Filters

    Sorted by

    H. G. Wells

     


    11/08/2024
    A Modern Utopia cover

    A Modern Utopia

    Rate this audiobook
    , ,
    Chapter: 21 | Listen: 1

    H. G. Wells’s proposal for social reform was the formation of a world state, a concept that would increasingly preoccupy him throughout the remainder of his life. One of his most ambitious early attempts at portraying a world state was A Modern Utopia (1905). A Modern Utopia was intended as a hybrid between fiction and ‘philosophical discussion’. Like most utopists, he has indicated a series of modifications which in his opinion would increase the aggregate of human happiness. Basically, Wells’ idea of a perfect world would be if everyone were able to live a happy life. This book is written with an intimate knowledge of former ideal commonwealths and is a conscious attempt to describe a utopia that is not utopian.     [chương_files]  

    16/07/2024
    Little Wars (A Game for Boys) cover

    Little Wars (A Game for Boys)

    Rate this audiobook
    , , , ,
    Chapter: 5 | Listen: 3

    Miniature wargaming got its start with the publication in 1913 of this thoroughly entertaining little account of how H.G. Wells, with certain of his friends, took their childhood toys and turned play into acceptable middle-aged sport by subjecting the exercise to the civilizing influence of actual rules. While wargaming progressed far past these beginnings, Wells observes how “little wars” with even his elementary rules can suggest the wholesale crudity of the real thing. “You have only to play at Little Wars three or four times to realise just what a blundering thing Great War must be. Great War is at present, I am convinced, not only the most expensive game in the universe, but it is a game out of all proportion. Not only are the masses of men and material and suffering and inconvenience too monstrously big for reason, but–the available heads we have for it, are too small. That, I think, is the most pacific realisation conceivable, and Little War brings you to it as nothing else but Great War can do.” Wells leaves almost hanging the tantalizing concept that we might someday simulate war, as an instrument of international decision-making, rather than practice actual combat. But most of this book is just the fun of evicting the boys from the playroom and spending happy days there, away from the “skirt-swishers”, developing the framework under which two gentlemen might meet and accumulate boastable victories!     [chương_files]  

    10/07/2024
    Washington and the Riddle of Peace cover

    Washington and the Riddle of Peace

    Rate this audiobook

    Chapter: 29 | Listen: 4

    As an observer at the WASHINGTON CONFERENCE FOR THE LIMITATION OF ARMAMENTS held in 1921 and attended by the victorious nations of The Great War, the acclaimed author H. G. Wells wrote 29 short essays that were serialized in the New York World and other newspapers. This book is a collection of those essays. They are not a record or description of the Conference, but the impressions of one visitor. Wells noted that the failed League of Nations was the first American initiative toward an organized world peace, and in its absence “the American mind has produced this second experiment, which has been tried with the loosest of constitutions and the most severely defined and limited of aims. Instead of a world constitution we have had a world conversation.” The essays relate “one observer’s conviction of how things can be done, and of how they need to be done, if our civilization is indeed to be rescued from the dangers that encompass it and set again upon the path of progress.” While history would not bear out all of Wells’ various expressions of optimism and pessimism, his vision of world peace nevertheless remains relevant today. ( Lee Smalley)     [chương_files]  

    09/07/2024
    In the Fourth Year: Anticipations of a World Peace cover

    In the Fourth Year: Anticipations of a World Peace

    Rate this audiobook

    Chapter: 14 | Listen: 4

    In the Fourth Year is a collection H.G. Wells assembled in the spring of 1918 from essays he had recently published discussing the problem of establishing lasting peace when World War I ended. It is mostly devoted to plans for the League of Nations and the discussion of post-war politics. Summary by jfschuurman.     [chương_files]  

    04/07/2024
    hombre invisible cover

    hombre invisible

    Rate this audiobook
    ,
    Chapter: 29 | Listen: 1

    El hombre invisible (The Invisible Man es el título original en inglés) es una novela de ciencia ficción escrita por H. G. Wells. La obra fue originalmente publicada en entregas en la revista Pearson’s Magazine en 1897 y como novela el mismo año. El hombre invisible nos muestra las contradicciones de un joven y brillante científico que, tras largas jornadas de agotadores experimentos, descubre la forma de hacerse invisible. Sin embargo, trastornado por los sufrimientos y el acoso a que se ve sometido, abandona todo escrúpulo y trata de emplear su descubrimiento para enriquecerse y dominar, sin detenerse ante la violencia y el engaño. Novela fantástica y un tanto amarga, subraya los potenciales peligros de una ciencia mal utilizada. – Summary by Phileas Fogg     [chương_files]  

