Product Description
In 1901, the great writer and social critic attempted to predict the future in this book, a fascinating mix of accurate forecasts (development of cars, buses and trucks; use of flying machines in combat, decline of permanent marriage, many more) and wild misses (submarines will suffocate their crews and founder at sea). Brimming with stimulating ideas, Anticipations holds new relevance a century after its original publication. Fascinating to read on the eve of the millennium.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Quaint, insightful, and disturbing
I found this interesting because I've read Wells' most popular fiction novels and wanted to sample some of his social commentary, and because I've been collecting writings by famous futurists of the last century. Readers who are not similarly motivated may rate this book lower than I did. It's very different from his fiction, so if you liked "War of the Worlds" or "The Time Machine" or "The Shape of Things to Come" it doesn't necessarily follow that you will like this.
The author's attempt to predict the social and technological developments of the 20th century from the vantage point of 1901 can be entertaining for both its hits and misses. For example, in his chapter on armed conflict, he correctly envisions long-range, highly accurate sniper rifles wielded by expert marksmen, but incorrectly guesses that these marksmen will maneuver through battlefields on bicycles. Also, writing two years before the first Wright brothers flight, he estimates that the first practical airplane will be demonstrated around 1950. His description of an aerial dogfight between dirigibles and his disbelief in the viability of submarines seem quaint.
Wells was a product of 19th century England, so sometimes quaintness gives way to offensiveness from the perspective of the modern reader. Today, Wells would be considered racist and sexist. He also supported eugenics and euthanasia, including practices that have been widely discredited since the horrors of Nazism.
Wells was also a socialist who distrusted both monarchies and democracies, believing that the global society of 2000 should be a New Republic that constituted a world state (or close to it) dominated by three or four languages. It would be led by an elite cadre of scientists, engineers, and medical doctors - a technocracy, as we'd call it today.
Despite many inaccurate predictions, Wells did have some interesting insights on things like the growth of cities, the proliferation of labor-saving devices, the problems of the education system, and the evolution of journalism. For those who are comfortable with the writing style of the time (very long sentences and paragraphs; protracted sidebar discussions in lengthy footnotes), this is an intriguing historical sample of both social commentary and futurism.

Nostradamus ain't got nothing on HG
Around the turn of the century, 1901 a famous Sci-fi writer that is well known for predicting the future applies his trade.Instead of taking the word of experts on HG, we get his speculations first hand.

The book starts out innocuously describing how turning a "steam pump" on its side we now have a steam engine. He makes some good points against the wisdom of the time that ideas come together at just the right time to create just the right answer to a problem.From her he speculates on how mechanized transportation will change society. HG is just warming up as he now speculates on government, military and social conscience.He used a term "the new republic to describe his future world.

I may have to take his work on many of the subject but I can relate to his military references.It took the Vietnam War to shake the military up enough to make HG's speculation on an educated well-oiled military that we have today. It was the generals of the time the generals of the Vietnam era that realize that we needed just about everything HG predicted from technical advances to intelligent soldiers to the concept of "Land, Sea, Air" warfare.

Some of his speculations are a met strange or maybe just a tad different. It looks like he thinks that democracy will be exchange for the rule of technocrats. Moreover, he is not too sure of the future domination of the English language.

In any event, this book is well worth reading as it is the core of HG's views of humankind.

The Time Machine, Literary Touchstone Edition

Diamonds in the rough
This book offers an interesting, although distanced, look at the technological progress of the 20th century - from the perspective of 1901.

H.G. Wells reflects some of the less attractive characteristics of a world we have grown beyond, but has a keen insight into social dynamics and the progress it directs.

Much of the book is not worth reading, but there are snippets of truth that point to major changes that our world economy and cultures are still going through.If you are willing to wade through the rough, there are some diamonds to be found. ... Read more

Product Description
A brilliant survey of man's progress from the earliest struggles of the caveman to the momentous events of the early 60's. From all the diverse cultural, economic, political, and social backgrounds. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Experiment in Turgidity
A really painfully slow book, overloaded with detail. It takes about 500 pages before H.G. Wells reaches the 20th century. Quite offensive in parts. He states at one point, "I saw the approaching decivilization of Ireland". Elsewhere he drones on about his idea of a one-world government. The pro-Soviet propaganda is a bit much to take. Of Joseph Stalin, he enthuses, "I have never met a man more candid, fair and honest. No-one is afraid of him and everybody trusts him." The reader is also informed that "the new Soviet Russia was the best moral and political investment that had ever been offered to Britain". In Stalin's Russia "there remained a growing effect of a successful enterprise." Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley are also venerated as being "very great men" and "mighty intellectual liberators". If Wells's vision of centralized world government occurs it seems it may well resemble Stalin's Russia, as Wells ponders at one point that Stalin "must be seeing many things much as I am seeing them".

