The Wheels of Chance

by H.G. Wells

Book Overview

Complete and unabridged edition.The Wheels of Chance was written at the height of the cycling craze (1890-1905), when practical, comfortable bicycles first became widely and cheaply available and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1545078521
• ISBN13: 9781545078525
• Release Date: April 2017
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 164 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The wheels of chance

A great read, H.G. Wells before his sci-fi career. A fun story of English bicycle touring pre-automobile days. Characters cover a range of classes, emotions and imaginations. Somewhat humorous. Fun line drawing illustrations. Author set the story in Southern England and some of the places (hotels, Pubs..etc.) still exist.

Great story for cyclists - ancient and modern

H.G.Wells was himself a cyclist. This comes through well in his Wheels of Chance, his first novel published in 1896. The plot has appeal, but the greater appeal of this book is its social history of cycling in Britain. In 2006, as a cyclist and author, I rode from Lands End to John o'Groats - the length of Britain. I frequently thought what a wonderful country Britain would have been pre all those dreadful M roads. H.G. Wells tells, superbly, what it was like. This is a much quoted book amongst 21st-century cyclists. For me it was great to read all the familiar quotes within their intended context. Wheels of Chance is a book for every cyclists' book shelf. Thankfully cyclists are typically prolific readers.

More Than a Science Fiction Writer

Posterity has not been kind to H.G. Wells. It's true that his name is still one of the most easily recognizable in the literary world, but since his death in 1946 his contributions to mainstream writing, feminism, and politics (he wrote the United Nations charter) have been all but forgotten--instead he has simply become known as a "science fiction writer," a reputation based on a handful of novels written early in his career. Books like "The Time Machine" and "The War of the Worlds" are indeed marvelous, and are the key texts in the development of modern science fiction; but to limit Wells's accomplishment to these books borders on calumny. Wells was one of the major writers of the past hundred years, with an oeuvre so vast and varied a reader could spend a lifetime working through it all. There is truly something for everyone in the work of H.G. Wells."The Wheels of Chance" is a classic example. This pitch-perfect tale of a Mr. Hoopdriver, who undertakes a bicycling tour of the English countryside, has to be one of the most charming light novels ever written. Mr. Hoopdriver's holiday from his job as a draper's assistant (a job Wells himself held in his youth) becomes a kind of lighthearted spiritual quest, as he meets and falls in love with the rebellious Jessie Milton ("the Lady in Grey"), an early "New Woman"--a proto-feminist, one might say--whose daring elopement with a much older man has gone disastrously awry. Can Mr. Hoopdriver save her? Can Jessie salvage her reputation? These questions are answered in a tale which combines glorious descriptions of the pastoral England of a century ago with uproarious scenes of early bicycling and bicyclists. And yet this "Bicycling Idyll," as it is subtitled, also carries with it a genuine poignancy--we are always aware that the characters' journey must eventually end, just as, with the coming of the automobile, the world Wells described here ended."The Wheels of Chance" is brief, easy-to-read, and highly memorable. Indeed, it is surprising that this fast-moving, picaresque novel has never been filmed--a company like Merchant-Ivory could do a glorious job with it. In addition to being extraordinarily entertaining, "The Wheels of Chance" can also serve as an ideal introduction to the "other" novels of the man so many of us think of simply as a "science fiction writer." And the best fact of all is that, if the reader enjoys "The Wheels of Chance," there is a huge wealth of Wells fiction available for further enjoyment.

A comic masterpiece

Follow Mr. Hoopdriver as he goes on a bicycling excursion through southern England in the 1890's. The language is difficult at times, but the laughs are huge. An interesting window into Victorian morality and social status in these early days of cycling.