Amid apocalyptic invasions and time travel, one common machine continually appears in H. G. Wells s works: the bicycle. From his scientific romances and social comedies, to utopias, futurological speculations, and letters, Wells's texts abound with bicycles. In The War of the Wheels, Withers examines this mode of transportation as both something that played a significant role in Wells s personal life and as a literary device for creating elaborate characters and complex themes.
Withers traces Wells s ambivalent relationship with the bicycle throughout his writing. While he celebrated...