Instead of wading through this book I would recommend chapters 6 and 7 of The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice Among the Literary Intelligentsia, 1880-1939, titled H.G. Wells Getting Rid of People and H.G. Wells Against H.G. Wells.

Comedy & prose with a dose of real life
I looked up this book initially to sell the copy I have, then upon seeing how many for sale there were coupled with the sales rank, I wondered what would the book be like? H.G. Wells is known to be a great storyteller, although I am not personally fond of his works. And an autobiography? I am not fond of these either; but I felt drawn to open the book.

Once there, I was sucked in, compelled to read the next paragraph, and then the next page, flowing into the next chapter. When I cought a breath of air I was through the introduction, and two more chapters in. Wells draws the reader in with his smooth use of the language, and through the ability to relate to everyone around him. Page 7 "We all compromise. We all fall short. The life story to be told of any creative worker is therefore by its very nature, by its diversions of purpose and its qualified success, by its grotesque transitions from sublimation to base necessity and its pervasive stress towards flight, a comedy."

While telling his life story, he questions and laughs at his mistakes. He includes sketches, photos, letters, & illustrations throughout to show you himself. His use of the language though is so smooth that you forget to notice when you turn the page. Beautiful in its simplicity, talking to you as if it was yesterday, H. G. Wells has managed to turn his life into an entertaining story, rather than a serious withdrawnrecolection of life. ... Read more

Product Description
A look inside one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. ... Read more

Product Description
An attempt to synthesize what is known of the immensity of world history, in a form that can be grasped by the layman. Well's view of "the great adventure of mankind" is presented in the same format as when it was first published in 1922. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The first of its kind
This has to be one of the most remarkable books I've ever read. According to John Strachey and other contempories of Wells, it represented the first attempt in modern times to compile a complete history of mankind. Wells' writing style is essentially journalistic. It's easy to read and full of colorful facts that make you quite sad they never got round to teach world history in school.

Wells starts at the very beginning, describing the extent of scientific knowledge in 1922 regarding the formation of the earth and the planets. He then traces what was known (based on fossil records) regarding the origin of life, evolution, and the drastic climatic changes associated with successive geologic periods. He talks about the two known (at the time) pre-human species - Neanderthal and Rhodesian Man. He doesn't even try to speculate exactly where the first true man originated. However he talks about caves in France and Spain where artifacts have been found, suggesting there true men living in Europe at the time the last Ice Age receded. He moves on to talk about the beginning of cultivation 10,000 years ago and to outline the ethnic origins of the primitive tribes present in most parts of the known world at the time of the great Greek and Roman civilizations.

He then takes us through the origin of written language in Sumeria and the civilizations of Egypt, Babylon and Assyria. This was my favorite section of the book. Prior to reading A Short History of the World, my only knowledge of these cultures came from the Bible. He covers the Persian empire then, as well as the history of the Jewish people. After covering Greece, Rome and Carthage, he devotes two chapters to the history of China and two to the life of the prophet Mohammed and Arab civilization.

As a European, he devotes the latter half of the book to European history through the Middle Ages, the Reformation, the Industrial Revolution and the great revolutions that overthrew feudalism. His first edition ended with World War I. However in 1946 he updated the book to cover European history through World War II.

By Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall, author of THE MOST REVOLUTIONARY ACT: MEMOIR OF AN AMERICAN REFUGEE

Close-minded, ignorant and too subjective
After reading Wells' story about Prophet Mohamed I wondered if s/he ever read anything about Mohamed's life. When you want to talk about a subject you study it if you don't want to stay ignorant, and read from all sources if you don't want to stay close-minded. Wells obviously did not do those things. After that "historical" I began to wonder whether he did the same with other "stories", too. Waste of time. Plus, although the book may seem "funny" lets remember that if a history book is funny it is based on personal opinions and feelings, rather than facts.

Just Superb!!
In addition to all of the other glowing and positive reviews below, I'd like to humbly add the following......

When it came to my O'levels (GCSE's), I was given the choice of History or Geography; looking back I think it was unfortunate that I chose Geography.

I stumbled across an earlier version of this book about 30 years ago and have never looked back. For me it made the subject so interesting and accessible. The read is absolutely captivating and you really won't want to put it down once you've started.

Obviously because of the author, the book only goes up to around the time of WWII. If you enjoy this book as much I have then you may wish to expand your knowledge with dynamite read by "J.M. Roberts" called "The New Penguin History of the World".

Both of these books are classics, or certainly will be and really ought to be in pride of place in all school book library history sections if not on each student's desk during history lessons!! Essential reading and fantastic reference for any history buff.

