By H.G. Wells, eBook provided by Pennsylvania State University.

A successful author and Liberal MP with a loving and benevolent wife, Richard Remington appears to be a man to envy. But underneath his superficial contentment, he is far from happy with either his marriage or the politics of his party. The New Machiavelli describes the disarray into which his life is thrown when he meets the young and beautiful Isabel Rivers and becomes tormented by desire.

H. G. Wells (1866–1946) was a professional writer and journalist who published more than a hundred books. He is widely considered the father of science fiction.

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Book Description:

A Bromstead Rip van Winkle from 1550 returning in 1750 would have found most of the old houses still as he had known them, the same trades a little improved and differentiated one from the other, the same roads rather more carefully tended, the Inns not very much altered, the ancient familiar market-house. The occasional wheeled traffic would have struck him as the most remarkable difference, next perhaps to the swaggering painted stone monuments instead of brasses and the protestant severity of the communion-table in the parish church, -- both from the material point of view very little things. A Rip van Winkle from 1350, again, would have noticed scarcely greater changes; fewer clergy, more people, and particularly more people of the middling sort; the glass in the windows of many of the houses, the stylish chimneys springing up everywhere would have impressed him, and suchlike details. The place would have had the same boundaries, the same broad essential features, would have been still itself in the way that a man is still himself after he has "filled out" a little and grown a longer beard and changed his clothes.

But after 1750 something got hold of the world, something that was destined to alter the scale of every human affair.

That something was machinery and a vague energetic disposition to improve material things. In another part of England ingenious people were beginning to use coal in smelting iron, and were producing metal in abundance and metal castings in sizes that had hitherto been unattainable. Without warning or preparation, increment involving countless possibilities of further increment was coming to the strength of horses and men. "Power," all unsuspected, was flowing like a drug into the veins of the social body.

Nobody seems to have perceived this coming of power, and nobody had calculated its probable consequences. Suddenly, almost inadvertently, people found themselves doing things that would have amazed their ancestors. . . .

About H.G. Wells:

H.G. Wells, Writer

• Born: 21 September 1866
• Birthplace: Bromley, England
• Died: 13 August 1946
• Best Known As: Author of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds

Name at birth: Herbert George Wells

In 1895 H.G. Wells published The Time Machine, considered one of the earliest science fiction novels. He gained fame through other fantastical novels such as The War of the Worlds, The Island of Dr. Moreau and The Invisible Man, but he also wrote several comic novels, short stories, non-fiction books and essays. Extremely prolific, much of his work is commentary on socio-political and scientific issues.

Wells had a love affair with writer Rebecca West, and together they had a son, Anthony West... Wells's story War of the Worlds was made into a famous 1938 "hoax" radio broadcast by Orson Welles... War of the Worlds was made into feature films in 1953 (starring Gene Barry) and 2005 (starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning).

FOUR GOOD LINKS

• H.G. Wells
  Short intro to Wells, with a biography and links to his biggest books
• Herbert George Wells
  Biographical profile followed by a long list of his works
• Study Guide for The War of the Worlds
  Elaborate chapter-by-chapter guide that includes an audio of Orson Welles' famous 1938 radio broadcast
• Rabindranath Tagore and H.G. Wells in 1930
  The Indian writer and H.G. Wells talk about the future of mankind

(From Answers.com)

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