    03/07/2024
    Secret Places of the Heart cover

    Secret Places of the Heart

    Rate this audiobook

    Chapter: 22 | Listen: 2

    Richard Hardy, a member of the British gentry, tries to resolve problems in his marriage as he travels with a psychiatrist. The book is to a great extent autobiographical. H. G. had read some brilliantly composed articles by a writer who wrote under the name Rebecca West. In one piece she called H. G. “pseudo-scientific.” He contacted her and asked what she meant. When they met for lunch, it was the beginning of a very intense and volatile relationship. Soon she was pregnant, so he divided his time between her and his wife Jane with their two sons. After World War I, Rebecca became more demanding. She wanted him to divorce Jane. Finally, in 1923 Wells told Rebecca she should either get serious about her writing or break off their relationship. The criticism stung her. After a speaking tour in the U.S., she returned newly independent, and the two went their separate ways. In this novel H. G. based the character Martin on Rebecca, who both mesmerized and repelled him. (Summary by Bill Boerst)     [chương_files]  

    03/07/2024
    History of Mr. Polly cover

    History of Mr. Polly

    Rate this audiobook

    Chapter: 23 | Listen: 2

    A funny and touching account of the imaginative Mr. Polly who, bored and trapped in his conventional life, makes a U-turn –- and changes everything. H.G. Wells’ early life as the son of a semi-insolvent shopkeeper and as a draper’s apprentice fueled his novels of the lower middle class: The Wheels of Chance (1896), Kipps (1905), and The History of Mr. Polly (1910). These works evoke the desperation of apprentices, clerks, and small traders in their monotonous toil behind shop counters. And, like Mr. Polly, his protagonists make a break from their mundane lives with more or less success. H. G. Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific writer in history, general and science fiction, and politics. He was a lifelong socialist. (Summary by Adrian Praetzellis)     [chương_files]  

    26/06/2024
    Certain Personal Matters cover

    Certain Personal Matters

    Rate this audiobook

    Chapter: 39 | Listen: 3

    Although best known for his works of science fiction, social commentary and history, H.G. Wells here gives us humorous and light-hearted pieces on a wide variety of intriguing topics from chess to death. Each essay is a gem of wit and delight. – Summary by Larry Wilson     [chương_files]  

    26/06/2024
    Select Conversations with an Uncle (Now Extinct) and Two Other Reminiscences cover

    Select Conversations with an Uncle (Now Extinct) and Two Other Reminiscences

    Rate this audiobook
    , ,
    Chapter: 15 | Listen: 2

    Select Conversations with an Uncle, published in 1895, was H.G. Wells’s first literary publication in book form. It consists of reports of twelve conversations between a fictional witty uncle who has returned to London from South Africa with “a certain affluence,” as well as two other conversations (one on aestheticism that takes place in a train, titled “A Misunderstood Artist,” and another on physiognomy, titled “The Man with a Nose”) – Summary by Wikipedia     [chương_files]  

    13/05/2024
    Guerra de los Mundos cover

    Guerra de los Mundos

    Rate this audiobook
    ,
    Chapter: 27 | Listen: 6

    Las fábulas ideadas por H.G. Wells (1866-1946), uno de los padres, acaso el más notable, de la ciencia ficción, han demostrado a lo largo del tiempo mantener un vigor y tocar unos resortes del inconsciente humano que a menudo las han elevado a iconos del mundo moderno. “La guerra de los mundos” (1898), relato trepidante que narra la invasión de la Tierra por los marcianos y que supuso por primera vez la irrupción de seres de otros planetas en el nuestro, marcó en buena medida la fantasía del siglo XX y no tardó en convertirse en uno de los más importantes de la ciencia ficción, sirviendo de inspiración a numerosos artistas posteriores en los ámbitos de la radio, el cine, la literatura, el cómic y la televisión. Summary by Phileas Fogg.     [chương_files]