A Masterpiece
Writing a history of the world that is fun to read, easy to understand, and not a gazillion pages long is no easy task.Wells has done it in a masterful way.

This is a book for all ages as it is written in an extremely simple and clear manner.

Erudite, vivid, and entertaining...essential reading.
This is the book that had such a powerful impact on Malcolm X. Its easy to see why. The history of the world is vividly outlined in an erudite and readable style. (Ever since I read `The Time Machine' when I was sixteen, I have considered Wells to be the clearest writer of prose in the English language.) Wells takes us from the very beginning of life right up to the League of Nations in 1922, stopping off at most points in-between: Neolithic cavemen, Periclean Athens, Roman and Byzantium civilisations, the life of Jesus, Confucius and Lao Tse, the rise of Islam, the Dark Ages, the Renaissance, discovery of America, the Industrial Revolution, World War I, and so on. The book is breathtaking in its scope, but Wells manages to give a succinct, vivid and comprehensive view of world history. I have found myself re-reading many of the chapters and I do not doubt that I will soon be re-reading the book in its entirety. There is little to criticise in this book - maybe it is a little Euro-centric; in the last chapters he does tend to labour his point a bit; and the early chapters are a little dated as we now know so much more about the evolution of our species. These are mere quibbles. Read it and become informed. Read it and be entertained. ... Read more

Product Description
This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Classic™ includes a glossary and reader’s notes to help the modern reader understand Wells’ commentary on this all-too-human desire.

H.G. Wells’ classic The Invisible Man is an artful combination of a psychological thriller and science fiction novel. A young scientist who discovers the secret of invisibility feels initial joy at his newfound freedoms and abilities, but quickly turns to despair when he realizes the many things he has sacrificed in the pursuit of science. While he struggles to create the formula that will restore his visibility and his connection to other people, murder and mayhem ensue.

The Invisible Man is a fascinating account of humanity’s obsession with science and the unforeseen consequences that arise from reckless experimentation. The novel has been captivating readers for well over a century, and it is sure to remain a timeless portrayal of the human desire to overcome the laws of nature and gain forbidden knowledge. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

What is unseen
Imagine if you were invisible and could come and go as you pleased, with nobody able to see you. Cool, right? Well, not really. H.G. Wells' "The Invisible Man" has the sci-fi master exploring what would happen if a person took an invisibility elixir, and discovered too late that invisibility has some definite downsides. It's possibly Wells' funniest novel, but it also has some wonderfully chilling moments.

A strange man arrives at a hotel in Iping, wrapped up in goggles, bandages, scarves, and heavy clothes. He spends most of his time hidden away in his room, doing odd scientific experiments, and avoiding contact with other people -- while still keeping everything except his nose hidden. Meanwhile, the local vicar and his wife are robbed by a mysterious thief... who is completely invisible.

Well, you can guess what's up with the stranger -- he's an invisible man, and after a blowup with his landlady he reveals his true.... um, lack of appearance to the entire town. After a series of disastrous encounters, the Invisible Man encounters Dr. Kemp, an old friend to whom he reveals how he became invisible, and what he's done since then... as well as his malevolent plans for the future.

H.G. Wells isn't really known for being a funny writer, but the first part of "The Invisible Man" is actually mildly hilarious. He writes the first third or so of the book in a fairly light, humorous style, and there are some fun scenes speckled through the story, like a homeless man dealing with the Invisible Man ("Not a bit of you visible--except-- You 'aven't been eatin' bread and cheese?").

But things get much darker after Mr. Kemp enters the scene, and we find out that the Invisible Man is... well, kind of malevolent and crazy. Very crazy.

And as the plot grows darker and grimmer, Wells also inserts a clever (if far-fetched even by Victorian standards) explanation for how a person could become invisible, using a mix of science and fantasy. The plot hurtles through wild chase scenes and the occasional riot, and some moments of bleak tension ("When dawn came to mingle its pallor with the lamp-light and cigar smoke of the dining-room, Kemp was still pacing...")

The Invisible Man himself (aka Griffin) is a pretty mysterious character for most of the story, since all we know about him is that he's invisible.... and also kind of a jerk. I mean, the guy constantly flies off the handle and even robs a nice little old vicar. And the more we find out about him, the more malignant and insane he turns out to be.

