in matters of political correctness, and instead urges us to read the historical and the universal Wells--in other words, the Wells that revolutionized the science fiction story, and the one who continues to be relevant through his vision and insight. The stories here are brilliantly written--science fiction could never be written like this today. Wells was a master of style (and as Le Guin points out, of description), and without his voice in the stories, even the most fantastic ideas might seem second rate. Yet all of his stories marry style with vision; Wells understood the dangers of technology and progress as well as its achievements. In a story like "The New Accelerator," we see the moral dilemma of marketing a formula that could create an entirely new class of criminals (and indeed, even the protagonists act a bit criminal and childish under the influence of their accelerator). There are many stories like this, that chart the great promise of science twisted for immediate, selfish ends, and how powerless mankind is to stop it. Even more exciting are the stories that take us entirely to new dimensions of thought, such as "The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes," where a man exists in two worlds--his physical body in London, while his eyes and perception on a remote Pacific island. The way Wells describes the man's dilemma is both amazing and terrifying in its realism. The same is true for the surreal "Under the Knife," where a patient undergoes a near-death experience and floats through the cosmos to oblivion. Again, the style conjures up a sense of tactile experience and lived terror that is hard to shake off. We also find stories that hint at the masterpieces to come, such as "The Crystal Egg," which has resonances of The War of the Worlds, as does the frightening "The Star," which ends with a paragraph very similar to the opening of WOTW. And a story like "The Stolen Body" dabble in familiar Stevensonian doppleganger territory, but is in no way derivative. In short, this is a fascinating volume showing Wells' true range not only as a science fiction writer, but as a true literary stylist who exerted a profound influence on an entire century of writers. If you enjoy Wells or works of true fantasy and scientific speculation, this volume should find its way to the top of your wish list.

Recently read, and very enjoyable

I recently read all the stories in this book over a period of a week. They are arranged in a nice, thematic way, so that similar stories are grouped together. I was amazed at the breadth of the subject matter of the stories, having previously restricted myself to Wells' speculative short stories such as "The Land Ironclads". But "The Valley of Spiders" is a spooky story of what apparently are cowboys on a chase, and the first story in the book, "A Slip Under the Microscope", is a realistic story of college students, that shows how little has changed in over 100 years. In fact, if one thing struck me about all the stories it is how modern they all are; there were no anachronisms that spoiled any story, though of course you have to put yourself back before airplanes and tanks were invented in "The Argonauts of the Air" and "The Land Ironclads". Rather than reviewing all the stories individually, I will just say that anyone who enjoys imaginative short stories will surely find much to like here.