The Invisible ManThe Invisible Man
the Life and Liberties of H.G. Wells
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Book, 1993
Current format, Book, 1993, First American edition, No Longer Available.Book, 1993
Current format, Book, 1993, First American edition, No Longer Available. Offered in 0 more formatsA paradoxical portrayal of an international literary phenomenon, whose audience included both Roosevelt and Stalin, shows that H. G. Wells was a misogynist champion for women's rights and a liberally tolerant anti-Semite. 10,000 first printing.
Examines the philosophical paradoxes that define the life of H.G. Wells and explores the range of his personal relationships, including his affair with the young Rebecca West
For almost half a century H. G. Wells was an international phenomenon, the only writer of his time who could command an audience with both Roosevelt and Stalin. His circle of friends included George Bernard Shaw, Rudyard Kipling, G. K. Chesterton, Somerset Maugham and, of course, the young Rebecca West, with whom he had a long-term affair - perhaps the most tempestuous and sparkling literary liaison of the century. Equally illustrious was his circle of enemies, including the indomitable Hilaire Belloc, who destroyed Wells in a vicious and public argument.
Unlike any previous biographer, Michael Coren shows that while many have considered Wells to be on the side of the angels, he was in fact invariably on the wrong side in the major political and literary debates of the age. Drawing on eye-opening new material, The Invisible Man delves deep into the paradoxes that characterized Wells - the utopian visionary and staunch advocate of women's suffrage who was also a misogynistic womanizer; the epitome of liberal tolerance who was also a social engineer and thoroughgoing anti-Semite. Wells has hitherto remained untouched by charges of anti-Semitism, but Coren reveals for the first time his disturbing views on "the Jewish problem" (for instance, he called Jews "termites in the civilized world"), views he defended vehemently even through the 1930s.
The avuncular author of Kipps and The Time Machine is depicted, shockingly, as one who advocated concentration camps, racial eugenics and the incarceration or execution of those who did not "fit in." The Invisible Man is one of those iconoclastic biographies that change our perception of their subjects forever.
Examines the philosophical paradoxes that define the life of H.G. Wells and explores the range of his personal relationships, including his affair with the young Rebecca West
For almost half a century H. G. Wells was an international phenomenon, the only writer of his time who could command an audience with both Roosevelt and Stalin. His circle of friends included George Bernard Shaw, Rudyard Kipling, G. K. Chesterton, Somerset Maugham and, of course, the young Rebecca West, with whom he had a long-term affair - perhaps the most tempestuous and sparkling literary liaison of the century. Equally illustrious was his circle of enemies, including the indomitable Hilaire Belloc, who destroyed Wells in a vicious and public argument.
Unlike any previous biographer, Michael Coren shows that while many have considered Wells to be on the side of the angels, he was in fact invariably on the wrong side in the major political and literary debates of the age. Drawing on eye-opening new material, The Invisible Man delves deep into the paradoxes that characterized Wells - the utopian visionary and staunch advocate of women's suffrage who was also a misogynistic womanizer; the epitome of liberal tolerance who was also a social engineer and thoroughgoing anti-Semite. Wells has hitherto remained untouched by charges of anti-Semitism, but Coren reveals for the first time his disturbing views on "the Jewish problem" (for instance, he called Jews "termites in the civilized world"), views he defended vehemently even through the 1930s.
The avuncular author of Kipps and The Time Machine is depicted, shockingly, as one who advocated concentration camps, racial eugenics and the incarceration or execution of those who did not "fit in." The Invisible Man is one of those iconoclastic biographies that change our perception of their subjects forever.
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- New York : Atheneum, 1993.
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