Even if you had a way to become invisible, "The Invisible Man" would be a pretty effective way of dissuading people from using it. A deserving classic. ... Read more

Product Description
C&C Web Press brings you a 4 novel set from Sci-Fi author H.G Wells. Selections include, The War of the Worlds,The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau and The Invisible Man. Each book has an active table of contents so you can click and scroll from novel to novel. ... Read more

Product Description
First published in 1897, "The Invisible Man" is one of H. G. Well's earliest novels. A science fiction novella, "The Invisible Man" tells the story of Griffin, a scientist who theorizes that if a person's refractive index is changed to exactly that of air and his body does not absorb or reflect light, then he will be invisible. Griffin successfully carries out this procedure on himself, but cannot become visible again, becoming mentally unstable as a result. Underneath the surface story, H. G. Wells was very much a social writer and that his novels are inevitably commentaries on various social evils. Readers who delve deeper into "The Invisible Man" will find that it is very much a parable of class structure that dominated British life during the Victorian age: there are many "invisible men;" this particular one, however, is in a very literal situation. And it is the literal situation from which the novel draws most of its power. Invisibility sounds attractive--but what if you were to actually become so? How would you cope with the ordinary details of everyday life? Griffin does not cope well at all, and although Wells suggests that his madness has arisen from a number of sources, he also implies that it may arise from the fact of invisibility itself, again twisting the context back into the social criticism on which the novel seems based. Short enough to be read in a single sitting, "The Invisible Man"is a quick and entertaining read-and quite witty in an underhanded, subversive sort of way. Extremely memorable! ... Read more

Product Description
When the Time Traveller courageously stepped out of his machine for the first time, he found himself in the year 802,700--and everything has changed.  In another, more utopian age, creatures seemed to dwell together in perfect harmony.  The Time Traveller thought he could study these marvelous beings--unearth their secret and then retum to his own time--until he discovered that his invention, his only avenue of escape, had been stolen.  H.G. Well's famous novel of one man's astonishing journey beyond the conventional limits of the imagination first appeared in 1895.  It won him immediate recognition, and has been regarded ever since as one of the great masterpieces in the literature of science fiction.


From the Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The best book ever I every enjoyed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I like this book The Time Machine (Bullseye Step into Classics) & that is the best book I ever enjoyed & this is adapted by Les Martin & illustrated by John Edens.

The collections that should go in the Bullseye Step into Classics are:

Black Beauty
Oliver Twist
The Time Machine
Treasure Island &
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

This book The Time Machine (Bullseye Step into Classics) reminds my of a paperback book The Secret of the Indian by Lynne Reid Banks & Illustrated by Ted Lewin & Disney's Belle's Magical World on VHS & DVD.

I really loved that book & enjoyed it!

I like it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

About the "Step Into Classics" edition...
Amazon.com has the reviews of various editions thrown together willy-nilly, so let me make clear that my review is of the "Bullseye Step Into Classics" edition, which is a complete rewrite and abridgement of Wells' original. I know many people feel such abridged versions are sacrilegious and yet another sign of the decline of civilization, but they can be a godsend for beginning readers of English. My son has been raised in Japan, and while he can understand spoken English and can speak it fairly well, reading is still difficult. At ten years of age, he is a sophisticated reader of Japanese, so "Dick and Jane" cannot hold his interest. Books like Martin's adaptation of The Time Machine allow him to use and expand his English while also providing entertainment that is not condescending.Martin's adaptation in particular is very good. I read a similar adaptation of Frankenstein (also published by Random House) by Larry Weinberg that was annoying precisely because it is condescending. Just because one is confined to a beginning vocabularly and simple syntax doesn't mean one needs to adopt a Barney-the-Dinosaur tone.My only complaint about Martin's adaptation is his use of incomplete sentences. I understand that he is trying to avoid complex sentences and perhaps create dramatic pauses, but I don't want my son to think that it's all right to write sentences that lack a subject or verb. Random House publishes many of these "streamlined" classics. Keeping in mind that the quality of the adaptations apparently varies, I suggest you read a few pages before deciding to buy any of them. Martin's Time Machine, though, is a winner. It was a real joy to hear my son reading whole English sentences without trouble. The story excited him, and reading the book by himself (with some help from me) boosted his confidence enormously. At this rate, he'll someday be ready for the original century-old text!

I thought it was cool!!!!!!!
It was pretty interesting.The most interesting part was when the warlocks caught on fire.I recommend this book for seven year olds up to ten year olds.If the time traveler got stuck in the warlock's homes andthey killed him and Ween ran and told her friends what happened then Ithink it would be a five star book. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Fiction / Action ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

THE WORLD SET FREE by H. G. Wells
The World Set Free (recently reissued as The Last War) is a 1914 science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. When atomic bombs are developed and the world is threatened with universal devastation, its leaders are forced to rethink war, government, and society.

The World Set Free is remarkably prophetic, as Wells forecasts both nuclear war and the capacity for mutually-assured destruction. And while Wells misses the mark on the way atomic bombs work (his atomic bombs have the same explosive power as conventional bombs, but they just keep on burning), he certainly doesn't underestimate their destructive power.

This book feels like a novel only in the sense that it relates a series of fictional events. What few individuals appear here are scarcely characters in the literary sense - other than Egbert, none are developed in the slightest. This simply wasn't what Wells is trying to do - Wells is interested in the technology and its ramifications, and because that's what he focuses on, The World Set Free reads like a fictional history book, or perhaps like an outline for a longer novel. This keeps it from ever getting too interesting, and while it's a short book, it can be hard to get through.

In short, The World Set Free is an impressively-imagined but not very well-written piece of prophetic science fiction.

Awesome Kindle
Book arrived in perfect condition (of course) and it got to me in record speed due to technology. I'd buy like this again.

great work
Certainly Wells viewed war as the inevitable result of the Modern State; the introduction of atomic energy in a world divided resulted in the collapse of society. The only possibilities remaining were "either the relapse of mankind to agricultural barbarism from which it had emerged so painfully or the acceptance of achieved science as the basis of a new social order." Wells's theme of world government is presented as a solution to the threat of nuclear weapons.

It is possible that several years of nuclear terrorism could frighten world leaders so much that they are willing to consider a one-world government, seeking "peace and safety", for example.

very interesting book!
I will give you a bit more details about the book, since there is not much in the product description:

The World Set Free is a novel published in 1914 by H. G. Wells. The book is considered to foretell nuclear weapons.
A constant theme of Wells's work, such as his 1901 nonfiction book Anticipations, was the effect of energy and technological advance as a determinant of human progress. The novel begins: "The history of mankind is the history of the attainment of external power. Man is the tool-using, fire-making animal."

Scientists of the time were well aware that the slow natural radioactive decay of elements like radium continues for thousands of years, and that while the rate of energy release is negligible, the total amount released is huge. Wells used this as the basis for his story.

The problem which was already being mooted by such scientific men as Ramsay, Rutherford, and Soddy, in the very beginning of the twentieth century, the problem of inducing radio-activity in the heavier elements and so tapping the internal energy of atoms, was solved by a wonderful combination of induction, intuition, and luck by Holsten so soon as the year 1933.

The physicist Leó Szilárd read the book during 1932, conceived the idea of nuclear chain reaction during 1933, and filed for patents for it during 1934. Soddy's book Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt praises The World Set Free.

nice book
I like the book very much. I must say it is Wells at its best, even though this one is not as famous, it certainly should be. A really very interesting book, i can only recommend it and will even read it again. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fast and Easy
This two-volume set arrived in the time expected, although a little more time worn than expected from the description.The transaction was overall easy.I was glad to see that this seller had a copy of this sometimes difficult book to find for sale.I would have like a packing slip to have been included, but I would buy from this seller in the future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Wonderful Art
For those of us who love the art of tripods "War Of The Worlds", this lighter version is a must.It may lack the period style of Alvim Corréa, or the dark humour of Edward Gorey, but this kids version is still a delight. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great stories
I've read all but one of these stories in other editions, and I found them quite well-written. While Wells' science is not always up to par with modern standards (the notion that Helium could form a barrier to gravity, for example), it is amusing to see his imagination at work. His characters are quite realistic and very British, as should be expected.

I can't say anything about the quality of the print or binding of this edition, but the stories are certainly some of the best of Wells' science fiction I've read.

This book totally stinks!
I hate the book because it has no plot and the characters seem to be retarded. -Matt Cain ... Read more

Product Description
The final installment in Penguin Classics's landmark H. G. Wells series

Although best known for his novels, it was in his early short fiction that H. G. Wells first explored the relationship between the fantastical and everyday. Here horror meets humor, man-eating squids invade the sleepy Devon coast, and strange kinks and portals in space and time lead to other worlds-a marvelous literary universe showcasing the author's fascination with the wonders and perils of scientific progress. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Superbly chosen introduction to the short work of the master
This review is for the paperback edition of the "Oxford World Classics" edition edited by Michael Sherborne, with 33 stories collected.It's probably the best place to start on HG Wells' short fiction, containing the title story, his most well-known, and also many other masterpieces including the quite chilling realist revenge story "The Cone", a great example of his early comedic style in "The New Accellerator" and the story that is in my opinion his best, "The Door in the Wall." This is a story that is all atmosphere, sentiment and heartbreak; not typical of Wells but he carries it off in an extraordinarily powerful way in just a few pages. Certainly one of the most significant and influential stories of a door into another place....

Wells proves to be a master of most of the popular shorter forms of his day - the psychological horror, the monster story, the odd invention story, the romance, the harsh and gritty realistic story of crime.There are a few pieces here that I'm not crazy about, but nothing out and out bad.At any rate, if you don't find something to love in the stories I've mentioned, or most of the others in this collection, you are probably not a Wells fan. This is a touchstone.

Just what I wanted
Clean, new, and everything it promised to be.When I was 14, in 8th grade English class, I'd read a short story that had had a message that had stayed with me through life.Though I'd forgotten the author and title of it, I'd referred to it many times in my thoughts, and in telling other people the message, too.I've been searching for it for about 30 years or so, and finally found it on Amazon's search engine.(I'd tried before, but nothing ever surfaced.)Anyway, here it is:The Country of the Blind by H.G. Wells.It's a wonderful story with great metaphors and, unfortunately, it contains a message about what happens to special people with unusual insights while they are alive, and the narrowmindedness and blindness of us all, and the strength of peer pressure.I'm so grateful to have it now.

Free SF Reader
A fairly substantial chunk of Wells' short stories, and it appears that basically they have included all of the best, here, so a good option if you don't want to wade through the complete variety.

Country of the Blind : THE JILTING OF JANE - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE CONE - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE STOLEN BACILLUS - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE FLOWERING OF THE STRANGE ORCHID - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE AVU OBSERVATORY - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : AEPYORNIS ISLAND - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE REMARKABLE CASE OF DAVIDSON'S EYES. - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE LORD OF THE DYNAMOS. - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE MOTH - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE TREASURE IN THE FOREST - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE STORY OF THE LATE MR. ELVESHAM - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : UNDER THE KNIFE - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE SEA RAIDERS - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE OBLITERATED MAN - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE PLATTNER STORY - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE RED ROOM - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE PURPLE PILEUS - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : A SLIP UNDER THE MICROSCOPE - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE CRYSTAL EGG - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE STAR - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : A VISION OF JUDGMENT - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : JIMMY GOGGLES THE GOD - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : MISS WINCHELSEA'S HEART - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : A DREAM OF ARMAGEDDON - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE VALLEY OF SPIDERS - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE NEW ACCELERATOR - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE TRUTH ABOUT PYECRAFT - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE MAGIC SHOP - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE EMPIRE OF THE ANTS - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE DOOR IN THE WALL - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE BEAUTIFUL SUIT - H. G. Wells

No good.

2 out of 5


Too hot here.

3 out of 5


Anarchy plague hard to swallow.

3.5 out of 5


Hothouse leech.

3.5 out of 5


Big flying thing I think.

3.5 out of 5


Big egg hatching.

4 out of 5


Remote viewing.

3.5 out of 5


Engine sacrifice.

3.5 out of 5


Not fair to die before the end of the debate.

4 out of 5


Poison gold.

3.5 out of 5


Swap is not replacement.

3.5 out of 5


Operation scare.

3.5 out of 5


Cephalopod people eaters.

4 out of 5


Bad play.

2.5 out of 5


Other world reversal.

3 out of 5


Fear place.

4 out of 5


Magic mushies.

3 out of 5


Exam cheating.

3 out of 5


Tuning in Mars.

4 out of 5


Just a near miss, that planet going past Earth. Nothing to worry those Martians.

4 out of 5


It is really not a good idea to stop the Earth's rotation.

3.5 out of 5


Supernatural stuff seen.

2 out of 5


Deity impersonation.

3 out of 5


Snooks not for me.

2.5 out of 5


Future war visions.

3 out of 5


Puffballs, too many legs.

3.5 out of 5


Flash tonic.

3.5 out of 5


A man needs to get his physics straight when asking for supernatural dieting assistance.

4 out of 5


Genuine article here.

3.5 out of 5


Just waiting for the takeover.

4 out of 5


Other places to go.

3 out of 5


Hard to be King, no matter how many eyes.

4 out of 5


Fashion victim.

2.5 out of 5



3.5 out of 5

33 short stories of mixed quality
COUNTRY OF THE BLIND is a collection of 33 short stories hand picked by H.G. Wells as his best.The stories were written first published between 1894 and 1906 in both magazines and other Wells' anthologies.Most of the stories are science fiction, though a few are not.Among my favorites were "The Stolen Bacillus," "The Lord of the Dynamos," "Under the Knife," "The Sea Raiders," "The Crystal Egg," "The Man Who Could Work Miracles," "The New Accelerator," "The Truth About Pyecraft," "The Magic Shop," "Empire of the Ants," and "Country of the Blind.""The Crystal Egg" and "The Magic Shop" both appear to have influenced Stephen King's NEEDFUL THINGS.Other stories were uninspired sleepers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Classic literature Timeless Sci Fi. The very best
I've read hundreds and hundreds of Sci Fi books.I wanted to add 10 Classic Literature books to our family library. One of them was to be Sci Fi. There are dozens that made my list but I selected the H.G. Wells collectionthat stands the test of time and will be a classic for hundreds of years.

Ive read all his storiesmany, many times. All are great.

This collection by Amaranth Press is nicely leather bound and gold leaf edged and has a few black and white illustrations.This collection has The Time Machine, The Island Of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War Of The Worlds, The Food Of The Gods, and The First Men In The Moon.

All are classics and have been made into TV and movie releases. Some different times with different actors. Also War Of The Worlds was made into a 1930s radio Halloween presentation that scared thousands who turned in late and thought it was real.

All the stories are great and I recommend them all. My favorite is The Time Machine. The Time Traveller comes back to his home in the end of the 19th century from fighting the horrible cannibalistic Morlock race of subterranean subhumans and trying to save the fair and innocent distant future Eloi race. He gets some supplies and leaves 2 flowers from the distant future unlike any on Earth's late 19 century. His 19 century friend misses him and wonders right now is he in the distant past walking on a prehistoric beach or in the distant future ( with hisdistant future petite female friend Weena who the Time Traveller loses in a forest fire and believes to be dead.). He wonders if the Time Traveller will ever come back.

War Of The Worlds is great too. Ugly, horrible tentacled creatures invade Earth from Mars to conquer and kill us and colonize Earth. We have no defense against their incredible technology and are easily slaughtered after we heroically defend ourselves. Later the Martians are killed by our bacteria. They have evolved no immunity like we have. By God's wisdom of creating the little things to protect us, mankind survives.

The First Men In The Moon is about an inventor that invents a sphere with a special anti gravity coating that allows a group to go to the moon. However the inventor must stay with the Moon insect like creatures as he has the secret of the anti gravity coating. The creatures learned mankind is very warlike and keep the inventor with them in the moon in order to keep the secret of the anti gravity coating from mankind in the hope no more men will visit the moon.

The Food Of The Gods allows teenagers to reach fantastic size and are giants. Its interesting how the rest of the community interacts with them and what the new giants think. "Are we better than them".

The Island Of Dr Moreau is about a mad doctor that creates human like creatures that have animal characteristics. The house of pain. " Are we not men"? A unwelcome stranded vistor has to survive on the island with the dangerous inhuman brutes.

The Invisible Manis an Albino inventor/scientist that gains invisibility but is an outcast. He becomes a rampaging madman killer that is hunted down and killed.

All these stories are great. H G Wells was an Englishman and amaster story teller with fantastic ideas. This is an example of timeless Sci Fi literature. 5 stars

HG Wells awesomeness!
Wells was steampunk before there was even a word for it. All these other pretenders don't even know what's up. If you're reading this from your brass-and-copper bound monitor and typing on a modified Victorian typewriter with USB input, say-and you're wondering who HG Wells is-then buy this book. But it now. NOW!

The the first stories about alien invasion, time travel, genetic experimentation-all here, in one volume! ... Read more

Product Description
In The Sleeper Awakes, an insomniac falls into a sleep-like trance for more than two hundred years, and awakes in a society in which the oppressed masses cling desperately to one dream—that the sleeper will awake and lead them all to freedom. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Recommended for the Wells fans
The Sleeper Awakes by H. G. Wells. Published by MobileReference (mobi).

A deeply burdened insomniac in nineteenth-century Great Britain falls into a great trance for 203 years. When he awakens in the twenty-second century, he is immediately overwhelmed by the changes. In the course of four days he discovers a brand new world completely alien to him.

A foil to Bellamy
Oh, it gets off to the same start as "Looking Backward". Someone mysteriously falls into a sleep that lasts for two hundred years, and wakes up in a transformed world. After that, it's a whole different book.

In this case, the sleeper wakes not into a socialist world, but into a world wholly governed by property ownership - his. His original fortune, plus a few others, have ballooned due to compund interest. Currency consists of checks drawn on his account, passed back and forth in exchange for life's needs. His self-appointed estate managers are regents in all but name, and don't much like the idea of turning over the reins to He in Whose name they tyrranize the country.

But the ones who rescue him aren't much better. They seem to have invented the sound-bite, or Word as they call it (p.116), and want the sleeper only so they can replace the current oligarchy with their own, but under his name. Wells's cynicism appears elsewhere also, especially in anticipating religion as a commercial service, advertised like pantyhose. Once you start seeing prescient passages in this book, it's hard to stop. Wells anticipated moving sidewalks, air war (a decade before the first airplane), and even a form of internet addiction. Although the details differ, "to live outside the range of electric cables [including phone and video] was to live a savage."

The editors have added overy thirty pages of biography, bibliography, and scholarly analysis of Wells's different editions of this text, plus at least 15 pages of endnotes. Perhaps this material will interest the specialized reader, but I am not that specialist. Wells's text, for my taste, doesn't need the help. It does, however, cement his reputation as a social critic and seer.

-- wiredweird

The Sleeper Awakes - A True Classic
A deeply burdened insomniac in nineteenth-century Great Britain falls into a great trance for where he does not awaken for 203 years. When he awakens, Graham, as he is known, finds himself in a twisted alternate reality in where laborers (one-third of the population) are treated as scum, where the entire numerical system is now in dozens, and with a hierarchical government, power rests only in the hands of a small dictatorship known as the Grand Council. Also, money has piled up and has been secured to make Graham the most powerful man on the earth and in all of human history. When Graham wakes up, he is shocked to find that the suppressed people have been praying for the "Sleeper" to wake, but also that the Grand Council has been planning his murder. However, he is saved by a group of resistance, lead by a man named Ostrog, whose objective is to expel the Grand Council out of power. Eventually, the Council is brought down to its knees. When Graham notices that the people are still oppressed, he tries to make the world turn back to democracy, but Ostrog strongly disagrees. The tension builds up, until Ostrog makes the order that the Black Police (from South Africa) are to maintain the order in England and throughout Europe, coming in aeroplanes. Graham cannot believe that he has been betrayed, as Ostrog had escaped earlier. Graham, who has had some flight experience, decides to pilot the only plane left, and goes down fighting, with the rest of the world and all of humankind with an unforeseeable future. The Sleeper Awakes, by H.G. Wells, is an excellent science-fiction novel because of three main qualities: its revolutionary science-fiction, its suspense, and its action.

When Graham awakens in the twenty-second century, he is immediately overwhelmed by the changes in this time then from the old Victorian period. Horse-drawn carriages are obsolete, and sidewalks are moving platforms in which everyone travels on. Also, books no longer exist, and there are holograms that show dramas and interpretations of life instead. The numerical system as we know has now been replaced by a twelve-number single-digit system. H.G. Wells is a fantastic science-fiction writer, in the fact that he wrote of airplanes eleven years before one ever flew, and fifteen years before any fought in battle.

Suspense has a prominent role in the Sleeper Awakes. When Graham was introduced to a room inside the Grand Council building, he was stranded for several days without any news from the outside. However, he hears a noise from the roof spaces above, and thinks that he sees a shadow. Then, blood drops from above, and splatters onto the carpet. The reader is on the edge of his seat, with the urge to find more answers. Several men come through the roof space, and the resistance begins.

The Sleeper Awakes takes place in a twisted, alternate future, in which the lower class is now beginning to rise against the affluent members of the higher classes. When Graham is taken by a resistance group to a local hall, members of the red police (security forces of the Grand Council), a large battle occurs. Laborers everywhere are fighting in the name of the "Sleeper", and the Red Police are trying to recapture him. The fighting gets so out-of-control that an entire skyscraper falls over onto its side, creating a massive explosion. Another intense sequence of action occurs when Graham is fighting in his monoplane, where he fights against the whole Black Police, where he comes to his demise, instead of living out the rest of his life unaccustomed this new world.

In the course of four days, Graham discovers a brand new world completely alien to him and his time in the 1890's. Even the "Sleeper" was not enough to hold off his enemies, as his monoplane crashes into the cold ground of the earth. This story does, however, renew the word science-fiction. The greatest reason that this novel should be read is that H.G. Wells had basically started the science-fiction genre, and we continue to read his classics today. The Sleeper Awakes should be read due to this and because of its futuristic setting, its thrills, and its many skirmishes throughout. I rate this novel five stars out of five.

A. Chappell

Tad Better than Bland
It was all right... just all right. Some of the ideas stated were interesting and even prophetic, like the harnessing of wind power for electricity. Some parts reminded me of Fahrenheit 451.

The greatest disappointment was the ending. I was expecting Wells to use the story's build-up to say something clever and meaningful regarding the state of humanity, along with perhaps some useful suggestions, even if unfeasible. But it just ended in an unsatisfying way, almost as if he suddenly got tired of it and wanted to work on something else.

This is not a good "Wells starter book" -- The Time Machine is far better -- but as a study in fiction styles it is all right.

Not the best of Wells's work...
In 1897 a gentlemen falls asleep to wake up in 2100. In the future he finds himself owner of much of the world as his money, which grew while he slept, was used to take over the world by buying up all businesses and property.Now the "Sleeper" finds himself in the middle of a power struggle between those who have and those who have not.
The characters are bland, the future feels like a false front, like one of those towns used in a Wild West movie, and even after pages and pages of details everything still seems vague.I can't picture much of what he writes about as he seems to skim over scenes, leaving out details, and shooting ahead to what parts of the story he believes are important.
His idea about cities of the future, while interesting, is not interesting enough to carry a whole plot. ... Read more